Reading about suicide of influencer. Do you know an influencer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do I see them talking and putting on their makeup, no matter what they're talking about? Please stop that.

Get ready with me, babe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in social media and have worked with a lot of Influencers.

It's an incredibly stressful job. Humans really aren't meant to hear nonstop criticism and insults all day, every day. And people will find your every flaw and tear you down for it.

A lot go into debt trying to build their brand and never get out. Or they're successful for awhile, start spending all their money, then it dies off and they're freaked the gravy train ended. I'm in a mastermind with YouTubers and that happens constantly - they'll build a following, make a ton of money, and all of a sudden their niche falls out of fashion and they're scrambling for something new.

They also end up working extremely long hours. It looks easy enough - how long could a 30 second video take? - but it's a constant grind of finding brand deals and selling stuff.

That's why I prefer working behind-the-scenes. I'm not the one being torn down. If a client falls out of style, I can always go find a new one. I don't have to go into debt pretending to be rich.

Nonstop criticism and insults all day might drive me to suicide, too.

They could always find different work. Or learn to ignore the comments like other public figures do. And most well-known influencers consider themselves and pay for little blue checks so others know they consider themselves to be THE Official TM person. It’s the price of doing business.

I think influencers also don’t have the best self-esteem to begin with, so there’s that, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many followers does one need to be considered an influencer?

I read that to get any deals at all etc you need at least 50,000 but that might be out of date. Maybe PP who works in social media knows?

PP. Micro-influencers are super hot right now. The big ones are expensive to work with, so many brands are shifting to smaller ones. I've hired influencers with 2000-5000 followers and paid them $150 a post.

But to get deals with small followings, you really have to hustle. I advise some micro-influencers, and always recommend they do a few free deals to prove they can sell, make a 1 page Media page with your engagement/click thru/sales rates, then reach out to several brands every day and follow up with them 10-12 times.

It's definitely a hustle, but you can start making decent money from it if you know what you're doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who is an influencer but not a really big one - about 60k followers. Most are from her time as a presenter on a sports cable channel several years ago, and since then she has had kids and now being a mom and influencer is her full time thing. She posts content almost every day, but I don’t think she has any big brand deals, it’s more just freebies and some press days. It definitely can’t be worth it financially but I guess she likes the free stuff and she must enjoy doing it. She doesn’t seem overly stressed by it

This. I am an influencer and this is pretty much it. For me, it’s mostly free items to review - and it’s a lot. Sometimes I’m getting 6-8 packages a day for things to review. At the end of the week, I’m spending my weekends reviewing this stuff and It gets overwhelming at times but it’s still fun. I do it for fun, I work a FT job, and I’ve been on a handful of press trips. It’s nothing I’d ever leave my job for. We are in the process of building a home and I am using the funds I make off this to pay the upfront costs (permits, surveying, etc). This is NOT a stable way to make a living in the long run, IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do I see them talking and putting on their makeup, no matter what they're talking about? Please stop that.

If I never see another person put on or take off their makeup, or make coffee, I'll die happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they just turn all comments off? Post what they want and walk away.

No one is engaged, so you won't get any followers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in social media and have worked with a lot of Influencers.

It's an incredibly stressful job. Humans really aren't meant to hear nonstop criticism and insults all day, every day. And people will find your every flaw and tear you down for it.

A lot go into debt trying to build their brand and never get out. Or they're successful for awhile, start spending all their money, then it dies off and they're freaked the gravy train ended. I'm in a mastermind with YouTubers and that happens constantly - they'll build a following, make a ton of money, and all of a sudden their niche falls out of fashion and they're scrambling for something new.

They also end up working extremely long hours. It looks easy enough - how long could a 30 second video take? - but it's a constant grind of finding brand deals and selling stuff.

That's why I prefer working behind-the-scenes. I'm not the one being torn down. If a client falls out of style, I can always go find a new one. I don't have to go into debt pretending to be rich.

Do you freelace PP? I'm launching a brand and want to start socials. Can you help?

[Anonymous]

I’ll tread carefully here but yes knew an early influencer. We are no longer in each other’s lives. I was unfortunately fodder for clicks and the subject of stories and not at all disguised. It was embarrassing and humiliating to be so easily recognizable.

