The end of influence on Instagram

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One put it simply: “I think we’re all getting a little tired of being at the mercy of social media algorithms and want to take control of our content and livelihoods.”

There is someone who agrees with them: Mosseri. In a 2022 TED Talk, he expressed his view that while the platforms had most of the control over how content was disseminated over the past decade, he believes the next decade will be one in which power returns to the creators. individual. According to Mosseri, Instagram is ready to give the power of the internet back to the people who created it.

“What if we envision a world where creators actually own their relationship with their audience, they didn’t rent it, they own it, and where all of us are invested in their success?” he said.

Still, Caitlin doesn’t want to be an influencer forever. Although she is proud of herself and loves her work, being an influencer demands much more from her than a more normal job would. Caitlin can’t just work eight hours a day and then focus on her family life. Her life is her job, and to be successful, she has to let people into her personal world. After so many years of fully displaying herself to the masses online, she is getting tired. She knows that she is not sustainable. She can’t do it for the rest of her life.

She’s not planning on shelling out her accounts or anything. But she doesn’t want to be tied down to showing her life for a living. Caitlin could get on Instagram from time to time and show little snippets of her life, but not become the center of her livelihood. “I don’t want to always kill myself to be so present on Instagram,” she said.

Couldn’t you just stop showing the personal side of your life and keep your accounts strictly fashion or lifestyle? Some may say yes. Caitlin doesn’t think so. In her experience, the only way to truly be a successful influencer is to be able to blend the personal and the professional. Caitlin has come to the conclusion that there is no way to be as successful as she is and stay out of it. She knows what people want. She just doesn’t know how much longer she can give him. And if she’s not doing the best she can, if she’s doing the job halfway, she doesn’t think she can go on.

Like many other influencers, Caitlin is thinking about branching out. Her goal is to create a product. The product could launch off of her success as an influencer, and she could use her platform to get it off the ground. Her current idea is a line of hair products that contain only “clean” and natural ingredients, but still work just as well as traditional hair products.

Once she’s able to launch the brand, Caitlin would like to hire a team to promote it organically and manage the brand on a day-to-day basis. Then slowly she can begin to gradually withdraw. She can stop posting on Instagram Stories as much as possible. She can share less and less of herself. She may appear on Instagram or blog from time to time, especially in support of her brand, but she will no longer rely on self-sharing to generate income. Her brand and her business will no longer be her, it will be her company. That is the goal.

Of Swipe up for more!: Inside the unfiltered lives of influencers, by Stephanie McNeal, in agreement with Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © Stephanie McNeal, 2023.