Social Media 'Influencers' - What ?

[Pilotman]

Okay, so what are these people who term themselves 'influencers'.  Are they just self obsessed, untalented morons, 'influencing' equally moronic, socially deficient, intellectually challenged members of the social media world.  I guess that the answer is yes?    Have you met one?  Do you follow one? Does your young family follow one?  Is it healthy or not? Is it all just one big digital scam? 

[wprime]

They are people with a large social media audience so businesses pay them or provide other non-monetary incentives to advertise their products.

 

Your assumptions about them would be incorrect. They are generally better educated than most and anyone who can get paid just for posting pictures is smart in my books.

 

Your assumptions about their audience is pretty accurate.

[clivebaxter]

Any tart with nice T&A can influence me on tik tok

[WhiteBuffaloATM]

know some..... your analysis very accurate.....basically lazy chancers of limited iq / integrity, seizing on a social media driven trend to make a living being followed for whatever vacuous “ service/ opinion”nonsense is peddled, usually related to travel, fashion, lifestyle, food, health, etc. 

Distinct from ( some) serious qualified You Tubers dealing in Politics ,History, Diet, Health...... 

or serious reputable Online Retailers ....... 

[CharlieH]

They come in all shapes n forms.From product reviewers to skilled marketeers and web tutors and other skilled people. Yes there are the "wannabe's" and adolescent make up artists and frivalous versions too.

They make money from the product sponsors and from Google advertising etc.

Not easy to do and grow a substantial audience, but those that succeed earn BIG money so good on them for that achievement.

 

[Moonlover]

I wondered about that until I watched a series on the BBC about Amir Khan, the British 2 times world champion boxer. His wife, Faryal Makhdoom is an extremely beautiful and highly intelligent Pakistani/American. She is an influencer par excellence, mainly into cosmetics.

 

She also manages a lot of her husbands business enterprises. In her own words "I'm the boss''. And those two are swimming in money.

[Kwasaki]

38 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

I guess that the answer is yes?    Have you met one?  Do you follow one? Does your young family follow one?  Is it healthy or not? Is it all just one big digital scam? 

Are you having a mid life crisis. ????

[Pilotman]

2 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Are you having a mid life crisis. ????

Not me, but many following these clowns certainly are. Its a word that has suddenly appeared among young folk, who clearly can't think for themselves. 

[Pilotman]

34 minutes ago, wprime said:

hey are generally better educated than most

Not the ones I have seen. Some dumb nonentities from Love Island who can hardly string a sentence together.   Maybe there are grades/rankings of such people. 

[Kwasaki]

14 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Not me, but many following these clowns certainly are. Its a word that has suddenly appeared among young folk, who clearly can't think for themselves. 

Why bother about it I couldn't give a toss about anyone around me other than my family but that said not all family. ????

[wprime]

11 minutes ago, Pilotman said:

Maybe there are grades/rankings of such people. 

 

I was thinking the Chinese/Thai ones which have audiences in the millions. They're generally quite intelligent (or have an intelligent agent).

 

Those people with audiences around 100k are not really influencers (well they call themselves micro-influencers) and would generally be avoided by marketers as their audience tends to be highly correlated with other similar micro-influencers so someone with 1M followers has a larger reach than 10x people with 100k.

 

[KannikaP]

50 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

She also manages a lot of her husbands business enterprises. In her own words "I'm the boss''. And those two are swimming in money.

I wonder what attracted her to a young millionaire boxer?

 

And if they are rolling in it, why do they need to prostitute themselves online & TV. Greedy big heads!

Edited May 25, 2021 by KannikaP

[richard_smith237]

It’s part of modern life that I couldn’t care for. Neither does my Wife, yet she has somehow got a lot of followers on Instagram & Facebook. 
 

She gets plenty of free stuff, we’ve had free holidays… nothing major, a long weekend in Singapore, a pool villa in Hua Hin etc… 

 

She doesn’t take it seriously but marketing people do and will get their products across however they can. 
 

Wife has a Masters from Thammarsat, so not stupid. 
 

Seems as though Pilotman has a bit of a chip on his shoulder…  he should steer clear of TikTok ! 
 

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by richard_smith237

[KannikaP]

16 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

She gets plenty of free stuff, we’ve had free holidays… nothing major, a long weekend in Singapore, a pool villa in Hua Hin etc… 

 

She doesn’t take it seriously but marketing people do and will get their products across however they can. 

Nothing is FREE. Have these marketing people sold anything to your wife?

