In Tara Isabella Burton’s Self-Made- Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians, Burton refers to two infamous personalities who have managed to leverage the current social climate for personal branding. Burton states:
They have managed to fuse together the underlying ideologies of both the aristocratic and the democratic traditions of self-making: the idea that the only meaning available to us in the world is the meaning we create, and the idea that our thoughts and desires have the power to transform reality and give us the lives we feel we deserve.
Burton is of course talking about Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian. Whilst Burton goes on to state that these people aren’t as popular as they once are, from them we see the embodiment of a strong personal brand and influence.
The idea that we create the only real meaning, and that through our thoughts and desires we can gain the life we feel we deserve, feels present in the work of Influencers, especially in the slew of Prep and Plan videos for 2024 on YouTube at the minute. Taking inspiration from them, and their commentary around developing habits for the new year, I want to unpack the role of the influencer and their relevance in 2024. These Prep and Plan with me videos, provide an excellent field for exploration; for our expectations of, and construction of self, as well as a touchstone for how influencers position themselves in our current media landscape.
The content creator calendar generally goes from Vlogmas and Christmas related content in December before yearly favourites and then videos which attempt to establish habits and routines for the new year throughout January. In December, we are encouraged to eat a lot, buy things for our loved ones, whilst ensuring we gift things to ourselves and lean into this time of year. This is not too dissimilar to what the non-influencer person tends to do this time of year. Both the influencer and non-influencer document this time of year, attend more parties, and consume an above average amount of food/drink/material possessions. The non-influencer person, however, is not being sent gifts from brands the influencers have been encouraging us to buy from all year like the influencers do. Post-Christmas, influencers and their audience generally turn to sales to buy things that they haven’t been able to justify all year. Sale shopping is dangerous for anyone because it encourages you to buy things that you haven’t felt worth the money all year. In some cases, you may buy something on sale because it is now within your budget, but in influencer land, the sale item is usually a ‘riskier’ (trendier) piece that they can afford to not use (and eventually use for content in a declutter video later).
This over consumption then sets the scene to reset and strip back in January.
In January, generally the first or second video for the year will be some version of a Prep and Plan video. This may be a standalone video or incorporated into vlog style content that sees the influencer applying these habits. Whilst the format may look slightly different, it’s as if influencers receive a new year starter pack that contains James Clear’s Atomic Habits, a blank vision board to be created on camera and a journal. Meal prep may be included, likewise, mention of the different routines (weekly, daily, morning and night). Within this prep and plan, is a discussion of goals and a shop. The shop may be for groceries which allow healthier habits to be developed, or for skincare to allow time for self-care, or for clothes, because perhaps your wardrobe is incomplete, and you need ‘pieces’ to achieve whatever is on your vision board this year. Sometimes material items may be on the vision board! There are no restrictions.
As has been mentioned before, the non-influencer participates in these activities that the influencer has been able to commodify. That is, the average person may participate in any of the following: work, feeding themselves and perhaps their family, dressing themselves, washing their face, reading a book and, cleaning their space, without being paid for doing these things (except for work, I hope). The videos which show people how to prep for the new year allows both the influencer and non-influencer alike to be connected. It allows for perception of authenticity from the influencer and an illusion that if we participate in these activities alongside the influencer, then we ourselves will experience a life that is worthy of being documented.
The perception of authenticity is key in being a ‘good influencer’. Recently, one of my favourites, Victoria Magrath was commenting on people questioning whether the gummies she was taking for her hair (go with me on this), actually do anything. In the video, A New House, A New Birkin And Blocking The Hate, Victoria explains to her audience that she doesn’t get paid to mention the gummies so why would she if she didn’t love them? The unspoken facts being, she gets paid to mention a lot of products and her word is valuable for companies because it converts to sales, and if she mentions anything it’s lucrative for both her and the company, and further to this, she does get paid for mentioning things and could get paid for mentioning the gummies but by doing it for free she is showing her audience she really loves them. There are a few interesting points here, the audience’s scepticism about the efficacy of the gummies shows a hesitancy about these supplements, but also the intention of them being mentioned. Further to this, the audience’s questioning of this can show the confusion about influencing as a career, and the desire for there to be results if they are to spend their money on a product recommended to them, because if they weren’t tempted, there probably wouldn’t be any questioning, it would just be ignored.
In Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online, academic Crystal Abidin breaks down the various types of fame which exists across online platforms. One of the distinctions is that between a traditional celebrity and an internet celebrity. Further to this, Abidin explores the Chinese concept of ‘wanghong’ which Abidin explains translates to ‘red on the internet’. Red means popular. This term, Abidin states:
…broadly refers to highly prolific internet users who are effective conduits for channelling online retail businesses or social media advertising. In other words, these users are assigned celebrity status not for any variety of demonstratable talent, but for their specific ability to attract attention on the internet within the vast ecology of Chinese users.
Many content creators began because of a passion they may have for fashion, beauty, veganism, or anything in this realm. Yet there is a fine line between sharing passion and knowledge and then leveraging this. Many content creators have become strong marketing powerhouses based on this passion and consistency, but if I were hanging out with a long-term friend who was making profit off their recommendations to me when I just thought we were having a conversation. I acknowledge the work that goes into influencing, and yes it is work, but there is a real question around how we actually got here.
By building a relationship on the perception of trust and authenticity, the audience member is more likely to go on the journey with the influencer. So, when there are haul videos followed by decluttering videos, followed by the establishment of new habits, followed by reset routines because habits have fallen by the wayside, the audience will go with them. There is also the natural cycle of life that is mirrored here. There is invisible labour involved in both sides of this process. For the influencer, there is the performance of the tasks for the audience which are then constructed in a way which is relatable and aspirational. For the audience however, there is the aforementioned lack of pay for performing these tasks, but also the act of having to watch these videos parallel to, or prior to the completion of the task.
By prioritising both the viewing and undertaking of these activities, which the audience member may themselves choose to document and share on social media, the audience member creates a persona for themselves that sits parallel to their offline experience. It creates self-improvement through the organising and possession of material objects and aesthetic experiences as the goal which may be at odds with our offline reality. So, whilst we may be encouraged by social media ‘to create the life you think you deserve’, it is very unlikely that we can create a functional life in this world by being paid to be ourselves and dedicating lots of time to doing this in the same way that influencers are able to.
Public Relations Intern Valeria Redher used this obsession with the aspirational to create marketing content when she was working at Alexander Wang I believe. I thought this was a real article.
The term woman is general, but what’s ironic about it, is that it literally could refer to anyone of these influencers or an audience member participating in these tasks to manifest her dream life. Further to this, the idea that manifestation is a key strategy in achieving one’s goals aligns with the concept of famous for being famous in that thinking about what you want is akin to working for it.
We are at an interesting point in this industry. In an upcoming piece, we’ll talk about influencing as a career for young people, perceptions of influencers and the role they have in marketing.
For further reading on this topic, check out these other article on The Middle Part: