What's the business model for a social media influencer?
April 7, 2023 7:14 AM Subscribe
I'm embarrassed to say I looked through the timelines of some random people who followed me or liked a comment of mine on Twitter who might be described as influencers. They're all highly attractive women in their 20's with long flowing hair with many pictures of themselves wearing stylish, expensive clothing in exotic locales along with anodyne self-help mantras ("Choose to be happy!").
What is behind this? Are they just wealthy people showing off?
The only potential commercial tie-in's I've seen are occasional mentions of crypto currency and occasional recognizable luxury brand hand-bags or cars or whatnot
The only potential commercial tie-in's I've seen are occasional mentions of crypto currency and occasional recognizable luxury brand hand-bags or cars or whatnot
Response by poster: P.s., if they're fake, I guess the question still stands because the pictures appear genuine and it's the same girl appearing in all these different places. One also had a video of the girl walking and smiling in Rome. What does either the girl or the actual person posting get out of it?
posted by Jon44 at 7:21 AM on April 7, 2023
posted by Jon44 at 7:21 AM on April 7, 2023
Back in the days of blogging, companies would send products to bloggers for "reviews" where the blogger would write something about how great the product is. You can still see this on food sites, which is one of the only sectors where blogging/independently-run, frequently-updated sites still exist. If you google the name of a specific food product (say, Ortega taco seasoning), you'll get a bunch of blog posts about creative ways to use Ortega taco seasoning. My understanding is that this is the same model underlying a lot of Instagram. There's a lot of "social media ethics" stuff where the poster is supposed to disclose that they got something for free, but there's no enforcement mechanism.
Youtube sells ads, and that's another revenue stream. A lot of Youtube videos are also paid ads on the blog model I just described (just videos about creative ways to use Ortega taco seasoning instead of blog posts). And many of the Youtubers I watch post affiliate links with places like Amazon in their videos so that they get a cut of anything you purchase via the link. (Metafilter does this too.)
A lot of people sell merch, which is basically what has supported the live music industry for decades. It's not a bad way to make money: If you have 100k followers and 5% of them buy a $20 t-shirt, you're netting six figures.
There's tax writeoffs. If you're a "travel influencer", you might be able to write off your airfare and hotels as business expenses. Not enough to make it profitable by itself, but it makes it easier to travel, and makes your other revenue streams more profitable.
But yes, just like any non-9 to 5 (everything from music to owning a microbrewery), most of the people doing this as a career were already wealthy.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:28 AM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
Youtube sells ads, and that's another revenue stream. A lot of Youtube videos are also paid ads on the blog model I just described (just videos about creative ways to use Ortega taco seasoning instead of blog posts). And many of the Youtubers I watch post affiliate links with places like Amazon in their videos so that they get a cut of anything you purchase via the link. (Metafilter does this too.)
A lot of people sell merch, which is basically what has supported the live music industry for decades. It's not a bad way to make money: If you have 100k followers and 5% of them buy a $20 t-shirt, you're netting six figures.
There's tax writeoffs. If you're a "travel influencer", you might be able to write off your airfare and hotels as business expenses. Not enough to make it profitable by itself, but it makes it easier to travel, and makes your other revenue streams more profitable.
But yes, just like any non-9 to 5 (everything from music to owning a microbrewery), most of the people doing this as a career were already wealthy.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:28 AM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
If they're just talking about bitcoin, they're definitely stolen photos and fake profiles by scammers.
If you really want to see what the influencer economy is like, go follow the verified accounts of the real influencers themselves. Look for #ad crammed small and tiny into the post data. Everything is for sale: the clothes, the jewelry, the makeup, the skincare routine, the hair products, the beach resort, you name it. The vacation itself may even be a brand sponsored trip. The big name influencer economy is lifestyle selling, and nearly everything you see is not only free to them but also they get paid to do it. There are even dog influencers with sponsored treats and leashes.
Wealthy people showing off? Ok sure sometimes. But even the Kardashians are getting paid to hawk the stuff in their photos. Their image is too lucrative not to be leveraging it for cash.
posted by phunniemee at 7:29 AM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
If you really want to see what the influencer economy is like, go follow the verified accounts of the real influencers themselves. Look for #ad crammed small and tiny into the post data. Everything is for sale: the clothes, the jewelry, the makeup, the skincare routine, the hair products, the beach resort, you name it. The vacation itself may even be a brand sponsored trip. The big name influencer economy is lifestyle selling, and nearly everything you see is not only free to them but also they get paid to do it. There are even dog influencers with sponsored treats and leashes.
Wealthy people showing off? Ok sure sometimes. But even the Kardashians are getting paid to hawk the stuff in their photos. Their image is too lucrative not to be leveraging it for cash.
posted by phunniemee at 7:29 AM on April 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
Some of the accounts are real people who do this, and sometimes they go horribly into debt (Cosmopolitan link). The idea of going 10K into debt for just 37K followers is just awful.
