Social Media Influencer

About

Social Media Influencer is a social media user who has access to a large audience. In the context of influencer marketing, influence is less about argument and coercion to a particular point of view and more about loose interactions between various parties in a community.

Origin

The term influencer has been used as a marketing term before social media.

In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that influence marketing is treated as a form of paid endorsement, governed under the rules for native advertising; the agency applies established truth-in-advertising standards to such advertising and establishes requirements for disclosure on the part of endorsers (influencers).^[1]

Spread

In November 2017, The first program was introduced to study social media influencing at the college level. The main purpose of the initiative is to teach the correct way to use social media, which focuses on quality content and respect for ethical standards. As a result, once the courses are over, the newly formed professionals will receive certification and will be integrated in Condé Nast’s network of social influencers.^[7]

On July 31st 2018, Kylie Jenner was reported to make an estimated $1 million per sponsored post on her Instagram, which makes her the highest paid celebrity influencer on the social media platform, according to the 2018 Instagram Rich List compiled by Hopper HQ, an automated Instagram scheduler. Jenner is followed by singer Selena Gomez, who gets $800,000 per sponsored post, and star soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, who earns $750,000.^[9]

Social Media Douchebag

Social Media Douchebag (a.k.a New Media Douchebag) is a media stereotype and a derogatory label used to describe someone who ostensibly engages in social networking and other fashionable online activities for self-promotion. The term may also be used to refer to someone who claims to be an expert in social media marketing. Similar to "hipster", social media douchebag can often be seen as a self-parody phenomenon.

On October 17th, 2007, blogger Kelly Stewart uploaded the video "New Media Douchebags Explained" to YouTube. The video criticized people who work in the emerging social media industry, characterizing them as people who don't really work and shameless self promoters. The video has accumulated over 148,000 views as of February 2012.

Palessi

On Oct. 27, 2018, The Media Marketing group DCX and low-cost shoe store Payless took over a former Armani store in Santa Monica, California and invited fashion influencers to shop around the "Palessi" pop-up.^[6] "Palessi" was a dressed-up version of Payless and convinced influencers that the shoes were high-end as a publicity stunt. The media marketing company DCX created a fake website for "Palessi" and recorded the launch party for the pop-up on Instagram (shown below).^[13]

Influencer Mural

Social Media Influencers Mural refers to a piece of street art in Los Angeles in front of which only people with over 20,000 social media followers may be photographed. It is guarded by a security man to enforce this rule. After being discovered in June of 2018, it was criticized and mocked online for being indicative of the ridiculousness of social media culture. The mural appears to be a viral marketing stunt orchestrated by an upcoming television show by the name Like and Subscribe.

On June 25th, 2018, Twitter user and Vice writer Justin Caffer tweeted his discovery of the mural, gaining over 5,300 retweets and 18,000 likes (shown below).

Fyre Festival

Fyre Festival was meant to be an expensive music festival to take place on a private island in Exumas, Bahamas. However, due to poor planning, many performers backed out and attendees who had arrived early were left stranded with little food and shelter, essentially creating a disaster-zone in which fights and looting broke out over resources.
The event was also highly publicized on social media by high-profile models and influencers including Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid.

Pope Francis Calls Mary an Influencer

On January, 26th, 2019, Pope Francis^[8] took to Twitter to label Mary (mother of Jesus Christ) as the first "influencer" (shown below). The tweet gained 11,491 retweets and 54,533 likes in two days.

Twitter users had mixed responses. On January 26th, Conor O'Sullivan^[11] Tweeted How do you do fellow kids? (shown below). The tweet received 68 retweets and 3,469 Likes.

Lev Novak^[10] made another joke on Twitter, responding to Pope Francis' tweet by saying "Pokemon go' to heaven." The tweet gained 99 retweets and 1,651 likes in two days (shown below).

@SpindlyPete^[12] tweeted in support (shown below). The tweet garnered 51 retweets and 726 likes in two days.

Search Interest

External References