Infected by the inFLUence: a short piece that looks into social influencers like Miss Victory Violet

Have you ever considered to be social influencer?

What kind of job would be suitable after studying something like Online Culture? Perhaps a governmental job in the cultural part or the social media manager of a company. But have you considered being a ‘social influencer’ yet? If this is a new term for you, let me explain it.

The term ‘social influencer’ is a shorter version of ‘social media influencer’. Although the media term is quite important in my eyes, society somehow thought social influencer was better even though this can lead to misunderstanding. Searching for the term online (in this case the full name because even the internet misunderstands the most used term) gives us the following definition: “An influencer is an individual whose actions and opinions carry more weight with their colleagues, social network and the general public than is the case with most other individuals (…) In a social media marketing context, the more influence a person has, the more appeal that individual has to companies or other individuals who want to promote an idea or sell a product” (Rouse, 2016).

At first sight, being popular on social media such as Instagram maybe doesn’t seem like a serious job to earn money with.

This definition immediately gives us information about using social influencing as a job since an influencer could be used in a marketing sense. At first sight, being popular on social media such as Instagram maybe doesn’t seem like a serious job to earn money with. But, many influencers prove otherwise. I want to know why it could be a career and how it works. Also, I try to become an influencer myself and I use my own experiences. For that matter, and what is probably already clear, is this article written in first person. In this article, I will introduce you into the world of influencers (as far as I get into it, obviously) by answering the following question: Can social (media) influencer be (seen as) a full-time job? 

What does it take to become a social influencer?

To start off with the whole journey towards social media success and influencing we of course need to know more about where to start. Even without looking for “How to …” videos on YouTube, my Facebook account gets many potential articles about this topic.

For instance, the Dutch ING bank has had a guideline for earning money with being a social influencer. A handy systematic plan yet the steps are far from easy. Unfortunately, as I was writing this, the blogpost disappeared from their website. After contacting the bank, they responded to me with the answer I was afraid of: the blogpost didn’t longer exist anymore.

But as I mentioned, the internet offers a lot of articles about social influencing so it was not quite hard to find the following title as translated from Dutch: “Matthew is 17 years old and paid 2690 dollar to become a social influencer” (NOS, 2017) or “How to become an influencer in 12 weeks?” (3FM, 2017). Fun fact: both are quite big and well-known companies that wrote these articles.  ING also said something about this (sorry for the lack of proof) like: “To earn money, you have to spend it first” well okay, seems fair it is like an investment in yourself. Now as the title tells us, how much is this investment? Around 2000 euros. 

That moment when you lose faith in your dreams.

After sweeping myself up from the ground, I figured that I, as a future social influencer (hopefully), can never lose hope and need to have my downs sometimes. Again, see this as an investment in yourself and your future career which always costs money especially when you are your own boss. Luckily, almost every article marks about 5 or more steps that contain tips such as the use of hashtags and earning money instead of spending it.

She changed her clothes multiple times a day and made pictures of every piece.

In the weeks that followed, my Facebook timeline somehow sensed what my plan was and I saw a handful of articles passing by without having to search for them. Not considering the algorithms on my timeline, it perhaps is a sign that these things pop up online more increasingly. A very interesting one appeared recently. It is not that much of a guide but tells the story of a group of students which made a fake Instagram account for an assignment and tried to get 10.000 followers in almost no time; just 12 weeks (3FM, 2017). The article that was written about it reveals multiple secrets of the everyday life of a social influencer. Noteworthy is for example, that the girl of the fake account switched her outfit a few times each day and made a picture with her wearing each one of every single outfit in the seperate pictures.

Overloaded with the topic

Besides from online articles, the television also got infected with the inFLUence (yes, pun intended). On RTL Boulevard, a famous Dutch gossip programme, a teacher of the B Academy located in both Eindhoven and Amsterdam was talking about their new course: ‘Influencing’. Of course, some further research was needed. As it occurs, the B Academy really gives young people the chance to get to know the fine arts of this ‘job’ by learning more than just using the right hashtags. If a school already teaches students stuff like this for their future, this is indeed the job of the future.

Also, considering the time and money it takes to become and maintain one is almost more than a full-time job. With this opinion formulated I went to a Q&A session with Miss Victory Violet because apparently, people get somehow famous too in this business. Miss VV is a famous Instagram pinup in the rockabilly scene (figure 1). She has around 180.000 followers on Instagram and posts around 3 or more pictures a day which leaded to the amount of roughly 8000 pictures in total.

