Social media is powerful, its influence on any audience varies opinion yet its impact is global. Any form of social media can become ‘viral’, such as a YouTube video, tweet or instagram post yet it also has the power to make people go viral overnight. Social media is known for making ordinary people global phenomenons in a matter of hours. When studying what I would research this semester, this media niche caught my attention immediately: Influencers, the social media superstars.
I immediately chose this media niche at 11pm in my bed scrolling through Tiktok, a looping video application. I scrolled upon the now celebrity status ‘Tiktoker’, Charli D’amelio. TikTok is an app that has only gained popularity over the past year, however has made many newborn celebrities for making short videos. Charli D’amelio is known as the most popular amongst this bunch. Charli makes short dance videos on Tiktok, one of these videos became viral overnight. The influencer gained over 5 million followers in less than a week. Charli now has 78 million followers on Tiktok, 26 million on instagram and 3.7 million on twitter, all from making dance videos on a singular application. Each of her videos average around 20 million videos and around 6 million likes. These statistics amazed me, a 15 year old girl receiving this much engagement for doing something so simplistic, yet most influencers are alike.
Alongside Charli, there are many influencers alike such as Addison Rae and Noah Beck who have gained fame from this platform. Generation Z have idolised these individuals from making these short videos and in response have made them influencers. Other social media platforms such as Instagram and Youtube have also made influencers through their applications.
The accumulated audiences social media influencers gain allow them to have large influence, striking true to their title. This is where ‘the medium is the message’ theory comes in, the opinions influencers deliver through social media is sent directly to their audience and can influence the individual viewer’s point of view, either positively or negatively. Influencers have the ability to influence millions of people and use their platforms to voice their opinions on topics such as advertising products, politics, charities etc.. Through posting videos and photos, these social media celebrities statistically receive more engagement than television celebrities according to mediakix. Large companies pay thousands of dollars to have influencers advertise their products on their social media platforms, for example through Instagram stories which can be viewed by millions of people.
The above image shows an influencer posting an advertisement on her instagram story, which can be viewed by all of her followers.
With these gathered statistics and my premature interest in this subject, I am extremely interested to research this niche throughout this semester. I want to discover the depths of what it really takes to be an influencer, how content becomes viral and ‘cancel culture’ amongst influencers. I’m so intrigued by this niche and I’m excited to explore it. If you want to follow along, make sure to follow my blog and follow me on my twitter linked below!
References:
Raphael, S., 2020. A Tiktok Expert Explained Exactly How Charli D’amelio Got Famous On The App (EXCLUSIVE). [online] Distractify. Available at: <https://www.distractify.com/p/tiktok-charli-damelio> [Accessed 6 August 2020].
Mediakix. 2020. Digital Influencers Vs. Celebrities: Who’s Best For Brands?. [online] Available at: <https://mediakix.com/blog/digital-influencers-vs-celebrities-social-media-week-la/> [Accessed 6 August 2020].
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