The woman from this story, Lissette Calveiro, did manage to turn things around financially, but man. She's still at it and has 80K followers now after a ton of press about her debt story, this time with the angle of finding happiness on your own terms.
posted by mochapickle at 7:30 AM on April 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
The woman from this story, Lissette Calveiro, did manage to turn things around financially, but man. She's still at it and has 80K followers now after a ton of press about her debt story, this time with the angle of finding happiness on your own terms.
posted by mochapickle at 7:30 AM on April 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
I'd say 80% wealthy people showing off, the rest is some is marketing for various products and tourist boards, and some are just people maybe not quite as wealthy trying to break into influencing.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:40 AM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:40 AM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Also, for wealthy young attractive people, if you can reasonably say your job is 'influencer', then you can write off some of the expenses of travel as business expenses. I'm sure their parents are helping a bit with that.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:43 AM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:43 AM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
The documentary Fake Famous from 2021 gets into how a lot of this works. It's on HBOMax so it's worth watching if you are subscribed to that.
posted by edencosmic at 7:46 AM on April 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by edencosmic at 7:46 AM on April 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
This sounds like an actual case of bots.
posted by kingdead at 8:35 AM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by kingdead at 8:35 AM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
This is a super fun summer read where one of the main characters is an influencer, I can't vouch for its accuracy but it seems like the author did a lot of research, and the book is highly entertaining anyway.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:37 AM on April 7, 2023
I'm guessing more and more of these will be AI-generated images in the near future (or maybe past).
posted by signal at 8:57 AM on April 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by signal at 8:57 AM on April 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
If they liked or followed you they almost certainly want something in return, whether that’s just your follow or something more.
Influencer economy is largely based on aspiration. What happened was that print magazines and tv shows used to kind of own the aspirational market - think Condé Nast Traveller. Advertisers spent a lot of money to directly run ads in those publications. They also developed PR relationships with editors and writers, because when a writer says “I stayed at the fabulous XYZ resort” or “this lipstick is divine,” people did aspire to go those places/try that lipstick. Over time most publications (not all) actually stopped paying for lipsticks and trips; the resorts and other companies made trips and samples available (or in some cases aggressively delivered them.) The actual advertising was expensive and the PR had to be smooth, since editorial teams were trained in the ad/edit line (set differently by different pubs.)
Then blogs arose, particularly mommy blogs, and companies realized that these (in some, not all cases) less sophisticated content producers - 20-something fashionistas, moms stuck at home - could also drive sales. Sometimes extremely directly with links. Not only was this more measurable but it was dirt cheap - sending lipsticks to 20 bloggers with a friendly follow up call might result in 10 blog posts where editors might bite once every other year. And then sponsored content started. Editors weren’t supposed to do that - a sponsored advertorial would be a) made clear and b) were super expensive, like tens if not hundreds of thousand once you paid the cost of photography and writing and advertising space. But bloggers were thrilled to get like $2k, and did all the work - and it actually worked better because it just looked like their content.
So that’s how influencer economics started. Your aspirational impulse here was to check out these people and note their attractiveness. Did you follow them? Are you now thinking on how great it would be to be rich, whether via crypto or just splurging to visit Rome?
I agree this has moved to catfishing etc. but that’s how it works.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:04 AM on April 7, 2023 [10 favorites]
Influencer economy is largely based on aspiration. What happened was that print magazines and tv shows used to kind of own the aspirational market - think Condé Nast Traveller. Advertisers spent a lot of money to directly run ads in those publications. They also developed PR relationships with editors and writers, because when a writer says “I stayed at the fabulous XYZ resort” or “this lipstick is divine,” people did aspire to go those places/try that lipstick. Over time most publications (not all) actually stopped paying for lipsticks and trips; the resorts and other companies made trips and samples available (or in some cases aggressively delivered them.) The actual advertising was expensive and the PR had to be smooth, since editorial teams were trained in the ad/edit line (set differently by different pubs.)
Then blogs arose, particularly mommy blogs, and companies realized that these (in some, not all cases) less sophisticated content producers - 20-something fashionistas, moms stuck at home - could also drive sales. Sometimes extremely directly with links. Not only was this more measurable but it was dirt cheap - sending lipsticks to 20 bloggers with a friendly follow up call might result in 10 blog posts where editors might bite once every other year. And then sponsored content started. Editors weren’t supposed to do that - a sponsored advertorial would be a) made clear and b) were super expensive, like tens if not hundreds of thousand once you paid the cost of photography and writing and advertising space. But bloggers were thrilled to get like $2k, and did all the work - and it actually worked better because it just looked like their content.