[captainjackS]

I believe the influencers themselves come in many forms and with varying quality of content.  What I do see that i believe is important is that a business who wants to advertise a product traditionally would pay for a billboard, radio, or TV ad.  Expensive.  Some busineses  pay directly for advertising on Facebook, Google, or whatever.  But now businesses have yet another option to push advertising to customers via influencers.  Often cheaper than buying a "real" advertising spot because they can give the influencer a free meal, night at the hotel,  etc.  Also often easier to get the content through to potential customers who voluntarily follow particular influencers by choice while they use ad-blocking software to remove the explicit advertising from websites.  The influencers that i have seen a lot in Chiang Mai are sexy ladies who post pictures of themselves at coffee shops, hotels, etc with the brand names clearly displayed.  People like to look at pictures of pretty girls in bikinis, so occasionally we see the name of the hotel swimming pool in the background.   Same sexy bikini girls also advertise for online gambling -- unofficial advertisements that would probably not be legal to show on major "official" advertisement channels.  Long story short, I see influencers as yet another advertising channel, but with more pretty girls.

Edited May 25, 2021 by captainjackS

[StreetCowboy]

4 hours ago, KannikaP said:

I wonder what attracted her to a young millionaire boxer?

 

And if they are rolling in it, why do they need to prostitute themselves online & TV. Greedy big heads!

I suppose we all like to earn a living, even if we have a little bit in the bank already.

Maybe I should monetise my Live Rugby League and Where My Bike's Been threads, with a bit of product placement, and maybe some sponsorship from the places visited, like the Tour de France.

If you're looking for an investment opportunity, you heard it here first.  

 

[StreetCowboy]

3 hours ago, captainjackS said:

I believe the influencers themselves come in many forms and with varying quality of content.  What I do see that i believe is important is that a business who wants to advertise a product traditionally would pay for a billboard, radio, or TV ad.  Expensive.  Some busineses  pay directly for advertising on Facebook, Google, or whatever.  But now businesses have yet another option to push advertising to customers via influencers.  Often cheaper than buying a "real" advertising spot because they can give the influencer a free meal, night at the hotel,  etc.  Also often easier to get the content through to potential customers who voluntarily follow particular influencers by choice while they use ad-blocking software to remove the explicit advertising from websites.  The influencers that i have seen a lot in Chiang Mai are sexy ladies who post pictures of themselves at coffee shops, hotels, etc with the brand names clearly displayed.  People like to look at pictures of pretty girls in bikinis, so occasionally we see the name of the hotel swimming pool in the background.   Same sexy bikini girls also advertise for online gambling -- unofficial advertisements that would probably not be legal to show on major "official" advertisement channels.  Long story short, I see influencers as yet another advertising channel, but with more pretty girls.

Also far less strictly regulated than legitimate advertising.

I reckon "Where My Bike's Been"  could be bigger than GCN in a couple of years.

 

SC

[chickenslegs]

8 minutes ago, StreetCowboy said:

I reckon "Where My Bike's Been"  could be bigger than GCN in a couple of years.

I like your WMBB thread - but it could become a commercial success if you added a few young ladies in lycra.

 

[StreetCowboy]

7 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

I like your WMBB thread - but it could become a commercial success if you added a few young ladies in lycra.

images deleted for the sake of bandwidth

 

 

Sometimes you have to trust to your reader's  imagination.

 

Sure, I could learn to use photoshop, and portray my acquaintances as inflation victims of a psycho with a compressor, or as if they had got their tits stuck in the freezer, but I trust my readers, and their imaginations.

Edited May 25, 2021 by StreetCowboy
I shouldn't digress into nit-picking pedantry, but while I really wanted to say "readers' imagination" I could not justify the mix of number, and "reader's imagination" seemed better than "readers' imaginations". And probably closer to the truth, as well

[impulse]

6 hours ago, Pilotman said:

7 hours ago, wprime said:

hey are generally better educated than most

Not the ones I have seen. Some dumb nonentities from Love Island who can hardly string a sentence together.   Maybe there are grades/rankings of such people. 

 

Some of them can retire at age 12.  And all they have to do is open toys and play with them on video.

 

Lots of envy evident here...

 

[Pilotman]

10 hours ago, impulse said:

 

Some of them can retire at age 12.  And all they have to do is open toys and play with them on video.

 

Lots of envy evident here...

 

lots of confusion I would say.  If they are marketing products on U Tube or Instagram, then fine, that's just sales and marketing using modern media, but in the circumstances that I have come across, I don't see how these 'intellectual giants' pontificating about their vacuous lives as 'celebrities' , are influencing anyone with any brains. But then again I'm not a  teenager, so maybe that's the answer. 

[thaibeachlovers]

18 hours ago, wprime said:

They are people with a large social media audience so businesses pay them or provide other non-monetary incentives to advertise their products.

 

Your assumptions about them would be incorrect. They are generally better educated than most and anyone who can get paid just for posting pictures is smart in my books.

 

Your assumptions about their audience is pretty accurate.

They can only influence people that go on "social media" and IMO they deserve to be influenced.

