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August 17, 2017 | celebrity | Lex Jurgen | 0 Comments
In what should come as no surprise to any sentient being, a good number of social media “influencers” are wholly invented fictions. That’s not to deny that the Kardashians can move a shit ton of makeup. Even if they are jacking their numbers artificially, they’ve got millions of young women on the commerce tip. That’s why they get paid in big round numbers.
Marketing agency Mediakix wanted to show advertisers the cumulative boatloads of cash they were wasting on social media influencers, who either did not provide much bang for the buck, or even likely might be gussied up spam accounts. Mediakix created a couple fake Instagram accounts with cute screen names and some stock photos. One for a “model” with generic cute name, Alexa Rae, and simpleton posts like “chasing rainbows”. And one for a “travel photographer” with stock photos of the back of a girls head and European postcard shots.
They created the fictitious accounts, bought into some likes on the very cheap, bought into some fake comments on the very cheap, and before you know it, whiz bang boom, 10K followers and the accounts were turned into “influencers”. That meant they auto-tapped into paid brand deals. Alcohol, food and beverage, travel, swimsuit. Some cash, some free product. Both accounts are now approaching 50K followers.
There’s a mad, blind rush for media buys on behalf of brands to get where the kids are. Marketers have always known that if you can hook in the ten most popular kids in a school, you’ve got the whole school. They’re trying to use “likes” as a substitute for popular and it’s largely bad science. The advertising profession is now 50 years old listening to 25 year olds explain where the 15 year olds are. Just say Instagram. It can’t hurt.
The generation that is most prone to being moved by advertising no longer watches television or reads magazines. Panic spending means that social influencer is suddenly a paid gig. Even if you don’t exist.
Photo Credit: Instagram