People will do anything chasing popularity and social media likes, even crossing the line with dangerous or destructive behavior. Now Instagram will test hiding the likes to ease the pressure and mental stress of low numbers.
Marketing strategist Sean Prez called this a responsible move.
“They’re paying attention to the fact that many people are chasing these likes,” he said. “People are posting and they’re not really having discretion or discernment with what they put up so long as they get the feedback and the likes.”
Fashion and beauty influencer King Steph turned her high numbers of followers and likes into a business that became so lucrative she put her Columbia master’s degree on the shelf and quit a full-time office job. She is paid by fashion and beauty brands to model and post her pictures. She views it as a launch pad.
“I don’t just want to stay here doing this one thing, I think it’s really important to grow and use this platform to launch yourself upwards,” she said.
Flossy Carter has more than 1 million subscribers on his tech-oriented YouTube page, and has the plaque to prove it. The former paramedic who worked at ground zero on 9/11 started making videos as a hobby and found about six years later it became more than a labor of love.
“At a certain point, I started to notice that I was making the same amount of money on YouTube as I was making at work, and I was doing both of them at the same time,” he said. “I noticed I wasn’t spending that much time with my daughter, that I didn’t have a lot of free time, so I had to make a choice and quit one or the other.” YouTube won out. Flossy said his following appreciates the fact that he gives his honest opinion. And the income streams just keep flowing.
“You make money from ads on your videos, the watch time of the video, the longer the video is the more opportunity you have to put ads in that video,” he said. “You also make money from affiliates, so say if I make a video for XYZ company I’m going to make that money from YouTube for the ads, and also if you buy that product from that XYZ company, they’ll give me a little commission.”
–LISA EVERS, Host and Executive Producer, Street Soldiers