A friend of mine is 23 and she wants to become an influencer, not for fame, but to try it as a career path.
She lives in Walsall currently.
She claims she’s looking at trying to find a way to promote the following brands; NitroMors, Audi, Seabrook’s, Quavers, Cadbury’s, WickedWeasel, Bella Italia, Nicce, Lounge Underwear, Citroen, Crane sportswear, Calvin Klein lingerie, Hozelock, Retroactive Gals, Vintage Extravaganza (it’s a Latvian fashion brand), Iceland, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, La Perla lingerie, Boux Avenue, Lysander Swim, Malibu Strings, Jaguar, Premier Inn, Pizza Express, Wagamama, Storm Ladieswear Liverpool, Miskyra, Alfa Romeo, Papa John’s.
That’s the list of brands she told me.
But what would be the reality for her if she were to try this as a career path?
She feels at 23 working in a chip shop’s not going to be a job to be in for the rest of her life, and that being an influencer job means she can at least get a paycheck.
She’s also told me how she doesn’t want to be an influencer who doesn’t use the things she promotes, which is why she mentioned those brands.
But to be honest I’ve never heard of an influencer promoting Nitromors, Audi or Cadbury’s.
Anyone here know what the reality’s really like if she was to be an influencer or know of any?
I will be showing her this post.
Advice welcomed from this girl in Nottingham.
22 comments
Is she conventionally attractive and willing to whore herself out?
It’s unlikely that she’ll make a fortune from it – but there’s no harm in trying. If she can come up with content and put it on insta or tik-tok while working in a chip shop, she might be one of the lucky ones that takes off.
>and that being an influencer job means she can at least get a paycheck.
It doesn’t. It’s not a job in that sense, it’s a constant hustle.
> what would be the reality
The chance of her getting a deal to promote any of these brands is **incredibly slim**.
If she wants to be an influencer, she really can’t be this selective.
> not going to be a job to be in for the rest of her life
Well, neither is being an influencer.
Most influencers are young people and (usually) women. Once she becomes older, I think she’ll find that companies will be asking her less frequently to promote their brands, **unless** things change considerably over the next 10-15 years.
> doesn’t use the things she promotes
That’s fair enough, but **most** influencers don’t use the products they promote.
If she limits the brands she’s willing to promote, she’ll get fewer deals.
> never heard of an influencer promoting Nitromors, Audi or Cadbury’s
Neither. I don’t think I’ve ever heard or seen an influencer promote the majority of the brands on that list, they mainly recruit people to appear in their television and online advertising campaigns, which obviously isn’t the same as being an influencer.
> reality’s really like
I’m not an influencer (and don’t know any), so my advice is really based on what I’ve seen online, but I’d strongly recommend that she doesn’t go down this path as it’ll be a temporary job and then she won’t really have any transferrable skills to use at another job in the future. If she’s unhappy working in a chip shop (or in food service as a whole), there are other jobs out there. Does she have any qualifications (e.g a degree)?
It’s akin to wanting to be a popstar or professional footballer. You can try but they have next to no chance of being successful.
Very few people set out to be influencer and become one. Most have a niche they enjoy and the influence aspect comes after growing their following.
the fact she thinks she gets to pick and choose a very small list of brands screams she has no fucking idea what she is talking about.
I don’t see any harm in it and it could easily fit around the job she currently has and she can work as little or as much as she wants on the influencing if she chooses.
I do think that ship has sailed though, it was a thing that people saw as an easy was to get rich quick and there’s so many people trying to do it now that it will be much harder to stand out. No harm in trying though, she might be the next big thing in paint removal.
It’s not really a career though. What’s the career path?
It’s essentially freelance advertising, which is fine, but what skills does she have? What would those companies gain from her skills that they wouldn’t from either their own dedicated marketing teams, or other of the millions just like her?
Why not pursue a career as a ‘contributor’?
Good luck to her 🤞
Sounds like she doesn’t really have a plan. Those brands are not rlly related to one idea.
No plan = low chance of success.
Plus it’s basically self employment so it’s not like a standard paycheck every month.
If she really wants to she should build a following on the side.
It’s something that’s becoming increasingly common and I imagine as a market, it’s quite saturated. A typical influencer (to the best of my knowledge) travels quite a bit so before her endorsements, she must have a decent amount saved up.
Well she may as well strike those HFSS brands off of the list already.
So what is it that she actually wants to do? “Influencer” (God I hate the term) is a rather broad term but your post doesn’t actually say what it is specifically she wants to do. Did you omit that or does she not even know?
A career as an ‘influencer’ …
She should be looking at a career of ‘content creation’
Just trying to get straight into a saturated market and expect brands to give you money when you have no following, and no content to generate a following is a bizare thing.
I don’t think you choose to become an influencer you need to have a big social media presence and get asked to promote shit like teeth whitening or tea that makes you shit yourself
It’s highly likely she will fail so she needs to understand that. Also to advertise brands like Audi, she will need to have monumental engagement with her social media platform.
You’ve got a good memory, being able to rattle off all those random brands that your friend mentioned. And welcome to Reddit, great first post.
If she can’t convince you that it’s a good idea, she’s failed at the first hurdle when it comes to influencing.
Influencers are gurus in a marketing business, they make money by creating content.
They run a business and/or they are the face of it.
Their content is created for the audience based on metrics of what works and the goals for the business.
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And being the face of that sort of thing comes with a lot of pressure and danger.
You’re going to have every aspect of your face, your body, your voice and your life under a microscope.
All day and night you will be barraged with comments on your appearance, lots and lots of negative ones.
EVERYTHING you have posted or will say or post, is now marketing material and subject to intense scrutiny.
If you post the wrong thing, it could ruin your life.
You may have people send you death threats and sexual messages.
You may get people turning up at your house, sending you things in the post and stalking you.
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Influencers don’t just get free stuff from brands for being themselves.
They create business deals, they have contracts which dictate what they will say and do.
Those businesses will now own a portion of your ass too, they will tell you what you can and can’t do.
You can be sued by them if you do the wrong thing, these are billion dollar companies you’re trying to get in with. They have in-house legal teams.
Have a look at [Hype Experiences](https://hypeexperiences.com/opportunities) – they offer well discounted products in exchange for good photos and a review.
You don’t have to have any followers to do it but it’s a good step in to seeing some of the work needed – short times scales, planning photos ops, thinking up the review.
I’ve been doing it for a few months – no plans to be an influencer (I don’t have the ‘image’ for it) but I do like to try a cheap gin!
>Audi
>
>Calvin Klein lingerie
>
>Mercedes-Benz
>
>Quavers
Goals there. Quavers are a product of Walkers, thats like saying she only wants to promote Audi A1’s. Bit more research and market knowledge might work before she starts approaching companies.
A virtual way of posting leaflets though doors?
Is she incredibly attractive and does she have a shit ton of followers? Even with these two things she is incredibly unlikely to succeed. She’s basically that kid who wanted to be a famous actor in high school. They are mostly all depressed drama teachers now. Tell her to be realistic.