So that’s how influencer economics started. Your aspirational impulse here was to check out these people and note their attractiveness. Did you follow them? Are you now thinking on how great it would be to be rich, whether via crypto or just splurging to visit Rome?
I agree this has moved to catfishing etc. but that’s how it works.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:04 AM on April 7, 2023 [10 favorites]
Response by poster: "I agree this has moved to catfishing etc"
You're just jealous of the amazing bond beautiful Sulia and I have struck up over DM's. Once she receives my wire transfer and is able to fly here to Boston, you'll see just how wrong you were. /s
posted by Jon44 at 9:09 AM on April 7, 2023 [17 favorites]
You're just jealous of the amazing bond beautiful Sulia and I have struck up over DM's. Once she receives my wire transfer and is able to fly here to Boston, you'll see just how wrong you were. /s
posted by Jon44 at 9:09 AM on April 7, 2023 [17 favorites]
Sponsored posts, income through affiliate links in their bio, building their "brand" and image (which is helpful if they're trying to get hired for marketing positions), and the thrill of having followers/likes.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 10:11 AM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 10:11 AM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
There is big money in influencer marketing and tons of marketing agencies that specialize in this via paid or sponsored posts.
From what I’ve seen $50 for a sponsored post is bottom of the barrel rate for someone who is a nano- or micro-influencer (Roughly 1,000-10,000) followers.
posted by forkisbetter at 10:36 AM on April 7, 2023
From what I’ve seen $50 for a sponsored post is bottom of the barrel rate for someone who is a nano- or micro-influencer (Roughly 1,000-10,000) followers.
posted by forkisbetter at 10:36 AM on April 7, 2023
From what I’ve seen $50 for a sponsored post is bottom of the barrel rate for someone who is a nano- or micro-influencer (Roughly 1,000-10,000) followers.
$50 for a post is not 'big money though', like you'd have to do 40 posts a month, or more than 1 per day just to pay rent for a small one bedroom apartment. $1000 a week could be spread amongst 20 people at that rate. That's tiny money. Per what I could find, only 50,000 people (out of about 1b on tiktok) have more than 1000 followers. That's .005%.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:44 AM on April 7, 2023
$50 for a post is not 'big money though', like you'd have to do 40 posts a month, or more than 1 per day just to pay rent for a small one bedroom apartment. $1000 a week could be spread amongst 20 people at that rate. That's tiny money. Per what I could find, only 50,000 people (out of about 1b on tiktok) have more than 1000 followers. That's .005%.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:44 AM on April 7, 2023
Whether or not it's big money depends on where you are.
posted by signal at 12:18 PM on April 7, 2023
posted by signal at 12:18 PM on April 7, 2023
If you're a man (or appear to be on your account) and you are getting these follows from attractive young women, then yes, those are likely fake accounts with photos they've stolen from elsewhere. Take a look at how many followers they actually have versus how many people they are following (I suspect a lot of these bot accounts just follow each other).
That's different from real (I use that word loosely) influencers, who are getting ad money on various sites by building up followings across platforms.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:25 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
That's different from real (I use that word loosely) influencers, who are getting ad money on various sites by building up followings across platforms.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:25 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Some potential things those people are doing to make money:
1. The pictures are real, they get free stuff in exchange for posting about it. Or they get sponsored posts. Or they just like seeing their follower number go up.
2. The pictures are bought or stolen, the person running the account is trying to get X followers, they will then sell the account to someone else who will delete all pics and change the name to their company and have built in reach.
3. The pictures are bought or stolen, they follow random people all day and if you follow back or start interacting with their content they will send you a message and start a scam. Lately these scams involve getting you to buy crypto, forex, or stocks on a fake site. Or an old fashioned romance scam.
4. The pictures are bought or stolen, they follow and interact with people which both makes the accounts look real and their large followings cause them to have more weight in the all-powerful algorithm and who ever runs the account has them interact with posts from a business to make that business more likely to appear in people's recommendations.
posted by hermanubis at 3:49 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
1. The pictures are real, they get free stuff in exchange for posting about it. Or they get sponsored posts. Or they just like seeing their follower number go up.
2. The pictures are bought or stolen, the person running the account is trying to get X followers, they will then sell the account to someone else who will delete all pics and change the name to their company and have built in reach.
3. The pictures are bought or stolen, they follow random people all day and if you follow back or start interacting with their content they will send you a message and start a scam. Lately these scams involve getting you to buy crypto, forex, or stocks on a fake site. Or an old fashioned romance scam.
4. The pictures are bought or stolen, they follow and interact with people which both makes the accounts look real and their large followings cause them to have more weight in the all-powerful algorithm and who ever runs the account has them interact with posts from a business to make that business more likely to appear in people's recommendations.
posted by hermanubis at 3:49 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
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posted by cakelite at 7:17 AM on April 7, 2023 [11 favorites]