Then the influencer began to get more famous and posts became even more mean-spirited and positively fictional and exaggerated but at least I wasn’t the subject. Constant mocking and complaining about spouse and child. About this time merchandise was being shilled and site monetized. Influencer began empire building and had all new followers and to no one’s surprise all new fawning friends.

I think the negativity became pervasive and the taste for cutesy mistakes and faux humility
just exhausting and tone deaf particularly during the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they just turn all comments off? Post what they want and walk away.

No one is engaged, so you won't get any followers

PP and comments are often “held in cache” (so the creator can review) so that only positive glowing comments will be posted.

The influencer I knew did this and I watched the comments go from hundreds down to a dozen.

[Anonymous]

Here are my thoughts:

-attention becomes intoxicating as you rise
-they start out trying to do the right thing and only promote brands they believe in
-the money and lifestyle become addictive
-start promoting and sell, sell, shilling crappy brands or anything and everything to make $$$
-feel bad about self for manipulating vulnerable people and then start getting negative comments and fans see the grift
-feel locked in a shilling cycle and now have golden handcuffs to pay for mansion and fancy life, but losing self of sense and use of filters and getting cosmetic procedures increases the disconnect
-depression sets in and wondering "who am I and what have I become?"

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who is an influencer now (met her before). She’s a wonderful person and I think because of that, she’ll never hit the “I created a fashion line” level. Sue just doesn’t have the striving, aggressive ego that I imagine is necessary. She does lots of promotions for brands, goes to lots of parties, and was one of the influencers invited to the DNC.

Her husband is a professional photographer, so her content is aesthetically beautiful.

The only thing that I see as a possible negative for her is that she started Botox and fillers earlier than most. She was already gorgeous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they just turn all comments off? Post what they want and walk away.

NP. Because then they wouldn’t get any money. The interactions and time spent on the page are what are lucrative.

[Anonymous]

My friend is a successful writer who now has a huge Instagram following. She is obsessed. She focuses so hard on negative comments (even though 90% are super positive) that I think it’s got to be screwing with her head. She was the most confident person I knew and still seems that way, but this can’t be good for her mental health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in social media and have worked with a lot of Influencers.

It's an incredibly stressful job. Humans really aren't meant to hear nonstop criticism and insults all day, every day. And people will find your every flaw and tear you down for it.

A lot go into debt trying to build their brand and never get out. Or they're successful for awhile, start spending all their money, then it dies off and they're freaked the gravy train ended. I'm in a mastermind with YouTubers and that happens constantly - they'll build a following, make a ton of money, and all of a sudden their niche falls out of fashion and they're scrambling for something new.

They also end up working extremely long hours. It looks easy enough - how long could a 30 second video take? - but it's a constant grind of finding brand deals and selling stuff.

That's why I prefer working behind-the-scenes. I'm not the one being torn down. If a client falls out of style, I can always go find a new one. I don't have to go into debt pretending to be rich.

How can you do this without feeling bad for your contribution to the toxic ecosystem that you help create? I also worked in social and I had to quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in social media and have worked with a lot of Influencers.

It's an incredibly stressful job. Humans really aren't meant to hear nonstop criticism and insults all day, every day. And people will find your every flaw and tear you down for it.

A lot go into debt trying to build their brand and never get out. Or they're successful for awhile, start spending all their money, then it dies off and they're freaked the gravy train ended. I'm in a mastermind with YouTubers and that happens constantly - they'll build a following, make a ton of money, and all of a sudden their niche falls out of fashion and they're scrambling for something new.

They also end up working extremely long hours. It looks easy enough - how long could a 30 second video take? - but it's a constant grind of finding brand deals and selling stuff.

That's why I prefer working behind-the-scenes. I'm not the one being torn down. If a client falls out of style, I can always go find a new one. I don't have to go into debt pretending to be rich.

Yes, the rest of us knew this and that’s why we scorn social media influencers. I would be sympathetic except how much sympathy does when deserve when they make tons of money for literally contributing to the downfall of society?

+1 if it's so bad and so hard for them, maybe get a real job?

It's not like a stressful job that actually adds value to society like being a firefighter or an ER doctor.