Now more than ever the word “influencer” is being thrown around so often that it might be confusing or annoying to those who aren’t in that industry. What is an influencer? What do they do? Is it a real job? Over the past few years influencer marketing has become HUGE and while some people think it’s great others think it’s a bunch of BS. By definition an influencer is a person or thing that influences another. Beauty gurus influence us to buy makeup or skincare products, fashion bloggers influence us to buy clothes, food bloggers influence us to try a new recipe or restaurant. People with a large following have turned their followers into actual income and brands are paying top dollar for collaborations and sponsorships because they realize the power influencers have, they are the connection to the everyday consumer that brands are targeting so the partnership makes perfect sense from business point of view.
As someone who blogs and is now pursuing that as a full time career I have my own opinions about the influencer world. I personally never wanted to start blog to be famous, in fact one of the reasons it took me so long to start is because I do not care to be in the spotlight. The internet is a crazy place and when you least expect it you can gain popularity and BOOM all eyes are on you. I like to be low key but taking pictures and promoting yourself online is the complete opposite of that so I struggled to be consistent with my uploads. I see influencers who try so hard be relevant or stay relevant that they do things that seem unnatural and gimmicky and to be honest it makes me hella uncomfortable. I’ve also seen people blatantly lie about products to their followers just to please brands. Why would I lie to the people who come to me for advice and respect my opinion? You can tell when an influencer is pushing a product on you just to make money and I don’t respect it. Please remember that you do not have to go out and buy everything someone says is “amazing”, you can take reviews into consideration but always make sure you do what YOU want to do.
I’m also not a fan of the negativity that influencers receive, I feel a lot of it is unnecessary and people are just RUDE. We all see things we don’t like on social media but to take time out of your day to be nasty to someone says a lot about the kind of person you are. If you don’t like or agree with the post you can keep scrolling, now I’m not saying we can’t have healthy debates or give constructive criticism but the lack of general respect is crazy. Aside from the negative things I do think being an influencer is a great job to have, you can meet people you would normally never interact with, you can inspire, develop relationships with your audience and brands you love, travel the world and so much more. I’m a very small blogger so I don’t consider myself an influencer (check back next year lol) but I do know this is something that I’ve wanted to do for years and I’m finally giving it the energy it deserves.
I started a blog because fashion is the only thing I’ve ever been passionate about besides music. I love to create and I just want to share that with the world, if I influence people in any way that is positive I’m okay with that. However you will never see me promote something I don’t believe in or hop on the bandwagon of what everyone else is doing just to be “cool”. No amount of followers, likes or money can get me to be a fraud, sorry not sorry. Social media can feel like the land of make believe and everything isn’t always what it seems ESPECIALLY with influencers. My journey in this blogging game is just really starting and I plan to stay in my lane, create things that I love and focus on myself. There are so many bloggers around now it’s hard not to compare at times but I have to remember my chapter 1 is not someone’s chapter 20, what is for me will always be for me and I am confident in that. No matter what you want to do chances are someone has done it before or is doing it now but that someone isn’t you!
xoxo, Ash
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