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Title details for The Influencer Industry by Emily Hund - Available

The Influencer Industry

The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media

by Emily Hund
ebook
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A critical history of the social media influencer's rise to global prominence
Before there were Instagram likes, Twitter hashtags, or TikTok trends, there were bloggers who seemed to have the passion and authenticity that traditional media lacked. The Influencer Industry tells the story of how early digital creators scrambling for work amid the Great Recession gave rise to the multibillion-dollar industry that has fundamentally reshaped culture, the flow of information, and how we relate to ourselves and each other.
Drawing on dozens of in-depth interviews with leading social media influencers, brand executives, marketers, talent managers, trend forecasters, and others, Emily Hund shows how early industry participants focused on creating and monetizing digital personal brands as a means of exerting control over their professional destinies in a time of acute economic uncertainty. Over time, their activities coalesced into an industry whose impact has reached far beyond the dreams of its progenitors—and beyond their control. Hund illustrates how the methods they developed for creating, monetizing, and marketing social media content have permeated our lives and untangles the unforeseen cultural and economic costs.
The Influencer Industry reveals how, in an increasingly fractured and profit-driven communications environment, the people we think of as "real" are merely those who have learned to exploit the industry's ever-shifting constructions of authenticity.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 14, 2023

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780691234076

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780691234076
      • File size: 4714 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      December 15, 2022
      How the influencer industry grew into a commercial behemoth. One of the strangest aspects of the social media age is the rise of influencers, high-profile content creators who attract astonishing numbers of followers and who can make or break fashions, trends, and products. The value of this book is that it collects and analyzes a range of opinions about the industry, providing critical context as well as a glimpse of the future. Hund is a former journalist who moved into academic research, with a focus on digital culture, and she conducted dozens of interviews with influencers and other industry figures. She found that most influencers began as bloggers in the early days of social media, writing about their lives and opinions, especially in the fashion field. They leveraged their noncorporate status into a base of subscribers, and the emergence of Instagram added a critical visual element. Advertising companies saw the potential and started buying space on sites, and then retailers began to provide free product samples for review. The next step was to sponsor influencers for positive comments. This ran counter to the idea of independence, but the money was too good to ignore. Even when followers realized that influencers were being paid, they did not seem to mind. The role of the influencer, Hund believes, is to convert "uncertainty" into something more "manageable." Most influencers study the metrics carefully and adjust their output accordingly. Indeed, as the author shows, "authenticity" has become something to be researched, designed, and manufactured. Hund is entirely aware of the paradoxes and ironies of the industry, but she also sees positives, especially as an alternative to corporate mass media. In one form or another, the business is likely to remain a key part of the techno-social landscape for a long time to come. A penetrating, well-considered look behind the polished scenes of the influencer industry.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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