Parasocial relationships. Influencers engage talk to their audience with a tone of familiarity. For some people they associate that tone with actually being fam

Parasocial relationships. Influencers engage talk to their audience with a tone of familiarity. For some people they associate that tone with actually being familiar with the influencer. The viewer's internal schema for the influencer is familiar if not friend. This is exploited to sell those people things. It's not all that different from celebrity endorsement advertising, it's just a bit more direct and overt because the influencer might respond to a viewer's tweet or mention them by name/handle if they hit some Patreon level or buy some thing.