Before mainstream social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube became popular the term "social media" did not exist. However, there are now many who claim that they are working as "social media influencers".
Social media influencers are people who had made a name for themselves in various social media platforms. How successful they are can be easily measured by the number of followers/subscribers that they have.
Being a successful social media influencer can be very lucrative, for instance, the top YouTuber earned a whopping $26 million in 2019 and interestingly, he is just a 8 year old kid. Top Instagrammers can charge over $1 million per post if you want them to endorse your products/brands. However, most people will not be able to make enough from social media for a living. In fact, according to this study, 97% of YouTubers from the US are not earning enough to cross the poverty line.
As you probably understand now, in mainstream social media, the top earners take all while those who are just starting out, probably don't earn anything. This also leads me to why I think aspiring social media influencers should start with Hive.
Close-knitted Communities
In terms of monthly active users, Hive is nowhere near Facebook or Twitter. However, 17,000 users are still considerably big for a community. While Hive can be viewed as one big community on its own, there are also many smaller communities that Hivers can join. Project HOPE, HODL, Dolphin Assemble and my own DeFi Campus are some of those I am more actively participating in.
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Because these communities are small, you can easily build strong relationship with the members within. Beyond the smaller communities, there are also many curation projects on Hive to find good content creators which help new influencers attain more presence in the greater Hive community.
As compared to starting out on YouTube without any support, Hive therefore offers a way to "bootstrap" your social media influencer journey by starting with smaller communities then gradually progress to the greater Hive community.
Influence can kind of be "Bought"
It may be a little controversial and probably not a popular opinion, but on Hive, influence can kind of be "bought". What do I mean? If you are an investor who owns 100k Hive Power, you instantly gain influence in the community because your words are backed by Hive Power 😅. In no other platforms do we have this kind of system.
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Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Hive is a place where people kowtow to the whales. However, I can say that if you have a decent HP, you instantly gain some respect within the community. Having an investment on Hive shows a certain level of commitment and that you have vested interest on this platform. If you think of this from another perspective, it is a form of personal "marketing". Invest a little in HIVE to build up your influence on this platform 😎.
Still, having huge HP doesn't mean one should go around bullying smaller users. Over time, the community will still judge this account based on how it interacts with the rest, the content he/she brings in and the contributions made to the community.
Again, none of the mainstream social media have this proof-of-stake concept which helps in building up your fan base if done right.
No Success on Hive Probably Means No Success Anywhere Else
Let's face the fact that our voices are mere drops of water in the vast oceans. If my drop of water can't be seen in a fish tank, why should I believe that it can mean anything in an ocean?
Because Hive is a small platform, it is ideal to test if you have what it takes to be a successful social media influencer. Hive has a small user base, but there are a number of active people. If one is unable to find a following here on Hive, I doubt he/she will have any luck in mainstream social media.
In addition, a bonus of starting out on Hive is that many Hivers are also active on other social media such as Twitter and YouTube. If you can build a following here, it also helps to grow your following on the other platforms.
Conclusion
I think for an aspiring social media influencer, Hive is the best place to start. You can instantly bootstrap your following by joining communities and at the same time earn a bit of cryptocurrency.
If you are someone who is willing to spend for a bit for "marketing", you can buy some HIVE and power them up to gain some influence on this platform. The beauty of this kind of "marketing" is that your "marketing" expense is converted to a form of asset which grows together with you on this platform.
Once you build a following here, you can then decide what is your next move. I think this is probably one of the best strategies for new social media influencers. What do you think?
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