Captivate me now: the rapid arc of what it means to be an influencer today
This edition is the second in a series we plan to publish to explore what matters most in the evolving influencer economy – specifically, what really creates PR results: influence or obsession?
If you’ve ever watched the docuseries “Unsung,” then you’re familiar with the common arc of a stubborn music artist’s career as consumers’ tastes rapidly change with time. Complacency surges amid success. But those momentary album sales (now, downloads and spins) don’t last forever. And with the rules of the game evolving much faster than most artists can keep up, a dominant career can evaporate so quickly that fading into obscurity seems much more practical than trying to rebuild a career. Just ask Foxy Brown, H-Town or any artist signed to Bad Boy Entertainment in the ‘90s 😬.
Today’s influencer economy finds itself in a similar cycle of whirlwind evolution. The somewhat formulaic amassing of large audiences through Facebook and Twitter during the early aughts — which turned many an ambitious mommy blogger and Tumblr kid into somewhat overnight “celebrities” — is gone. The trick then was to grow a huge following on social, with one’s personal website or blog funneling tons of eyeballs to a platform where “the algorithm” took over to make your follower count balloon even further. The brands came calling and these influencers made some big money.
Casually gaining 250,000 followers a dozen years ago might’ve granted you instant permission to have an opinion about almost anything (that you might’ve known jackshit about), but those rules no longer apply. You can trace the turning point back to Spring 2012, when then-Facebook purchased Instagram and went public in a matter of a few short months.
Pretty soon thereafter, algorithms across platforms started prioritizing what we’ve come to call “engagement” — how much the digital community around you likes, comments on, shares or clicks links/calls-to-action in your content.
What it means to be an influencer hasn’t been the same since, and the $6 billion e-commerce industry requires much more audience data to get in the game.
Entertain, or be gone
TikTok has turned the old influencer model almost fully on its head. Now, entertainment is king and being considered an influencer is increasingly conflated with one’s ability to captivate an audience toward some end, not simply attract a big group of lurkers.
Let’s be honest: Domain expertise? It’s a nice-to-have. A business plan to incrementally grow your social media reach? Not necessary; that’ll hold you back! Can you get 8,000 people to join your Live? We’re listening. Will some of those live viewers click a link you dropped in your bio? Even better.
Just query your own social accounts. Is there any “regular ass” person you don’t know IRL that you follow? What’s the draw? More than likely they entertain you in some way (and there are so many ways…from smart insights presented in a unique way to six pack abs to a catchy slogan screamed during a makeup tutorial to good ol’ fashioned smut…and so much more).
It’s no coincidence that you’re seeing their content regularly. They’ve got a beast to keep feeding with content that must perform, or they risk disappearing in the sea of competing creators who just might get lucky enough to break the internet today and become the next viral personality.
Zooming out to where virality meets influencer strategy
To be sure, influencers exist outside the confines of social media. Think: your local pastor who still attracts hundreds or even thousands to church each week or the community organizer who becomes a more trusted force in your neighborhood with every door they knock. Oh wait — these folks are getting smarter about social to grow their influence too! And we bet you they’re experimenting with ways to make their content more entertaining and, thus, demonstrably more engaging.
And for good reason. Anyone who’s in charge of identifying and coordinating the efforts of influencers to promote a product or campaign on behalf of a brand nowadays definitely has to be 10x more discerning and dig into more than just follower count. We linked up with Dana Blair, media personality and producer, to get a first-hand point of view about what brands are looking to verify about an influencer currently when considering the ROI of a partnership.
“From an influencer community perspective, audience size is one thing. But now brands want to know much more about your engagement,” Johnson shared. “Creators need to be able to show age breakdowns, demographics, geographies, interests and is the audience that they perceive you to have your real and actual audience?”
It’s no secret that followers can be purchased in bulk through “questionable” methods. With that trick pretty well established, not only have social platforms started supplying creators with much more extensive data, but brands also have the heightened expectation that this data will be openly shared with them to broker deals. Johnson mentioned, “For instance, someone with 300,000 followers and just 500 likes or 500 views — that’s not real engagement. It’s not deep penetration.”
Obsession…overnight celebrity…how are influencers really winning?
Most of us are familiar with Reesa Teesa’s recent rise to fame. She captivated millions on TikTok with her raw storytelling in a 50-plus-part series about deception in her marriage. And that led to a ton of looks from brands (wasn’t hard to see the engagement in real-time) and an eventual deal with CAA, an agency that many performers spend years trying to court for representation.
But is Reesa Teesa an influencer or more of a one hit wonder? She proved she can entertain an audience once. Now she has arguably the most powerful promotional machine in the country behind her.
What about the Sweet Browns and Joanne the Scammers of the world? Where’s their CAA contract? And where do we draw the line between influencers — with some pulling in five figures per post — and “real” celebrity endorsements, which remains tricky to secure and see through to success.
It’s still tough out here in these marketing streets. For now, forget follower count…can your talent seduce the algorithm?!?