Thank you for going the short distance across the internet to reach this blog post about Instagram influencers. My name is Morgan and I intend to explain how Instagram influencers affect my opinion and view point as a female graphic designer. Feel free to tag along with me as I process going through Instagram to get a more defined perspective of what being an influencer through Instagram is like.
“An Instagram Influencer is a user who has an established credibility and audience; who can persuade others by virtue of their trustworthiness and authenticity.” Quoted from pixlee
To me, an influencer is what is explained above but more or less a person reviewing a product / service / place that someone else hasn’t yet. They go through the trial and error of what a normal person would experience when purchasing those options stated for others that wish to invest or do the same. Influencers are UX or User Experience in my mind; they find out all the kinks for you.
So what is an influencer through Instagram like? I have not personally met an influencer on Instagram in person and there are only 3 Instagram influencers that I follow that have that title in their description. No definite rule says they need to be labeled as such. Any-who, this is all speculation on my part, but I feel that being an influencer through Instagram is like having a 24/7 job. Social media as a whole is a fast-moving, living, breathing monster and you would need to be constantly moving and changing with it. There is a lot of hard work placed into maintaining an account with Instagram, let allow any other social media account. Even though those people put in all the hard work and effort, they are most likely underestimated because viewers only see the final results, not the work behind the scenes. (Graphic design is more or less the same aspect. People see the results and not the effort, in some way I can relate.)
Influencers do more than just post images on Instagram to be effective influencers, having seen enough comments to know that a majority of influencers engage with their followers. Meaning they talk, ask questions, comment, and compliment their viewers / followers into more meaningful conversations. Influencers have followers for a reason and having that more human aspect that connects the audience and influencer together brings more into their marketing strategy then just normal ads. It’s the lack of interaction from an ad on TV that brings the audience that wasn’t 100% sold to an influencer. It’s more of like a customer service aspect but without the company giving a sales pitch or reading a dry marketing script that answers questions without actually answering the original question. (Visit Helplama to see how the number of followers for an Instagram influencer can reflect how much they engage with their audience.)
To sum it up, my opinion of a Instagram influencer is someone who is a workaholic that isn't appreciated for all the hard work put into their accounts because their viewers only see their final results.