Position Paper #4: Wild Card

Influencers & Content Creators
        What is a better way to make a living than to make a living than to do the things that you enjoy and share those experiences and expertise with others? Whether you are a natural hair enthusiast, vlogger, blogger, etc. I believe that there are lots of assumptions about influencers are all young, do little work, spend all day on social media among others that are not true. Not only that it seems that a new wave of influencers have been birthed as a result of quarantine and people being on social media much more in order to stay connected to others. With the past year that we have had full of sickness, sadness and job loss many took to social media as a way to escape and the situation, some even found themselves acquiring quite a following whether for telling stories from their life, comedic content, or beauty or hair tutorials.  I knew of influencers, this is my better look into what exactly makes an influencer. 

In an article published by Influencer Marketing Hub they defined an influencer as the following, “An influencer is someone who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience. They have a following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages. The size of the following depends on the size of his/her topic of the niche.” Influencers are categorized by follower numbers, types of content, and level of influence. For influencers in particular their followers are people who like their social media accounts so they “follow” their pages, so that they can see more of the content that the person posts for the public. Now there is no rule that says how many followers must have before they can be considered an influencer, but there are different different types of classifications for influencers based on their followings. Nano-influencers are those who have 1,000 or less followers on a single platform, but they tend to be very knowledgeable in the niche, especially if it is very specific so the followers are willing to engage. Although nano-influencers can be commonly overlooked by large brands, they can be beneficial for businesses that make very specific products and fit a certain niche. 

The next classification based on following are micro-influencers who have between 1,000-40,000 followers on at least one social media platform. This classification of influencers are usually very particular with the brands and companies that they do work with because they have spent time being a following for their niche and do not want to lose it on account of a product that they do not fully believe in. These types of influencers are also at a point where they can decide whether or not they will work with companies for free or not. Many do require payment because they put lots of work in and use it as a source of income for their lives. Keep in mind that although an influencer can be beneficial, the level of interaction that it is put into the person's platform can make all the difference. The last and largest grouping of influencers based on followers are macro and mega influencers. Macro influencers have between 40,000 and one million followers, and mega-influencers have more than one million followers on at least one one platform. B-list celebrities and successful online experts tend to make up this category and there are actually more macro-influencers than there are mega-influencers. Celebrities make up a large part of mega-influencers from professional athletes, entertainers, actors, actresses among others. These types of influencers are very selective with the partnerships and can be paid up to a million dollars for a single post. 

There are multiple types of content that an influencer could specialize or perhaps more than one. The main types are bloggers, podcasters, strictly social media and Youtubers. Social media influencers are rapidly growing, perhaps because thanks to quarantine people had to YouTube for DIY’s on things like hair care, manicures and pedicures, waxes and other services that have not been available and for entertainment. Podcast influencers typically have their work showcased on Apple Music, Spotify and Google Podcasts. These podcast topics range from motherhood, dating and relationships, cannabis, sports and many others. Bloggers and social media based influencers tend to be the most interactive with their followers through their posts. The influencers who stick to social posting as their main stream especially on Instagram use very strategic picture and caption combinations for brand deals and interactive posts with their audience.