Figure 3 AP- Photo Vadim Ghirda 7 Feb 2017

Figure 1

Miss VV tells me that it is not just about the posting of the pictures every day for her. She also does paid photoshoots (which she also posts online though), keeping up a blog and Facebook account, traveling and give workshops all over the world and finally starting a YouTube channel. It becomes clear that it is also important to have online content besides Instagram since her blog was online before her Instagram got famous. Again, this was more evidence for me to consider social influencing a job. But, she says, it comes with downsides. For instance, when there aren’t enough modelling jobs in a month it is a bit scary when it comes to money. Sometimes she also thinks of the future and if she could keep up with it her entire life. Before this she started as a hairdresser and I wondered if that is the only option she has after being an influencer for a while. 

The fine print (dum dum dummm)

Of course, earning money with doing what you'r good at, being yourself (most of the times), promoting brands that you absolutely adore and having a supporting group of admirers seems absolutely swell, yet, there is something at risk. I am not aiming to talk about getting addicted to social media and losing contact with the real world. No, what I want to say is: a big part of your private life is revealed online, even when it might not be the truth you show in the picture.

Since the late 90s we live in what Hille Koskela called “the cam era” an era in which cameras are almost everywhere and in this day of age almost everyone even carries one with them on their phones (Koskela, 2003). Thus, it is easy to shoot footage in everyday life or to being filmed even when you don’t know. One of the points she makes in her paper “Webcams, TV Shows and Mobile Phones: Empowering Exhibitionism” is that people change the way of thinking towards privacy and what they expose publicly.

Instead of being afraid of too much openness towards the world, they feel more powerful when showing something most people might find too private. That’s the empowering exhibitionism she mentions already in the title. Something, it appears, is also going on in the world of social influencing since most of the influencers show quite some details of their private life to strangers maybe to bond with them for instance.

I look at the last 30 pictures of her and her biography on Instagram and try to find as many things about her as I can.

Koskela also highlights that it is easy nowadays (even so in the zeros) to track someone’s location. Sometimes the influencer does even give the city he or she is in him- or herself. To make this clear, I want to emphasize the ease of getting to know a lot about an influencer and thus how many details one shares, by again using Miss Victory Violet as an example.  I look at the last 30 pictures of her and her biography on Instagram and try to find as many things about her as I can. Important note is that I only look at her Instagram account so not even a personal blog or something in that sense. 

Doing the little research, I find the following information: she has a husband named Matt, he has a moustache and beard. Miss VV’s real name is Ella and she talks English with an accent, she promotes the Dutch webstore TopVintage, models for the lingerie brand What Katie Did, she is going to Ireland very soon but at the moment she is road tripping through the UK and she lives in London. I can see at least 10 different outfits of her and I know now how she does her nails and what her favourite products are. I can see pictures of her when she was in Bath (figure 2).

Next year she goes to Viva Las Vegas because she enjoyed it last time. And finally, that she has a blog with probably even more details. In the added figure, also note the comments of the followers to have an idea of the effect.

Even though, Koskela focusses more on webcam videos, it is quite the same for Instagram posts especially when it comes to exhibitionism. Even influencers like Miss VV post lingerie shots often, also when it is considered something not done for some (Koskela, 2003).

vice.com / Photo Ioana Epure

Figure 2

It is quite shocking how much one can find out with only 30 pictures. The risk of losing privacy and maybe even being stalked is quite high as hopefully is clear after this example. Still, the ‘normal person’ becomes increasingly popular online and everyone can become famous in this way. Followers want to feel connected, have someone as an example and to look up to, giving hope that they can be successful as well. Perhaps, this sensation comes even close to gossip magazines that talk about private lives of the greatest celebrities. Only now, the stars reveal interesting things about their lives themselves. Koskela must have been having flash forwards (and good brains of course) when she wrote her articles back in 2000 and something.

This is not the end, only the conclusion

Still, being a social influencer pays of pretty good, I learn from the internet. Namely, something like 2000 euros per Instagram post. Worth giving it a shot during a gap year perhaps. If 4 students can do it in 12 weeks, who knows what I can achieve in a year? I must admit that it is quite hard to keep up with posting content every day. But for now, I’m happy with my Instagram account and its small group of followers. Don’t be afraid to follow or like @missbibabelula You see, marketing is already happening here. That’s a good start!

So, it turns out social influencing is in this time of age really a good job opportunity, especially with studies like Online Culture or even the specific Influencing itself. Just like any other business job it comes to hard work and constantly trying to improve yourself to be out there. Not to forget that it comes with some great risks However, if there is a future for social influencers in terms of: “Can I do this the rest of my life?” in its broadest sense, is a different question. But, for the sake of dreams of being young and successful, it is most certainly not bad to think of a career in social influencing.

References

3FM. (2017, March 22nd). Zo word je binnen 12 weken social influencer. 

Koskela, H. (2004). Webcams, TV Shows and Mobile phones: Empowering Exhibitionism. Article.

NOS. (2017, April 6th). Matthew is 17 en betaalt 2690 dollar om social influencer te worden. Article.

Rouse, M. (2016, June). Social influencer. Definition.