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> Influencers are just ad folks who found even the limited ethics of the big ad companies too constraining, right? I think that's confusing influencers with th

> Influencers are just ad folks who found even the limited ethics of the big ad companies too constraining, right? I think that's confusing influencers with the companies that pay them to promote products. The whole idea with "influencers" is that it's not "some shrill rando", but somebody known and trusted pushing the products. On YouTube, for example, I'd count FortNine, 3blue1brown, and asianometry as influencers, and none of them (that I know) started out with the explicit purpose of pushing products. In each case they've taken their popularity in a niche and used it to plug products for money.

elevatedastalt 2y ago
But in many cases there is nothing about the influencer that has earned that trust. If you are a musician who has 10000 followers, it makes sense that you might post about say some music-specific brand. But if you are guy who just posts funny videos on TikTok, how does your endorsement mean anything?
tredre3 2y ago
> asianometry He sometimes insert sponsor ads in his videos but is it really an influencer? The videos aren't designed to promote the product. Wouldn't that definition of influencer make everybody that make ads-sponsored videos an influencer? What about actors on network TV, their content contain sponsored ads, are they influencers?
- jlarocco 2y ago
  > The videos aren't designed to promote the product. That's my point, really. Nobody's looking at influencer videos explicitly to learn what to buy or how to behave. The whole idea is to piggyback on whatever influence the influencer may have in their niche to sell to that niche. Like concentrated peer pressure, I guess. At least that's what I've seen - it's entirely possible there are insecure people seeking out influencer videos with no useful content other than telling them what to buy, and I just never see those videos. There's something unsettling about that idea, though.

elevatedastalt 2y ago

But in many cases there is nothing about the influencer that has earned that trust. If you are a musician who has 10000 followers, it makes sense that you might post about say some music-specific brand. But if you are guy who just posts funny videos on TikTok, how does your endorsement mean anything?

tredre3 2y ago

> asianometry He sometimes insert sponsor ads in his videos but is it really an influencer? The videos aren't designed to promote the product. Wouldn't that definition of influencer make everybody that make ads-sponsored videos an influencer? What about actors on network TV, their content contain sponsored ads, are they influencers?

jlarocco 2y ago
> The videos aren't designed to promote the product. That's my point, really. Nobody's looking at influencer videos explicitly to learn what to buy or how to behave. The whole idea is to piggyback on whatever influence the influencer may have in their niche to sell to that niche. Like concentrated peer pressure, I guess. At least that's what I've seen - it's entirely possible there are insecure people seeking out influencer videos with no useful content other than telling them what to buy, and I just never see those videos. There's something unsettling about that idea, though.