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INFLUENCER
Work like a dog, kicked like one, too Story and graphic by Ginger Kovar BEING AN INFLUENCER ISN’T all glamour and free products. There’s also a lot of stress and anxiety involved in the day-to-day business of being a social media influencer. Some people may not even realize the anxiety and stress until they step away from it for a little while. That was the case when I had a YouTube channel. I started my channel as a hobby in late 2013 and produced 350 videos by the time I stepped away from it in early 2017. It was never my goal to become famous or rich. My goal was to have some fun, work on my video-editing skills and if I made a little money to put back into the channel that’s a plus. It’s a lot harder than it looks. My channel was always small, and when I say small, I mean fewer than 1,000 subscribers. That was fine with me as long as I had steady growth and viewership. However, one ends up comparing one’s self or channel to other influencers, especially the other channels that started around the same time. I wondered, “What am I doing wrong?” Alright, I need to upload videos at least twice a week. Done. I need better engagement with commenters. Done.’ I found myself obsessively monitoring analytics all day long even while I was at my fulltime job. STRESS! The engagement with commenters was nerve-racking. Luckily, most of the people who commented on my videos were kind. There was a small percentage of commenters who were never pleased, to say the least. Those people didn’t hesitate to write, in the most colorful of language, how much of an idiot I was, for example, I didn’t care for the latest album from their favorite band. I mean, you would have thought I called their mother a dirty name and kicked their dog. One guy chastised me because I didn’t offer any new insight into an Elvis Presley CD review. It was old music with new arrangements for an orchestra — and Elvis died in 1977! I just shook my head. What could I say that hasn’t already been said? I didn’t realize until after I stopped post-
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ing videos that those types of comments caused a tinge of anxiety at the thought of what I was going to read next. Then there is the dreaded algorithm. YouTube changed its algorithm in late 2016 and I had had enough. YouTube added AI and machine learning to the algorithm, which changed the type of videos recommended to users. During the nearly four years I created content on my channel, I saw steady growth in viewership and subscribers. However, at the beginning of 2017, I started to see a dip in my views. Because my channel was small, I didn’t receive free products to review. Everything I featured in my content, which included music and different products, was
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purchased with my own money. My channel never made much money, but as long as it was steadily growing it didn’t matter. Extremely successful channels saw significant viewership downturns after the algorithm change. Everyone’s channels seemed to go down. According to my analytics, my channel wasn’t being recommended to YouTube users as it had been before the change. That was a source of frustration because it really hit small channels like mine hard. I thought, why am I working so hard if barely anyone sees my content? A year later, in 2018, YouTube changed their monetization guidelines requiring at least 4,000 watch hours annually and 1,000 subscribers before being eligible to make
money on one’s own content, leaving small channels out in the cold. In recent years, there has been real discussion in academia about how influencers’ mental health can be harmed by social media. The best advice I have for anyone caught on the social media hamster wheel is to step back and take a breath. It’s easier said than done, especially for those who make their living on social media. Taking breaks isn’t a crime, it’s necessary for our well-being. If it’s your job, take vacations just like you would if you worked in a traditional office setting. Think of it like this — you’ll have some great content to post when you get back.
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SPRING 2022 • PAGE 21
