“Influencer Marketing” is a form of marketing in which focus is placed on influential people rather than the target market as a whole on social media. It identifies the individuals who have influence over potential customers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers.”The social media influencers you are most likely to know are people such as YouTubers, David Dobrik, Jenna Marbles, James Charles, and Logan Paul, other influencers that you may recognize are Alexis Ren, Kylie Jenner, and Scott Disick. These users often have a large audience and have established credibility in a particular industry. Influencers are people who do things based on what their audience wants they. The question is should these be the type of people high schoolers should be looking up to. Social Media influencers are known to sponsor products, make vlogs, make appearances in places, talk to people, sell products, and inspire people.

You might expect a social media influencer to care a lot about what other people think. There is a lot of anticipation and high expectation for their posts; for these influencers their posts on social media have to be up to par whether it’s a vlog posting, instagram post, Twitter post, or snapchat; one wrong post can lead to lots of hate and unfollows or subscribers. This is where the red flags start; as a high schooler it can be hard for people to look up at these influencers and see that everything they do is to please their audience and not themselves. Another red flag for following influencers are that they have different “social norms than the average person. They constantly have to be updated with the current trends which can sometimes be dangerous but very appealing for the user to watch; for example Jay Alversas drag racing his fancy cars or David Dobrik’s “vlog squad driving motorcycles full speed into pools” are influencers. Influencers seem to live an achievable life style, some get paid millions to just post one 20 minute video a week; they don’t have a boss or an office they have to go into they work for themselves and on their own schedule. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it’s something that is not a realistic job for the average person.
Influencers come from all walks of life- they are all different.Really anyone can become an influencer; he or she just has to have a certain niche that people find attractive. Social Media influencers are not bad people; they are doing their job but when watching/following them, we should all be aware that their lifestyle is not completely realistic and isn’t just what you see on social media.