Influence Is Like Monopoly Money
Daily, people experience social media envy, which sparked popular YouTuber Miss Kris to declare that "Being popular on social media is like being rich in monopoly money." Her comment, posted on the @SwitchPivotorQuit Instagram, sent the comments section a buzz. Host, Ahyiana Angel, gains insight from Miss Kris and seasoned blogger Danielle Gray on what it takes to be a social media influencer, cultivating an audience, and the benefits of having a small social media following. You don't want to miss this chat on the business of social media and more where the ladies keep it candid.
Danielle Gray - http://www.thestyleandbeautydoctor.com
Miss Kris - http://www.thelifeandtimesofmisskris.com
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What we're talking about:
Insights on the game of social media influence
The importance of cultivating an audience
Is authenticity and simplicity the next phase of blogging and social media?
We tackle the topic of the 9 to 5 still being real life for many
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"It's like walking around the mall with a fake Louie Vuitton purse, it looks good but it has no real value." - @misskristagram
"Susie has a million followers, but let's say 650,000 of them are guys that are there to only look at Susie's booty!" - @stylenbeautydoc
"Your followers and all of that sort of clout is fake because you're not able to capitalize off of it..." - @misskristagram
#socialmedia #encouragement #socialmediamarketing #inspirationpodcast #businesspodcast #personalgrowth #selfdevelopment #smallbusiness #digitalcareers #lathpodcast #KristenTurner #DanielleGray #thestyleandbeautydoctor #stylenbeautydoc #MissKris
Hey girl. Hey, and thanks for dropping in to the Switch, pivot, or quit podcast. Candid convo for the girl needing a lifestyle plot twist when she's deciding if it's time to switch, pivot, or quit. I'm Ahyiana Angel, a former sports entertainment publicist in New York City. Turn, traditionally published author with Simon and Schuster, who quit my old life to write a book live in London for a bit, and explore my dreams, to find my happiness and.
I'm here to help encourage and guide you through your plot twist years as your chief encourager and host of the Switch, pivot, or quit podcast.
In today's show, we're gonna touch on a topic that caused some good juicy commentary. The post that I posted said something along the lines of this being popular on social media is like being rich in Monopoly money.
The ladies you're about to meet. I consider them very knowledgeable women. And actually for the purposes of this conversation, I think it's important to note that both women on Instagram, More than 10,000 followers. All right, so on the line with us today, we have Miss Chris, who is the affordable luxury Queen and tubing, big hair beauty with more than 2.5 million views.
And then we have Danielle, who is a fashion and beauty consultant, as well as a freelance writer and creator of the Style and Beauty Doctor blog. So welcome to the show, ladies. Hello. Hey, so Ms. Chris, we are going to start with you. I want you to tell us, yeah, what was your thought process when you made the comment that said being popular on social media is like being rich in Monopoly money?
Well I saw your comment and I would like to thank you for having me on because I feel like I need to explain myself. I. you know, having lots of Instagram followers, it can be fake like Monopoly money. It can also be like walking around with a fake Louis Vuitton purse. Okay. But let me sort of back up, I think and give the lead in the context to which I said that I believe the conversation we were talking about had something to do about just the facade and the smoke and mirrors of Instagram.
Right? Right. So you follow. These influencers or people with these huge accounts, like huge numbers, and you're seeing their fantastic and fabulous photos, and that's their highlight reel and they're putting it out there and you're following and buying into it.
But because I know people and. Following and knowing things I know then sometimes the back end means, you know, maybe some bills aren't getting paid or things aren't always as they seem financially, and so I was talking about folks not being able to translate. Followers like engagement into coins.
That means, in my opinion, that your followers and all of that sort of clout, it's, it's fake because you're not able to really capitalize off of it, which for many of us as a business, like that's what we're here to do. So you can't turn your followers and your engagements and your like and all that kind of stuff into Instagram into a viable business.
Like what good is it? It's like walking around the mall with a fake Louis Vu. Purse. It looks good, but it has no real value. Ah, okay. That's what I meant by, I was gonna clarify. Some people had misconstrue what I was saying. Baton, she said, don't carry baton. Don't try to play with that. Don't try. So, Danielle, when that comment was made,
what were your thoughts on the topic I totally agree as I do with many things that Ms. Chris says. It's funny because not too long ago, I wanna say maybe it less than two years ago, I read an article on, it was online,
it was an actual reputable site, and they did a story on people who have large YouTube followings that could be anywhere from like, , over 200,000, 300,000, maybe even over a million followers. And these are people who like, they can barely go outside because people are like, oh my God, it's you.
I love you, daddy, yada. But these people still. And, and when I say still work a regular job, I'm, I'm not saying that like I'm talking down on anybody cuz shoot, I worked a regular job for, you know, more than a decade. So there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a regular job, but, What this article was talking about was the fact that these people had like all of this fame on YouTube, but then, you know, they would go clocking at their regular job and they could, you know, bear, they could barely do their job or like their managers or whoever were complaining because they would be so much disruption because their fans were showing up and the same people would try to monetize.
But the audience would get kind of like hostile with them because anytime they would try to do an ad, they would get upset and like, oh, you know, you're not being real. You know, this is not the content I'm used to getting from you and, why are you selling out? And, you know, those type of comments.