 

baaaaah

Edited May 26, 2021 by thaibeachlovers

[thaibeachlovers]

15 hours ago, captainjackS said:

I believe the influencers themselves come in many forms and with varying quality of content.  What I do see that i believe is important is that a business who wants to advertise a product traditionally would pay for a billboard, radio, or TV ad.  Expensive.  Some busineses  pay directly for advertising on Facebook, Google, or whatever.  But now businesses have yet another option to push advertising to customers via influencers.  Often cheaper than buying a "real" advertising spot because they can give the influencer a free meal, night at the hotel,  etc.  Also often easier to get the content through to potential customers who voluntarily follow particular influencers by choice while they use ad-blocking software to remove the explicit advertising from websites.  The influencers that i have seen a lot in Chiang Mai are sexy ladies who post pictures of themselves at coffee shops, hotels, etc with the brand names clearly displayed.  People like to look at pictures of pretty girls in bikinis, so occasionally we see the name of the hotel swimming pool in the background.   Same sexy bikini girls also advertise for online gambling -- unofficial advertisements that would probably not be legal to show on major "official" advertisement channels.  Long story short, I see influencers as yet another advertising channel, but with more pretty girls.

Soooooo, if I understand correctly, you are claiming that if a pretty girl has a brand name displayed loads of people ( that spend all day on the internet to be able to find said pictures ) will run out and purchase said brand name products, or stay at the hotel in the background?

If that is true, I have no hope at all for the survival of the human race.

[thaibeachlovers]

17 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

he should steer clear of TikTok ! 

Why? I've watched a few clips, but seen zero advertising.

[richard_smith237]

Just now, thaibeachlovers said:

17 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

he should steer clear of TikTok ! 

Why? I've watched a few clips, but seen zero advertising.

 

Due to the excess of untalented narcissism !

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

18 hours ago, Moonlover said:

I wondered about that until I watched a series on the BBC about Amir Khan, the British 2 times world champion boxer. His wife, Faryal Makhdoom is an extremely beautiful and highly intelligent Pakistani/American. She is an influencer par excellence, mainly into cosmetics.

 

She also manages a lot of her husbands business enterprises. In her own words "I'm the boss''. And those two are swimming in money.

It's a sad day for humanity, IMO, when "swimming in money" is seen as a good thing.

[Poet]

You can find good content on any medium. It takes a while to discover what a particular platform is good for.

It does not matter if you consider 99% of the content to be nonsense, or if you look down upon all the other users. Once you find the right people to follow, there is always some worthwhile or useful content, probably more than you could ever keep up with.

As we age, our brains become less flexible and our habits tend to ossify. If you find yourself dismissing things simply because they are new or because you don't immediately understand them, it might be worth asking yourself if it actually benefits you, and the health of your brain, to reduce your exposure to new ideas.
 

[thaibeachlovers]

Just now, richard_smith237 said:

 

Due to the excess of untalented narcissism !

 

 

? Most of the participants I've seen have a great deal of talent at what they do, though it does seem that they have empty lives to have so much spare time to practice so much.

[johnnybangkok]

You make this sound like it's a new phenomenom when in fact the only 'new' part is the medium being used.

Social influencers have been around ever since marketing began; whether it was sales of men’s undershirts tanking sharply after actor Clark Gable appeared bare-chested in a film to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, promoting cigarettes. Sports stars have been 'socially influencing' people for decades when they wear a new pair of Nike trainors or wear a certain watch. I bet we all have been 'socially influenced' at some stage in our life.

Perhaps the social influencers of Tik Tok and Instagram don't now need to be quite so famous as influencers of the past but the concept is the same; find someone you like and admire, follow them and buy the stuff they promote. The serious money making from this is still reserved for a very few elite who have diligently built up millions of followers (there's many, many more who barely eke out a living) and it isn't as easy as it sounds to get to the numbers needed to earn serious money, as it's VERY cut-throat and believe it or not, people aren't as dumb as you think and can smell insincerity or deception very quickly so many of these influncers guard their 'brand' feircely. There's nothing 'dumb' about anything they do.  

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, Poet said:

You can find good content on any medium. It takes a while to discover what a particular platform is good for.

It does not matter if you consider 99% of the content to be nonsense, or if you look down upon all the other users. Once you find the right people to follow, there is always some worthwhile or useful content, probably more than you could ever keep up with.

As we age, our brains become less flexible and our habits tend to ossify. If you find yourself dismissing things simply because they are new or because you don't immediately understand them, it might be worth asking yourself if it actually benefits you, and the health of your brain, to reduce your exposure to new ideas.
 

The significant phrase IMO is "It takes a while to discover what a particular platform is good for."

If all I had in life was cruising the internet looking for "a particular platform" to get exercised about I'd be finding a good brick wall to bang some sense into myself.

I can only assume that there are millions of people out there that don't know what books are.