”We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency”
Pete Cashmore
Social media… Big audience… Millions of views… $$$. No, it’s not an opening scene of a brand new Hollywood movie. It’s just our everyday reality.
Somebody uses social networks as a main source of information, useful communication, pure rudeness, etc. generally speaking, they have fun. Someone mixes business with pleasure making social networks their workspace.
The first people to really work there were sales and multi-level marketing managers, researchers and so on because their activities were based on communication. Then entrepreneurs and HRs came along. Now, anyone regardless of profession (mostly fellows without any) make a good living online.
Not just a photo album
Instagram is a huge media center today. The abode of ego trips and narcissism. From a harmless cat pics place it has metamorphosed into a business battleground where fierce fighting for our attention goes on round-the-clock.
It seems to be easy. You start an account, post something, gain followers, and wait for lucrative advertising offers. However, it’s very difficult to retain a decent amount of real subscribers, not to mention to attract more. One constantly needs to work on their content and improve it. Or does not? Maybe it’s enough for a pretty girl to post pictures of her semi-naked body (she has to work on it, though, but it’s a different story) several times a week and the audience will come alongside advertisers? That’s more likely, nowadays. Anything that provokes emotions would do. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t smash the like button if you saw a cute puppy post (yes, even puppies have their personal pages). If we take a look at more or less popular Instagram accounts we can barely find something worth any attention.
This platform is good for both developing a personal brand from scratch (like some talented photographers do) and increasing one’s media presence if they have already cast some subscribers on another platforms (like youtubers do). In one way or the other, at some point, they start working with sponsors. Of course, only chosen ones get to promote Gucci and Rolex. For the most part, it’s more humble brands.
Everything would’ve been fine, but…
The thing is, since it’s all about cash, bloggers usually don’t tend to know much about the product they advertise. As a result, we have tons of lowbrow ads polluting already contaminated digital environment. The worst part here pops up when they genuinely tout suspicious bookmakers, pyramid schemes and other stuff that could fool people.
Something similar happens with TikTok but in another format. Short videos with lip-synching quickly earned a couple of dollars for zoomers.
Behind the curtain
Not everyone has been granted a talent for filming pets or silly acting on camera. Those folks use social media literary as a tool. For instance, Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a way of promoting goods and services by increasing Internet traffic to social networks, blogs, forums. SMM manager creates a positive image about the company, product or person and convey this to the target audience.
For like or followers ”hunters” there are even cheat services, which get on board to perform ”the magic of numbers”. And Voilà, a random page doesn’t look deserted anymore.