And then one thing I really took away from that was like, wow, this person has a lot of people who love them. But they haven't really had a chance to cultivate their audience. So yeah, I read a lot of articles on influencer marketing cuz you know, I like to keep abreast of what's going on in the industry.
And I think a lot of things that, , not only influencers but brands as well get misconstrued a lot, is that they'll see somebody with a million followers and they're think like, oh my God, that's a home run far brand because that's a million eyeballs. That's a million people that trust this influencer love.
You know, want to hear what this person has to say. But I think what happens is when that audience is not cultivated, who knows what these people are interested in. So it's. You know, you can be throwing out some kind of messaging there. You can be putting some sort of ad or something that you're trying to monetize, but then it doesn't work because then it's like, okay, so Susie has a million followers, but let's say like 600, 650,000 of them are guys that are only there to look at.
Susie's Booty doesn't add for a lipstick company. That's more than ever audience that's not tuning in for that. So I really think that you know, people aren't really cultivating their audiences and I've heard other influencers say, well, I don't have a hundred thousand followers and I don't have this, and you really don't need it.
What you really need to do is cultivate your audience if you target a certain niche. That right there, you could have 5,000 followers, but if you are really engaging with your audience, the audience engages with you. If you are talking about like, I don't know, green jackets all the time on green fashion and all you took about is green fashion, even if you have like a thousand thousand, 3000 followers, those people are really engaged with you.
Mm-hmm. You can probably monetize more than than Susie who has a million. More than half of which are guys that like look at Susie's booty. Right. Well I think the engagement key in everything you said, I think the engagement is really the key word. And I wish I could like just shake brands and really get them to understand that.
But like I did a collaboration one time with the YouTube star and she is like a huge following. I mean like mine was like peanut compared to the following she had. But you know how brands be tracking everything with their little bit, they links and whatnot. And when we went back and looked at everything, my smaller audience, because we as homies like that over there on youtube.com/ms.
Chris, we actually drove more eyeballs to their website than the other girl that I collaborated with. So it just really has to go with engagement and I think that's key and I wish brands would understand that. . I'd rather have 10 dope homies that you know, like what I do and I can provide them with good.
Content and we can just live happily ever after. So it's about, being targeted and it's about also having influence. I know Danielle, you mentioned that word influence, and I think that people use that term loosely and that's how a comment such as Christians can be made because everybody wants to call themselves an influencer, especially once they reach a certain.
Status, let's say, on any social media platform, then they are perceived as, or they might perceive themselves as an influencer, but the true meaning behind and the true strength behind being a a real influencer is that you can say, I just bought this, or I just use this product.
I. And it's flying off the shelves, right? That's it. It's the best example is Oprah. You know, Oprah is an influencer at her core. So if Oprah set commands a certain amount of money to do a deal with a brand, they're gonna pay her what she's commanding because they know beyond a shadow of a doubt, she's proven herself that she has influence, right?
So you may have someone that is on Instagram, let's say Instagram, because that's where a lot of us play. You may have someone on Instagram that has a hundred thousand followers, but if they are not in the business of talking to their. A certain way, or if they don't have anything to sell, if they don't have anything to move units with, if they're not collaborating with anybody or doing anything, all they're doing is being cute and taking pictures, then it is monopoly money.
Right? Because it won't translate. Especially if, let's say this, You've been having a presence on an Instagram account for a year plus two years plus, you have a huge following, but you've never tried to sell them anything. You've never talked to them about buying something, doing something, and, and had any type of call to action.
The moment you start trying. It might feel inorganic. You have to still manage to be authentic with it. It might feel pushy. It might feel gross, actually. So then at that point, it is monopoly money because now you can't sell anything. You can't move any units. You have numbers, but you don't have influence.
First of all, can I just say like, I hate when people call themselves influencers. It annoys me like I just feel like. I shouldn't call myself an influencer, even though I know that's the term and that's what we do. But I just feel naturally, someone else should call me an influencer. Do Yeah. It's sort of like expert, like, yeah. Someone else should be tooting your horn, calling you an expert, introducing you as an expert, introducing you as an influencer. Yeah. And you, you just do what you do. Yeah. I'm a content creator. Yeah, like that's it. So let's hop into some of these social media comments.
We have comments both from Instagram and Facebook, and the first comment comes from Instagram. The first comment says, disagree. There are so many opportunities that can be monetized by having a large following and being an influencer.
But she did put influencer in quotes. See, I think she would change her answer to agree if she'd heard my. Lead into it because Absolutely. I agree. If you are a, I'm using my air quotes influencer, and that's the way your bank account and your, Instagram and everything is set up, then cool.
Yeah, I would agree as well. As long as your audience is cultivated, then, you know, obviously, you know, having a million followers, if I had a million followers, the way that I have my, the, the 22,000 that I have now on Instagram, if I had a million of those same type of follow. Of course, like, that'd be amazing, right?
But unfortunately, what happens sometimes is going back to some of these articles that I've read before sometimes when people who have a lot of followers, sometimes people follow because you have a lot of followers and they're like, oh, you know, what's going on? Why are people following this person?
So you get a lot of that and a lot of people who may not be totally into the topic that it is that you talk. But if you have a specific niche, like say, like makeup or fashion or something like that, nine times outta 10, your audience is into that, right? But if you're someone who say, you know, I like to follow a lot of the online comedians that make like the really funny videos and things like that, those people I love to watch because I love their content.