How Instagram influencers can fake their way to online fame

CNBC ^ | 4 February 2021 | Tom Huddleston Jr.

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The lure of making large sums of money by posting pictures online has turned the job of being a full-time social media influencer into one of the most aspirational career choices for young people around the world.

Influencers on Instagram who have over a million followers can make more than $250,000 per post from brands, while someone like Kylie Jenner can make around $1 million for a single sponsored Instagram post.

Now HBO’s new documentary “Fake Famous,” which premieres on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET., aims to show just how easy it can be to game the social media economy in order to become a famous online “influencer.”

Here’s a look at some of the tactics writer-director Nick Bilton uses to, as he put it, “take some random people with a tiny following online and turn them into famous influencers.” (Spoiler alert: The experiment worked.)

“You don’t have to go to the dark web, or anything, you just go to the straight up internet and you can buy pretty much anything you want,” Bilton says in “Fake Famous” as he takes out a credit card to buy thousands of fake followers, or “bots,” for the documentary’s three subjects.

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My daughter has made a pretty good side income out of being a "social media influencer". (I won't say who she is, as cancel culture is a reality these days). That said, she's been doing this a while without some of the crazy things people do these days to get followers. This documentary is pretty interesting -- and sad. The first 15 minutes creeped me out. Our youth are a pretty screwed up bunch these days.

And BTW, my daughter was smart enough to have a full-time career as a biomedical engineer before taking this fantasy world on.

[a fool in paradise]

Who are the gullible rubes who are being influenced by average joes who call themselves authorities on this or that?

[a fool in paradise]

>>Bilton says in “Fake Famous” as he takes out a credit card to buy thousands of fake followers, or “bots,” for the documentary’s three subjects.

How do you think “hit songs” are paid I mean made these days?

The charts are rigged crock.

[bgill]

Reason #2,384 why I’m not on Instagram.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Long ago I had an instructor whose favorite topic, not listed in the syllabus was “The Hidden Persuaders”
https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/blog/the-7-tactics-of-hidden-persuaders/#:~:text=The%20Hidden%20Persuaders%20lays%20bare,desire%20for%20products%20and%20candidates.

Most of the class thought he was a bit ‘out there’.

He was also very interested in government spying on citizens.

Looking back I now see that he was ahead of his time.

[minnesota_bound]

I view several youtube channels of different subjects. One is a tech guy who recently rebuilt his wifes pc. You would think kinda dull and it was but he over 1.4 million views in a few days. I read he made like $13 million last year.

Wife PC Upgrade NIGHTMARE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCm9R4yJXhE

[cquiggy]

Who are the gullible rubes who are being influenced by average joes who call themselves authorities on this or that?

After seeing some of these So Called influencers I’m wondering what you call their followers ?
What is the proper term ?
Just knowing that someone is following these people proves that education in the US is a total failure.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Who are the gullible rubes who are being influenced by average joes who call themselves authorities on this or that?

Sheep without a shepherd. They will follow anything that gives a pretext of being a shepherd. The real Shepherd weeps for them.