About a decade later, the 22-year-old Cuban immigrant has amassed nearly 6 million combined fans on social media for her content on beauty, fashion, lifestyle and activism. She is part of a new generation of influencers who have grown up. See original content creators online and perceive that long-term good fortune in the area of influence requires constant adaptation, connection, and commitment.
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“I was raised through creators, in a way,” Diaz says. “When I moved here, I had a hard time adjusting to moving to a new country, learning the language, learning customs and when I was in college, I became obsessed with watching YouTube videos. I was fascinated by watching vlogs and seeing how other people live their lives. “
Being a social media celebrity is a concept that is more than a decade old. The blogs and social networking sites of the early 2000s gave way to a new form of self-expression that allowed global audiences to notice the lives of ordinary people, turning them into viral stars at night.
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Today, the influencer industry is at a crossroads. More people than ever are looking to participate in the influencer boom, while the audience is looking for authenticity and expecting more from the creators they follow. What does this mean for an industry rooted in being inaccessible?, fresh and closed to reality?
“Fame is absolutely different than it was five years ago,” says Christen Nino De Guzman, who in the past worked for Instagram and TikTok, collaborating directly with some of their smartest creators.
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It wasn’t until several years after Meghan Rienks started posting YouTube videos in 2010 that the term “influencer” entered the zeitgeist, and is most commonly used for Instagram bloggers and creators.
“In the beginning, many of us didn’t need to be known as influencers,” says Rienks, 29. man of influence. “
But ‘influencer’ has caveats, it says Rienks. Si you’re going to use the term influencer, you’d better perceive what influence means. “
“Influencer” has evolved beyond the stereotype of a bland guy in his twenties turning a kissing duck into a front-facing camera. While there are still creators looking to make a quick dollar by promoting rubber bear hair vitamins, he’s also a billionaire. Dollar industry that has the strength to dictate what fans around the global price and pay attention.
“This is the new entertainment,” says LaToya Shambo, founder of influencer marketing firm Black Girl Digital. “The TV is still there, but the phone is closer. “
“You get attached to other people who are the larger-than-life type, ‘wow, this is ambitious’ or other people who you feel are by your side and are going through the same things at the same time,” says New York: the 27-year-old influencer based on Katy Bellotte, who aspires to be the last. “I don’t need other people to feel like I’m bigger than them. “
Creators who share only the best facets of their lives will continue to exist and even accumulate many followers. But their careers are fleeting if they can’t find a way to authentically bond with their followers.
“We’ve created an environment where we have niche communities that exist where other people can locate their tribe and feel connected to other people,” says Brad Hoos, chief executive of influencer marketing firm The Outloud Group, which manages influencer campaigns for brands by adding Grubhub and Athletic Greens.
Today, in what is the time of elegance or generation of online creators, regulations are changing: either the scope of what it means to succeed and what is expected of individuals.
“There’s a window of creators who have controlled an audience for a long period of time,” Rienks says. “I don’t know to what extent this is still going to happen with creators today, because it’s less difficult to exploit, but then it’s less difficult to fade just based on how the algorithms are now.
While there are social media influencers who have now achieved traditional good fortune (Emma Chamberlain, Charli D’Amelio, Addison Rae and many others have signed with primary skills agencies and appear in movies and television), mainstream is no longer the barometer of good fortune.
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“Doing so doesn’t feel like having a million followers,” says Bella Gerard, a 27-year-old fashion editor turned influencer. Some influencers have millions of followers, but others have far fewer and still do very well. Ultimately, Gerard says, a successful influencer is one who has an engaged network that relies on their recommendations.
“There’s a difference between having a compromised array and having a compromised array,” adds Isabella Muggeo, account manager at gen. video corporate influencer marketing.
And since influencers’ success varies greatly, so does their income.
Some micro-influencers can make a few hundred dollars on a single Instagram post or TikTok video. Others with a larger number of subscribers can earn tens of thousands of dollars doing the same. Gerard says he earned part of the annual salary he earned as a fashion editor in a week of New York Fashion Week publication. Nino De Guzman saw 18-year-olds buying Lamborghinis and Bentley with the millions they raised through TikTok.
It depends on the platforms they choose, but it’s often a combination of branded offers, associated links, YouTube ad revenue, paid newsletters, or podcasts. TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube all have a budget for authors, designed to compensate influencers based on the audience. They bring, although that budget is usually only a very small fraction of what an author earns, if at all.
Some influencers have day jobs and have additional influence. Others treat content creation as full-time jobs. Gerard worked as a fashion and lifestyle editor for StyleCaster before moving into a full-time influencer and freelancer last year.
