Virality vs. Longevity: A Look into How the Social Media Market Has Evolved

Influencers have infiltrated all aspects of media, becoming dominant forces within various media industries. With access to platforms like TikTok and Instagram, one could simply post anything. This content generation and ability to go viral leads to the influx of influencers dominating the market.

Keeping Up With the Fast-Paced Media Landscape

More influencers across all platforms allow audiences to choose who and what they watch. Those within the profession have to fight for relevancy on the daily, reminding their target audience of their personal brand and content through regular posting. 

The fast-paced media cycle that social media curates can easily shadow already established influencers content, leading to less eyes from their followers and target audience. This was not always the case. In the early days of social media, there were a few influencers who populated all platforms. Content made during this period in time reflected one another, and creators often stole ideas for posts from one another. Nowadays, influencers have to fight for media attention by inventing new content strategies and identifying their niche audience.

Reach of the Original Influencer

Platforms like YouTube were extremely popular when social media launched, being one of the first platforms created with a concept that was simple to consumers. Users that navigated YouTube could search, watch, and react to uploaded videos on the platform. 

In its early days, YouTube had a handful of creators (influencers) that frequent users regularly watched. These creators were, and still are to some extent, famous within YouTube’s demographic, being that their content populated the majority of users’ recommended feeds. 

Content from these creators would look very similar, oftentimes one creating a video format idea, and the rest taking it and making it their own. Instead of hindering each other's viewership from stealing ideas, this action furthered overall content viewership. Since YouTube’s influencer market was so small at the time, when one creator made a certain type of video, it sparked interest in the general audience for more content of that nature. 

Influencers who thrived during the earlier days of social media all used these content methods to put themselves in front of a broader audience. Jenna Marbles, iJustine, and Shane Dawson are just a few examples of creators YouTube saw that regularly amassed millions of views from these practices. The audience these creators gained is almost unheard of today with their subscriber count ranging from 7 to 18 million. 

Examples of how these creators targeted YouTube’s audience could be seen through Lilly Singh's whisper challenge video. Featuring Shane Dawson, the video played into humor while presenting an obstacle for the two creators to overcome, garnering 3.3 million views. Shortly after posting, the video's contents had quickly become adapted within YouTube’s small creator pool. Creators like iJustine and Jenna Marbles made the same challenge video, but with their own creative spin.

When social media was first starting out, it allowed for platforms like YouTube to have a few popular influencers that replicated content their target audience expressed interest in.

Influencing in the Current Day

With over 20 years of social media, influencers have experienced different media landscapes that have slowly made it harder for them to remain relevant. An increase in the general public using social media has also increased the amount of influencers on the market, leading to oversaturation within the industry. 

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have become the main social media channels that captivate the general public, particularly the younger generations. Influencers that regularly post to these channels have to engage their audience in a short amount of time. 

The ability to make content in a quick and easy manner, as well as the infiltration of the general public among all platforms, has led to an increase in influencers. Earlier, during the start of social media, influencers had to rely on current media trends while incorporating elements of their personality. Now, influencers must identify key traits about themselves to market their content to a niche target audience. Influencers that have smaller audiences on these platforms tend to stand the test of time, their content aligning with a specific target audience that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

Downfalls of the Current Influencer

When an influencer doesn’t post regularly, align with their target audience, or identify how they market their content through a niche, they can become irrelevant to the public. 

An example of an influencer who has suffered is TikToker Jools Lebron. Gaining 2.3 million followers, Jools reached her peak attention when posting her 'demure' videos. Each video would go into annoying or favorited behaviors, classifying them as ‘demure’ or ‘not demure.’ The videos gained millions of views, with one having over 5.2 million likes.

The fame Jools saw did not last. Less than 2 years after gaining traction, she posted a video claiming career and financial struggle. After her original ‘demure’ videos, Jools didn’t continue to post content that made an impact within her audience, leaving them to remember her as a flash-in-the-pan media trend. The demure joke had run its course and she also posted less and less overtime. Jools failed to realize how to market herself after gaining virality.

Standing Out Against the Competition

To attract public attention and keep it, influencers must make their content and personal branding with specific target audiences in mind. They need to understand how to market this niche through content that is generated frequently. By understanding how to market themselves as an influencer while making content that is unique and speaks to a specific audience can lead to long-term success.

Contrary to the earlier days of social media where influencers could post broad topics and gain traction, influencers now must determine a specific community their content, that is posted constantly, while still showing elements of their personality.

Nowadays, influencers who know their target audience, and how to brand themselves, dominate over viral sensation influencers. This also builds a relationship between the influencer and viewer, the audience feeling closer to the influencer in a smaller, more specific audience.

About the Author

Mia Birmingham is a senior at Grand Valley State University majoring in Advertising and Public Relations (PR emphasis) with a minor in Writing and a certification in social media studies. She is an account associate for GrandPR, and a PRSSA member as well. She is extremely interested in media and entertainment, seeing how the two so easily blend together the further she gets in her college career. Working in media relations for sports leagues, music festivals, and college clubs, she has gained skills vital for a PR professional starting out in the entertainment field. She one day hopes to work as a publicist, having clients from all walks of the entertainment industry that mainly utilize her skills for crisis communications.