Are Social Media Influencers Turning into New Age Celebrities?

We all know that the twenty-first century is the age of social media. Many social media influencers have emerged since the launch of various public platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok. These influencers create engaging content for their audiences while remaining in the spotlight at all times.

The fandom of the majority of these social media influencers rivals that of any celebrity. People obsess over their favorite creators, also known as influencers. Many fans even create fan pages to show their support for their favorite influencers.

They are referred to as “influencers” for a reason. They have a large audience that they influence with their content, which is mostly video-based. Their existing fans share their content, which helps influencers gain new audiences every day. Hence, sharing is the primary cause behind the success of many new influencers.

Social media Influencers Vs Celebrities

Let’s take a quick look at the key distinctions between an Social Media Influencers and a Celebrity. It will aid us in gaining understanding of the two topics.

Celebrity	Social media Influencer
Becomes popular by working in films, ads, and songs	Becomes popular by posting engaging content on social media platforms and websites
Seen on traditional media channels such as television	Limited to social media platforms only
They earn because of their talent and work	They earn by promoting brands on their social media account
No demographic and quantitative limitation of audience	Demographic and quantitative limitation of audience
Every celebrity can be a social media influencer as well	Not every social media influencer can be a Celebrity

While these points apply to the majority of influencers and celebrities, there are always exceptions.

Both celebrities and influencers struggle in their own ways to achieve success. People enjoy seeing their favorite creators, whether they are celebrities or influencers, achieve heights of success. We, as humans, tend to see belongingness and relatability in such figures and, at times, connect with them on an emotional level.

READ MORE:

What is Tiktok about | Is TikTok bigger than Google | Is TikTok being deleted in 2022?

Top Bollywood Movies to watch in February 2022

How do influencers really “influence”?

Public figures, such as celebrities and creators, have been shown to have a direct influence on our decisions and perspectives, according to psychology. But the question is how a human like us can be so effective at influencing us. Most of the time, we are unaware of their influence on our behavior. In that case, it’s worth learning about the psychological facts underlying this phenomenon. 

Some psychological factors explaining the behind the scenes of influence is as follows:

Compliance

Human tendency is to be liked and appreciated, that makes most of us comply with others’ demands or requests.

As an example of compliance, we frequently purchase an unnecessary product because it is “trending” on social media and our favorite influencer also uses it. Then we like to brag about it on our social media accounts. 

Identification 

We sometimes buy things we don’t need without even realizing it. Most of the time, it’s because our favorite creator advertised it or the item featured their image. And because we are emotionally connected to them, we get influenced. I am sure you have done this! Because I have.

Internalization 

An easy way to understand Internalization is demonstrated by using an example: you have a favorite social media influencer. He recently endorsed the habit of reading books, and you become internally influenced and decide to begin studying as a result. Without even realizing it, you accepted something you had never considered before.

These points show the power of “influence”. All this is a part of our daily life, but we often fail to consider this. Isn’t it fascinating?

Top Influencers who are more famous than Celebrities

There are many influencers that have the highest number of followers than a lot of celebrities. Many bigger brands look up to these influencers to promote their products. Some of the top influencers of social media are mentioned below:

Khaby Lame

Khaby Lame is a world-wide famous Tiktoker with more than 133 Million followers. The famous creator is only 21 years old and lives in Italy. He is now a highly paid influencer, earning more than $5 Million annually (approximate values).

He makes video content in which he makes fun of the useless life-hacks that get viral over the internet. What makes him unique is his way of expressing things, as he doesn’t speak a single word in his videos. He does this so everyone around the globe can watch his videos.

MrBeast

MrBeast is a businessman and a world-wide famous Youtuber. He is 23 years old and has been continuing his youtube journey since 2012. His youtube channel has more than 91 Million subscribers with annual income of more than $54 Million.

His YouTube career made him one of the most successful people of this era. The famous creator also believes in philanthropy. His video content is based on vlogs, donations, and other interesting topics.

Avneet Kaur

Avneet Kaur is India-based teen influencer-cum-celebrity. Instagram and Tiktok brought her huge success, but after the ban of Tiktok she still rules at the top of the charts. She is 20 years old and earns more than $1 Million.

She is also a successful model and charges money for promotion of brands. She owns a youtube channel with 1.65 Million Subscribers. Avneet has also worked as an actor and was seen in Dance India Dance in the year 2010. With everything she has been doing, she inspires her fans a lot.

Carry Minati

Carry Minati aka Ajey Nagar is a very famous youtuber of India with more than 35 Million Subscribers. He lives in Faridabad and started his journey very early at around 10 years old. His net worth was estimated at $4 Million in the year 2021.

He dropped out of the school and decided to pursue YouTube as a full time career, which brought him unlimited success.

Carry Minati is a completely self-made youtuber and influencer. The language he uses in his videos is funny and relatable to his audience. Most of the videos made by him are roast videos.

How Influencers affect Celebrities?

As we know, the world today is fast-paced and everybody has been busy more than ever. This has affected the traditional media in many ways. Newspapers and TV-media channels are replaced by mobile apps and youtube news, TV-shows are replaced by web-series, and so on.

Similar effects can be seen on the presence and fandom of Celebrities. Influencers came in the market as competitors of many leading celebrities. As fandoms expect to watch their favorite influencers in movies and web-series, celebrities’ jobs are usually at risk. In fact, many leading brands go after influencers for their promotion.

Conclusion

It is safe to say that Influencers are becoming new age Celebrities. Most of the influencers lead many celebrities in terms of wealth and fame.

Celebrities are promoted by production houses they work for, while influencers are primarily self-made that creates their own audience. This creates a sense of belongingness in us, as an audience. Hence, we tend to support our favorite influencers.