As users scroll through their social media feeds, they observe hundreds of ads, promotions and viral videos every day. I’m sure everyone has seen a cyber celebrity they follow post about how much they love their teeth whiteners, hair gummies or healthy tea.
Promotional codes are being thrown at everyone by the handfuls — “Use my promotional code for 50% off your total order!” You may have seen posts that have gone viral with hundreds of thousands of “retweets” or “likes.” However, what we don’t see is how much money they are raking in each month from advertisements via social media accounts. There are commoners beginning their climb up the ladder of financial success at an exponential rate — this is possible through word of mouth and self promotion. These cyber personalities are popping up all over while growing in popularity and wealth.
You may be wondering how exactly these “cyber celebrities” are making so much money. The several social media accounts that have gained a large following from blog posts, videos and other forms of communication are approached by brands that offer to pay a user to promote their products. Within the blink of an eye, cyber personalities have signed big contracts and are developing a clothing line, publishing books and touring around the country.
Although this may sound ridiculous, it’s real, and it’s happening every day. Our generation’s obsession with social media is creating stable incomes for young adults who have large digital followings.
“The whole idea of becoming famous online is kind of weird to me, and I think it will probably die out soon. I don’t think that social media is going to be something that stays popular and relevant long enough to make a career out of it,” said LSU freshman Hunter Forehand. Many others, like Forehand, do not take the idea of a cyber celebrity as serious as they should.
According to Statista, within the past six years, Twitter has grown from approximately 30 million to 317 million active users a month. Forbes reported that Instagram has created an empire of over 600 million active photo sharing users a month in only five years.
The popularity growth associated with social media platforms is grabbing the attention of every age range due to the ease and accessibility creating a viral trend. As more people become familiar and comfortable with the presence of social media, these numbers will only continue to rise.
According to FortuneLords, YouTube has an estimated 1,300,000,000 users with nearly five billion videos watched on YouTube everyday. These number are not declining. Social media is not declining. We have evolved from Myspace to Twitter in 13 years. Bloomberg reports that even when Myspace was at it peak in 2008, it only had 75.9 million visitors a month which is a small portion of what YouTube receives in a day.
Danielle Bernstein runs the Instagram account @WeWoreWhat and currently has 1.6 million followers. Bernstein shared that she charges companies between $5,000 and $15,000 for a single sponsored post. She told Harper’s Bazaar that she makes enough to fully support herself on a mid-six figure income from Instagram posts.
Tyler Oakley is a famous YouTuber that began making short videos in his college dorm room and now has over 8 million subscribers. Oakley is now a multi-millionaire in his late twenties. He has a brand, a published book and had a sellout Slumber Party Tour around the country.
Jenna Marbles is a YouTuber who rose to fame from her dry feminist approach to comedy. Marblesshared that she recently made a brand deal with Comcast XFINITY and has a SiriusXM radio show that has her raking in millions.
These examples are few but represent the lifestyle of many. It is fascinating that this form of income is becoming a career for so many young adults. Some people may find this concept to be vacuous, but I find it brilliant. I understand at times it can be annoying to see advertisements in social media posts because they are already everywhere, but I think everyone is a bit jealous that they aren’t a cyber celebrity themselves.
The accessibility to this newly emerging career is giving so many creative and social people the opportunity to create a life for themselves from within their own homes. The cyber industry has grown so much just within the past 5 years that we can only imagine the growth we will see in years to come.
Casey Pimentel is an 18-year-old mass communication freshman from The Woodlands, Texas.