Today, it is not difficult to find a twenty-something who is “self-employed”. But how are they doing it? They are an influencer. Influencers have become commonplace in the world of millennials. These are individuals who have figured out how to brand themselves and create a business out of it. Not only are they self-employed, but they are making millions of dollars.
David Dobrik is an international celebrity with over 14.3 million YouTube subscribers and 6 billion views. However, that’s only on one of his channels; he also runs an extremely successful second channel where he shares bloopers and outtakes as well as a podcast with 10.9 million listens. Dobrik isn’t clean cut by any means and most of his videos display his friends drunken antics. Even though YouTube has revoked his adsense, he still lives in a $1.5 million home in Los Angeles and has a net worth of over $7 million. How does he do it? How is this a career? Dobrik isn’t a rare sighting when it comes to people making a killing off the internet.
Influencers are a rare breed of people who understand how to build trust with strangers and market that trust. They create a brand, but the brand is themselves. Companies recognize the potential of these people. Influencers make a majority of their money by promoting products. Before brand deals started taking off, YouTube influencers could make a decent living off of adsense. This is the money generated from the ads played before or during videos. However, in recent years, YouTube has cracked down on their policies and refuses to play ads on videos they find inappropriate. For YouTubers such as Dobrik, this killed their income. This change in YouTube policies ramped up the brand partnerships and sponsored posts. This whole system is a whole new approach to marketing. Instead of creating a huge, drawn out, and expensive advertising campaign, they simply pay someone with an audience to talk about their product for a minute or make an Instagram post about it. The influencer gets their paycheck, and the company reaches thousands of people. It’s a win win.
Brand deals are not limited to YouTube. Influencers run across every social media platform, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. You name it there are influencers making money off of their posts. Influencers with 1 million followers can generate up to $10,000 for a single post. After getting past the 1 million follower mark, influencers can start earning up to $100,000 to $250,000, depending on the platform, for a single post.
The rise of social media has created this platform for two parties to benefit. In traditional advertising, a company spends thousands of dollars and hours of time creating content. Television advertising is the platform most commonly used because it is the easiest way to reach a wide audience. After the mass amount of resources spent on a TV campaign, the company hopes it reached enough people in their target market to be considered successful. By using influencers to promote a product, a company can hone in on their target market & audience and support what is essentially a small business. Overall, using an influencer reduces use of resources and both parties receive benefit.
A majority of the reason companies want to use influencers to promote products is because they have built trust and rapport with their audience. However, the amount of branded content an influencer creates can diminish that rapport. Consumers have to decide if their favorite YouTuber or Instagram model is posting about a lip cream because they genuinely love it or they need to pay their rent this month. That is the business game these influencers are playing on a daily basis. How do I make enough money to continue to be self-employed? How do I keep viewers interested? What products do I really love enough to promote? How do I convince brands I am popular and trusted enough to promote products? Where is my line of keeping my viewers trust and making money? These are all questions influencers must tackle everyday when signing a brand deal.
Tana Mongeau is an extremely successful, and controversial, YouTuber with over 5 million subscribers. Her videos earn her next to nothing in adsense, and she constantly talks about having to convince brands to work with her because she is so raunchy. She recently made a video about turning down a $2 million brand deal with the energy drink brand Bang. Although it was an unbelievable amount of money, she felt it didn’t fit with her personal brand and the amount of posts would over saturate her feed with branded posts.
Just like anything else, the influencer market will eventually become oversaturated with brand deals. Influencers must balance viewer loyalty with making a living. They need to capitalize on their brand. A majority of influencers I follow become famous off of one platform but quickly use others to grow their brand. Soon they are making money off of Instagram posts and their newest podcast. But to really sell themselves as a brand, many influencers have taken the approach of starting their own business. These people already have the consumer following and the knowledge of branding, advertising, and social media. There are many influencers who have extremely successful clothing companies or book deals. Many people think influencers are lazy people with a camera. However, many of them have mastered marketing more than some large businesses and corporations.
It is not uncommon to see Dobrik gifting his close friends fancy cars such as Lamborghinis and Teslas. This post had over 2 million likes.
Jeffree Star started his internet career in 2003 on MySpace and he now runs his own multi million dollar cosmetics company. His makeup launches sell out in minutes. This post has over 2.3 million likes.
You may remember Shawn Johnson from the 2008 Olympics as the star of the USA gymnastics team. Now, her and her husband Andrew East, a former NFL player, have a successful YouTube channel with over 1 million subscribers. They recently gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Drew Hazel East, and have been documenting their journey for all their viewers.
As you can see, there is a wide range of content available. From the beauty and cosmetics world, to family channels, and goofy comedy, all of these influencers, no matter their content, are making a living from the internet. The money making doesn’t stop at YouTube. Instagram famous models and food pages make branded posts on a daily basis, and with Instagram’s IGTV there is more options for content creators now. The world of influencers and what they can do is only growing. Soon enough they will be considered celebrities just like the movie stars.