𝒪𝒮𝒫: 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝓇𝑜𝒹𝓊𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝒾𝓃𝒻𝓁𝓊𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓇𝓈

1) What years did YouTube, Twitter and Instagram launch?   

Youtube was launched in 2005

Twitter was launched in 2006

Instagram was launched in 2010

2) What is the definition of an influencer?

An influencer is a social media user (mostly women) with a large devoted following, who give their followers access to a carefully curated version of their lives. 

3) Give an example of an influencer and how many followers they have. Try and add some additional information, brand associations or other statistics if you can.

Example of an influencer is YouTuber Zoella (Zoe Sugg) who started a blog at home and within a few years gained millions of followers and turned her online presence into a major financial opportunity. It is estimated at one point Zoella made £15,000 a month from YouTube pre-roll advertising, up to £20,000 each for promotional videos or Instagram posts plus money from books and a beauty product range with Superdrug.

4) How big is the influencer industry according to the article?

The influencer industry is very big because by the end of 2019, the influencer marketing industry was worth some $8bn a year. The creator economy which is built by those who post and monetise content online and employs more than 50 million people, and is the fastest-growing sector for small businesses in the world. Mega influencers such as Kylie Jenner (233 million followers on Instagram) can earn as much as $1m per post.

5) What are the problems associated with being an influencer?

There are problems associated with being an influencer like endless hours spent preparing for photo shoots, arranging photographers, changing outfits in cramped “pop-up tents”, editing photos and thinking up envy-inducing captions and hashtags. Demanding clients often having force them to endlessly re-shoot photos or videos until they come out just right. There’s the pressure of always seeking to increase your follower count to drive up revenues. 

6) Why is it suggested that audiences actually like being sold products by influencers?

Audiences actually like being sold products by influencers because they believe anything influencers say. This is because influencers are like friends to their followers because they share their personal life with them which makes the followers trust them. So brands take advantage of this bond between them and convince the audience to buy their products by sponsoring  influencers. 

7) What representation of beauty is often found on Instagram or other influencer sites?

Representation of beauty on Instagram or other influencer sites is that for a woman to be classified as beautiful should have a young face with pore less skin, high cheekbones, long lashes and full lips. Influencers like the Kardashian family, and the models Bella Hadid (42 million followers), and Emily Ratajkowski (27 million followers) represent this. Influencers reinforce this by using Instagram filters such as Facetune, which tweaks images to give a thinner face, bigger lips, smoother skin, larger eyes, and slimmer legs. 

8) What is YOUR opinion on influencers? Are they a positive or negative influence on our society and culture? Why?

In my opinion I think influencers are negative influence on our society and culture because influencers can share any type of information and anyone will believe it whether it's true or false. Influencers don't really care about how this could effect the audience because at the end of the day they are getting paid for what they do.

Grade 8/9 extension tasks

Read this Forbes article on how covid and TikTok have changed the influencer market in the last couple of years. What does this tell us about society and media culture - are we becoming more creative and independent or is this just another way to sell more products to more people?