Discussion post 3- (Digital Identity)

“Social Influencers”, the topic that’s constantly changing each and every day. Social influencers are people that use social media platforms such as: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to post about daily relatable topics. These topics which are discussed online often trend and become well known. Because the internet is such a large space it attracts billions of users each and everyday. One example being politicians who have social media accounts. Politicians have their own views on different policies within the United States. They use websites such as Twitter to influence potential users and voters to see certain stances on certain views. They often become opinion leaders and can often sway crowds of people to see why they’re voting for them, and gain popularity among the masses. This is where social influencers make such a big impact in the technological world. Those influencers use the mass crowd to get their discussions out to the public through social media accounts. And because there are so many users that have different social media accounts, these social influencers are able to get their content distributed all across the internet which helps them gain popularity through the masses.

Social influencers can range from, (as stated in the previous paragraph), politicians, to bloggers, and to Youtubers alike. All use the same method to distribute their own content. As seen in the documentary, Generation Like, teens often have people that follow them on various online sites, therefore giving them a platform in which they can spread media. The teens in the documentary use Facebook as an example where they explain that they have followers who tend to be people they know like friends and family. They explained, for instance that when they post pictures the people that follow them like that picture. This creates an online community where a sense of belonging and togetherness take place. They achieve a status of momentary popularity because of the people liking that photo and giving it praise and recognition.

The internet is a strange place that’s made up of a collection of social media accounts, meme’s and cat videos. It can be hard at times to truly grasp why things work like they do through social media platforms. The way something can go viral is very hard to determine, it’s not something that can be specifically predicted. As seen in the article “Meet the new generation of online celebrities” it talks about how in this day in age “nearly a quarter of 18- to 24-year-olds follow a video blogger, or ‘vlogger'” (Tesseras, p.1). This statistic shows that the vast web is aimed to catch the attention of younger audience users. As seen on a website like YouTube, users can become popular solely by the content they produce on their channel. A prime example of this would be a youtuber by the name of Pewdiepie. Over the last 5 years he’s amassed over 42 million subscribers to his channel by producing content that is funny, relatable and current. He started out by making reaction videos showing him being scared half to death by video games he would play. This became such a huge success that users kept asking for content. He continued to make videos, and his videos spread across the internet making him youtube famous. His videos became viral and were being spread, not only on YouTube, but on other social media platforms as well. By his content being rapidly spread across the internet, and being reviewed well, he became extremely popular, which makes him one of the most successful youtubers. The way things go viral just happen, the content is well liked and it gets spread throughout the internet on different types of social media accounts.

Social media accounts do a really great and productive job when advertising brands. They use the users that they gain on their sites to post ads from different sponsors and companies. A product can get noticed in a quicker amount of time if it’s shown on a social media platform because of the amount of users a website will have. Something that was not very well known can get recognition in the matter of seconds if it’s shown on an app like Instagram or Twitter. Companies use this to their advantage and it creates a positive impact for their image. Going back to social influencers, where they can use their popularity to advertise to their millions of followers that certain product. Their followers will then be made aware of that product, and because its being advertised by someone with high social status the users may go out and buy whatever that product is. Anyone who has a voice can become apart of the marketing scene. They can use the people that follow them as a platform to listen to what they’re advertising. Influencers also use product placement for their own advantage. They will most times be able to use this product from that company for free as long as they advertise it. They will also use the product to get their own names more publicity so they can gain more popularity and become more well known. The internet as we know it today is a constant system of dynamism, it’s constantly changing, and becoming a social media brand, in itself.