We all want to know who are the famous “influencers” who hit the headlines for their escapades in full flight. While we are looking for their identity at all costs and we are waiting for them in Montreal, why not take the opportunity to review and clarify the concept of “influencers”, to try to understand it better.
In the story in question, the “influencers” are mostly young adults who have taken part in Quebec reality TV shows, which gives them, during and especially after the adventure, a significant “subscriber” base on social networks, particularly on Instagram and now TikTok. This is made up mainly of the audience of the show who wants to follow the participants in their daily lives and, of course, of many curious.
The presence of these new “influencers” in the public space can be explained simply by the popularity of reality TV shows and by the interest that Mr. and Mrs. Everybody have in continuing to follow the participants outside the small. screen, after their adventures.
By enjoying the large-scale visibility that these shows offer in Quebec, participants suddenly become part of the landscape of the showbiz Quebecois and naturally become what are called “influencers”, due to their rapid status as a well-known face with an “active profile, with a growing number of subscribers” on social networks.
Having centralized the interest of tens and often hundreds of thousands of people on their online profiles, these “new stars” can then use their social media platforms to interact with a large community.
Beyond the organic interaction, the influencer can choose to monetize his new power, or his influence, with the audience that follows him by accepting paid collaborations to create content or pass certain advertising messages.
Differentiate influencers
Today, unfortunately, we use the term “influencer”. Here, he defines a public figure whose high number of cumulative subscribers on social platforms allows him to “take advantage” of his community and “sell” it to companies that wish to target a specific audience and send it advertising messages ( services, products, etc.). Some influencers will instead start their own product or service company and target their own engaged community as their target audience.
There are of course several types of influencers, the relevance of which varies widely according to many criteria: their original profession, originality in the creation of their content, the tone and rhythm used, the frequency of publications, the type conversation with the community, the selection of collaborations according to the interests, values and expertise of the influencer and his community, etc.
The “seasonal” influencers, who appear as soon as the television seasons end, succeed each other annually and become hyper-present a few months before, for the most part, falling into oblivion.
Among these, those who remain active and credible with their community, those who find a particular niche, launch projects in parallel, where their singularity and their personal interests are used for example, will potentially develop a more community. rich, interested and committed who will survive over time.
Some of the latter will eventually be able to live, permanently or temporarily, from their “influence”. They will then abandon the label “influencer” and will become real content creators. Rigor, transparency, ethics then become essential to ensure the development of relevant and creative collaborations with brands and to make its influence a profession.
That being said, we can now more easily distinguish the types of influencers or content creators that follow one another in our feed and more recently in the media.
After the setbacks of some, it is an opportunity to question oneself. How to choose what to consume? Why encourage certain content? And above all to choose: who do we want to give a voice to on our social platforms? Like it or not, social media is here for good and so is the concept of influence, so let’s participate positively and actively to make it a rewarding, fun and caring place for everyone.
We are the engine of these tools, it is up to us to make the best use of them and give them (or take away) their credibility.