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Al_Sharpton_for_President says

When the fuck did we get here to make “influencers” and “followers” seemingly meaningful?

I blame TV personalities like talk show hosts and what not. TV programming was one of the worst things to happen to Humanity.

There is a giant pool
of money in advertising, sloshing around and looking for outlets. This is what propped up all the newspapers and magazines in the past and what props up goolags and fuckbooks of today. Why companies keep spending this much on ads when others clearly demonstrate that it's not really THAT necessary to sell their product (cough, TSLA, cough) is a mystery.

"Infuencer"=attention seeker

clambo says

"Infuencer"=attention seeker

Yeah, but begging for likes to goose the payment algorithm. How much is one like worth, I wonder. Is this more dignified than building a car or computer?

There are businesses that will provide likes, reviews, posts, followers....etc., just like any other service. For example: google reviews are often fake.

It's obviously lucrative. I don't care for the "Influencers" but I do get a kick out of real people doing a channel doing crazy white boy stuff.
Fabricators, Recovery services, and Builders, some of those guys must make money. The thing is they barely have a million subscribers, but they get 700K views the day their videos drop, and their 2 year old videos have 10's of millions of views. The comments seem to be real fans, they do meet ups and appear at channel related events. They get a ton of fans come out. The thing that amazes me is all of the free shit they'll get from Companies to get them to feature their product in a build.. They get and do all of this stuff with free shit, then they give it away.

I don't get the influencers and the people who make hectic videos with them feigning drama that isn't even there.
I only like unboxing videos if I'm actually in the market for the product.. I like some product reviews, but you can catch up on all of the products you're interested in a quick amount of time. After that the product featured by other creators/infuencers will pop up in my suggested videos. I never watch them though. I like just one or two people in every genre I watch. I like watching the folks that I do watch, because they have a style and a consistent delivery. They have a unique schtick and formula to their show. That you can expect that format every episode. They jump the shark when they deviate from the formula you liked in the first place.
The thing about the folks I watch, they don't go on too much about Hit that like and smash that subscribe. As they know most watchers are watching anonymously not logged into Youtube. They do tend to spend a few minutes on sponsored content. I get it so I don't skip, unless they have a penchant to do long promos. I think the people I watch make their money from merchandising, sponsors, placed advertising, and donations in super chat.

The creators that seem to have the clout that they are getting paid by YouTube don't seem as authentic and genuine to me.

Al_Sharpton_for_President says

When the fuck did we get here to make “influencers” and “followers” seemingly meaningful?

Haha.



Read the book.

http://www.whale.to/b/bernays.pdf

You want to understand it? Read the book. The book is pretty much "people are stupid, they want to emulate fake heroes or heroines, show them using this product." The book isn't as cynical as that, but Edward Bernays became THAT cynical. He used to make propaganda to start fucking wars and the book is "oh, the purpose of public relations is to bridge the gap between producers and consumers, so that the consumer doesn't feel like they are being taking advantage of, and the producer creates the product the consumer wants. It's vitally important to be honest in order to create cooperation between producer and consumer". His life ended with "fuck these idiots, producers will make any piece of shit, we'll just convince the consumers that they want to buy it, they're stupid anyhow".

Why would somebody buy shoes, drink beer, or own a car that's being advertised by "a celebrity"? They are PAID to endorse it, they don't buy this crap because they want it. It was discovered by Edward Bernays that if an actress wrote a piece of clothing in a film in the 1920's, that that particular piece of clothing would have it's sales skyrocket. Why do you think all the James Bond cars are some, supposedly, modified sports car where they are very careful to mention the make and model?

With Bud Lite beer, you can see this. Nobody wants to be associated with Dylan Mulvaney and now they are. The public relations specialist, i.e. the marketer, i.e. the propagandist probably never read Edward Bernays. She's a fucking moron who probably got her job through family connections. If she wanted to bring in other demographics, it should have been done very gradually, and in the background. "Gay people enjoy this wonderful beer too!"

DhammaStep says

TV programming was one of the worst things to happen to Humanity.

The inventor of television, Philo Farnsworth thought so:

There's nothing on it worthwhile, and we're not going to watch it in this household, and I don't want it in your intellectual diet.

-supposedly said to his son, when his son asked "why don't WE have a television?"

He was expecting that he was making an EDUCATIONAL device. Educational. Just like we did when we made the Internet, but it CAN be education, if you chose to make it that way. They won't allow television to be an educational device. That was supposed to be PBS, well, that's fine if you want to learn what the letter "A" is, or say 5 words in Spanish. It could have been so much more.

> The thing about the folks I watch, they don't go on too much about Hit that like and smash that subscribe.

Yes, channels like Key West Waterman - just consistent, quality content made from real life experiences. No shilling, no politics, no drama.

Field Days is another highly entertaining dude - he has taken to pitching his 'merch' a little more in recent videos, but he's still genuine and cares about giving viewers what they want.

Al_Sharpton_for_President says

[Influencer] a person who is able to generate interest in something (such as a consumer product) by posting about it on social media

In a Management Major's marketing classes of days past, this person was referred to as an "Opinion Leader." Target the opinion leader to buy your product and her friends will follow. Nothing new here.

HeadSet says

this person was referred to as an "Opinion Leader."

Who are your Opinion Leaders?

apex says

Yes, channels like Key West Waterman - just consistent, quality content made from real life experiences. No shilling, no politics, no drama.

Field Days is another highly entertaining dude - he has taken to pitching his 'merch' a little more in recent videos, but he's still genuine and cares about giving viewers what they want.

There aren't may single personality channels that I watch. There's a main dude in those channels, but they or their channels would be nothing without the people who help them in their pursuits.

Matt's Off Road Recovery - Wonderful cast, Lizzy is so important to that show, she recently got married and tried to move on, but she's so vital that She works part time. She's in every other video or a few minutes in every episode. Always having to leave to do a Cattle drive, or other ranch related work. The Channel started off with Matt's brother and his oldest Son Rudy. Both moved on, and it took a month or so for it to get back into the groove with new help. The channel would be done for without Lizzy.

Robby Laton Nation - Does Auto Body work, he is so meticulous he essentially breaks every car down to every screw, bushing, bolt and grommet to repair the body and repaint it. When he's done the car is as good as straight out of the factory new. He's another one that lost a valuable member "Big Dinner" his over sized side kick, ended up marrying a fan and moving away. He seems to get by with just his Wife and Hill Billy as the main characters.

Garage 54 - A Russia auto mechanic shop, that takes wild suggestions of things to do to a Lata Car(A Soviet Era Car). Stuff like welding two 4 cylinder engines together to make it an 8 cylinder. Replacing the suspension with boingy springs. Crazy stuff he has a bunch of talented guys working with him, that are nothing short of incredible Red Neck Engineers.

I'm a huge Simon Whistler(VSauce) fan. But he quit making VSauce videos, with the exception of a few shorts from time to time.
I used to like Michael Stevens from Side Projects(sort of looks like Simon). But Michael has started spreading himself very thin and posts several videos a week under different channel names. Most of those seem to be written by a guest writer or who ever is producing the channel. Here's what rubs me wrong about that. Most of the time he cringes and exclaims he can't believe that he's actually reading this(Making the video). He seems to do those videos cold without reading it first or rehearsing. The draw to his channel besides he looked like an imitation Simon Whistler. I thought he was also an intelligent intellectual. But no, he's just a well spoken reader. Nothing more than a voice over actually. Where as Simon Whistler has blown my mind on numerous occasion.

And of course I like Thoughty2 but he seems to be running out of fresh ideas. His schtick is retelling bizarre unknown historical events.
It's his delivery and style that makes it.