4 ms·

It is quite easy to bash the influencers. They are a popular target. There is another story in the news today about influencers wanting to get free wedding pict

It is quite easy to bash the influencers. They are a popular target. There is another story in the news today about influencers wanting to get free wedding pictures. I am waiting for a 'before they were famous' expose from someone who does make it to get the millions of subscribers. At that level of the game it works differently, everything comes for free and stuff has to be turned down. But these people were struggling once, they once had zero subscribers/followers and nothing they could say would be received well by anyone. They must have 'couldn't even get an ice cream' stories. Fun that it is to deride the influencer, there are options for more constructive approaches. The ice cream truck could offer just the one ice cream to an influencer a week, with an online application form and many other administrative hoops and hurdles. Then the free ice cream could go to whomever has the most followers. Then, when awkwardly asked at the van, he could just politely show them the form. If they win the competition (of who has the most followers) and can come back a week later then sure they can have their free ice cream. That is fair enough, surely?

Nextgrid 7y ago
> I am waiting for a 'before they were famous' expose from someone who does make it to get the millions of subscribers. Before they were famous? Broke college students probably or something like that. Frankly a more respectable career than begging and peddling shit on social networks. > Fun that it is to deride the influencer, there are options for more constructive approaches. But why should the food truck operator care? He didn’t ask for anything and still gets solicited by these beggars (they call it a “business” but I’d argue if your business can’t buy you a $4 ice cream then something is horribly wrong). It can also be offensive, just like when artists are asked to perform for “exposure”.
- wolco 7y ago
  Respectable? If hollywood accepts it and starts including it in popular shows/movies the respectibility level will raise. You see local news personalities/sports stars all in tv/print ads. They are trading on the respectability of their primary career you would think they suffer from a drop respectability but it increases.
AlexandrB 7y ago
> At that level of the game it works differently, everything comes for free and stuff has to be turned down. Basically the same as saying “they have a conflict of interest and nothing they say can be trusted”. Why should I trust an influencer’s opinion about any product?
libertine 7y ago
> It is quite easy to bash the influencers. Though this is true, I think there's also a lack of perception on the influencers part on the current definition of "influencer". It's a term loosely used by people with a large following, and right there the definition crumbles - what's a large following? I think we can agree that it depends - to some niches 200.000 followers it's not that big of a deal, while on others 50.000 followers could be a rare sight. Then it comes the "value" of that following - the potential reach might be terrible in terms of value: they might have the wrong motivation, might be bloated with bots, or simply may not see the influencers as a value adding individual but as a good distraction while browsing the feed. Finally the scarcity of recommendations - what used to be a monthly product placement/mention/promo, or weekly, or daily, with the current state of social media (with stories) it's almost like a big reality show, with real time shit happening all the time, and they pump so much stuff that the value as diluted - that ice cream truck was a small stop in their day of pumping content: they had breakfast somewhere, lunch, brunch, and will have dinner and party in some place. Imo influencers from a lot of niches will increasingly become less valuable, to the point where they might have to make the decision of dropping it, after a slow vanishing due to the lack of constant content production, then it will correct itself. > The ice cream truck could offer just the one ice cream to an influencer a week If no one came from that influencer, it would be a wasted ice cream, plus he had no control on the content (could be damaging), plus it's a ice cream truck - doubt he has time to be fiddling with that. If one location isn't cutting it, he just moves.
- itronitron 7y ago
  If any influencer succeeds long term it will be to the extent they serve as a curator of things, services, etc. for people that are otherwise too busy. They can provide value to people on those platforms only to the extent that they provide them with useful information, and if they are whoring themselves out without any standard then people will not be influenced by them. Point being, curators that are good invest a lot of time (and money) into the domain they are curating. People that love ice cream can tell you a lot about how and why different companies ice creams are different from one another.
- M2Ys4U 7y ago
  >It's a term loosely used by people with a large following, and right there the definition crumbles - what's a large following? 30,000 followers, according to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.[0] People who have more than that will be classed as "celebrities" and fall under a tighter set of regulations.[1] [0] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/30000-followers-makes-you-an-internet-celebrity-says-uk-ad-regulator/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/30000-followers-... [1] The ASA is an industry self-regulatory body, rather than a government-run regulator, so they can't make anything illegal per se.

Nextgrid 7y ago

> I am waiting for a 'before they were famous' expose from someone who does make it to get the millions of subscribers. Before they were famous? Broke college students probably or something like that. Frankly a more respectable career than begging and peddling shit on social networks. > Fun that it is to deride the influencer, there are options for more constructive approaches. But why should the food truck operator care? He didn’t ask for anything and still gets solicited by these beggars (they call it a “business” but I’d argue if your business can’t buy you a $4 ice cream then something is horribly wrong). It can also be offensive, just like when artists are asked to perform for “exposure”.

wolco 7y ago
Respectable? If hollywood accepts it and starts including it in popular shows/movies the respectibility level will raise. You see local news personalities/sports stars all in tv/print ads. They are trading on the respectability of their primary career you would think they suffer from a drop respectability but it increases.

AlexandrB 7y ago

> At that level of the game it works differently, everything comes for free and stuff has to be turned down. Basically the same as saying “they have a conflict of interest and nothing they say can be trusted”. Why should I trust an influencer’s opinion about any product?

libertine 7y ago

> It is quite easy to bash the influencers. Though this is true, I think there's also a lack of perception on the influencers part on the current definition of "influencer". It's a term loosely used by people with a large following, and right there the definition crumbles - what's a large following? I think we can agree that it depends - to some niches 200.000 followers it's not that big of a deal, while on others 50.000 followers could be a rare sight. Then it comes the "value" of that following - the potential reach might be terrible in terms of value: they might have the wrong motivation, might be bloated with bots, or simply may not see the influencers as a value adding individual but as a good distraction while browsing the feed. Finally the scarcity of recommendations - what used to be a monthly product placement/mention/promo, or weekly, or daily, with the current state of social media (with stories) it's almost like a big reality show, with real time shit happening all the time, and they pump so much stuff that the value as diluted - that ice cream truck was a small stop in their day of pumping content: they had breakfast somewhere, lunch, brunch, and will have dinner and party in some place. Imo influencers from a lot of niches will increasingly become less valuable, to the point where they might have to make the decision of dropping it, after a slow vanishing due to the lack of constant content production, then it will correct itself. > The ice cream truck could offer just the one ice cream to an influencer a week If no one came from that influencer, it would be a wasted ice cream, plus he had no control on the content (could be damaging), plus it's a ice cream truck - doubt he has time to be fiddling with that. If one location isn't cutting it, he just moves.

itronitron 7y ago
If any influencer succeeds long term it will be to the extent they serve as a curator of things, services, etc. for people that are otherwise too busy. They can provide value to people on those platforms only to the extent that they provide them with useful information, and if they are whoring themselves out without any standard then people will not be influenced by them. Point being, curators that are good invest a lot of time (and money) into the domain they are curating. People that love ice cream can tell you a lot about how and why different companies ice creams are different from one another.
M2Ys4U 7y ago
>It's a term loosely used by people with a large following, and right there the definition crumbles - what's a large following? 30,000 followers, according to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.[0] People who have more than that will be classed as "celebrities" and fall under a tighter set of regulations.[1] [0] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/30000-followers-makes-you-an-internet-celebrity-says-uk-ad-regulator/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/30000-followers-... [1] The ASA is an industry self-regulatory body, rather than a government-run regulator, so they can't make anything illegal per se.