“Through it all, I realized, to be honest, that I can do anything I love so much and make more money through influence,” Gerard says.
But, as Gerard points out, abandoning the task of the day is rarely much for everyone, and a lack of experience can hinder building a successful brand. your personality. I think influencers gain fans and end up wasting their way because they’ve given up on what makes them. “
Influencing is rarely just for New York and Los Angeles. Sure, it’s less difficult to attend fashion, entertainment, or food events in big cities, yet influencers can build an ambitious way of life anywhere.
Take Adassa Phillips, a 25-year-old master’s student at the University of Maryland by day and a food influencer from the Washington, D. C. area. At night. His schedule, while grueling, is not unusual: many influencers, especially those outside the NY/LA bubbles, treat social media fame as a side concert.
“I’ve found that it’s as realistic as possible for my path, but for other people it’s because they need the stability of knowing you have a stable 9-5 source of income,” Phillips says.
Paying rent, health care, and a way of life that makes others need to look is rarely very cheap, which is why many of those who can influence your paintings full-time come from backgrounds that allow them the freedom to follow an ounce. -Dignified life without worrying about where the next paycheck comes from.
“Growing up with privilege, whether it’s your race, your class, the money you grew up with, the relationships — I had it all,” said Kit Keenan, 23, a former contestant on “The Bachelor” and daughter of a fashion designer. designer. Cynthia Rowley. ” I’m very lucky and I’ll never say he didn’t make my career, because he surely did. I wouldn’t do what I do without all those things. “
“Space, in general, is the Wild West and there’s no right or wrong fare card in keeping with it, and everyone comes up with what their price and their price is,” Shambo says. “Brands are reasonable and stingy with budgets when it comes to black. “Designers, however, I think are more aware of that. It’s just a slow change. “
This slow turnaround means the industry still largely favors thin, cisgender white women, in part, according to industry players, because many of those behind the scenes in positions of strength, the ones sending PR packages that influencers post in sending messages. Or those who invite influencers to exclusive events that boost their credibility: look like them and don’t take it. measures to make some diversity among those on their lists.
“A lot of influencer links in brands are white women, so they often give gifts to white women,” Keenan says. “And when you get a bunch of loose products, you can show them to your followers. Your life is more interesting: you have the newest and coolest products to showcase and you don’t have to spend cash on them. “
Another explanation for why some influencers think they get the stick short end is because of the lack of team spirit and transparency in the industry: if everyone can be paid other amounts and no one stores their salary, those in the minority are harmed. . . Nino De Guzman founded Clara for Creators, an online network that aims for creators to combat pay disparities by expanding pay transparency.
“What I saw personally is that black creators had their network of other black creators, so they can communicate with each other within their network, but it’s a very isolated communication,” De Guzmán says. “So if one of them or some black creators in a friend organization are underpaid, then that circle may be (all) underpaid. The concept is to make payment data available to everyone. “
Phillips has witnessed those disparities firsthand: “I communicate with other creators with whom we have the same point of engagement and number of subscribers and yet we receive other PR packages and accept other payment fees,” he says. frustrating for me because I’m being accepted for my true worth. “
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Showing a way of life or an aesthetic that others find pleasing is a main attraction to click “Like” or “Follow”. But beyond that, many influencers have learned that they want to be informed and open with their fans to stay in their place.
A post shared via Amanda Diaz (@amandadiaz)
Among the public, there is a reduction in tolerance towards influencers who seem disconnected from the real world. “People are tired of saying, ‘I woke up thin and rich, then I connected and told everyone I’m thin and rich,'” says interior design influencer Imani Keal, 27. I think other people should be attached to other people who feel more genuine, who feel like other genuine people. “
Viewers make this known when they have complaints, comment directly on an influencer’s post, share their own comment on social media, or flock to subreddit pages filled with sarcastic comments from influencers to criticize the submission of an overly subtle edit of their lives or spread hate or misinformation to a primary following.
Washington, D. C. -based influencer Jade Womack calls it “a sign of the times: Everyone is hurting right now, right?So if you say, ‘Everything is fine, I’m laughing a lot and I went to this big party and had this wonderful meal,’ that’s not what everybody’s experiencing. “
In addition to sharing trendy content on the red carpet and striking holiday décor, Diaz is also open to her fans about how her reports as an immigrant and refugee encouraged her to stand up for the right to vote. In 2022, he visited the White House to protect Latino Voices and interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris about the midterm elections.
“I had a time before this year where I was looking for my career. . . and I actually had to sit down with myself and say, ‘Amanda, what do you need to do with this platform that’s going to have a positive impact?have an effect on people?” said Diaz. “What’s the point of having a platform if you’re not going to turn it into something positive?”