Social Media Influencers

I first heard this term when a friend doing a photo shoot, bumped into someone else also doing a photo shoot and she called the other person a Social Influencer. I thought that was strange and just for the young people because they wanted to have the latest and greatest. But in researching for this post, (ha, I Googled Social Media Influencer) I came across this definition –

A Social Media Influencer is a user on social media who has established credibility in a specific industry. A social media influencer has access to a large audience and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach.

The source is pixlee.com because that’s what came up in the side bar of Google; I know nothing about the company and did not open the website.

I like that it says established credibility in a specific industry because that is my subject for today, as I was set to think about a comment I saw this week (not aimed at me) which was “as an influencer in the knitting community, you should be careful what you write”. I did a double take; an influencer in knitting? I have written about fan girls and how certain designers can do no wrong but someone in the community who influences what knitters do?

But thinking more about this; I don’t buy or make something just because someone else has but I do buy/make/read/watch something because I have seen it on a podcast or Ravelry and I am interested by it. So is that social media influencing? I’m not doing something because someone else is but I am doing it because I saw it on their platform. And, although, I suspect that many do something because of the person, most will do it because they like what they saw. In this way we are all influenced by social media.

But the comment also got me to thinking about the responsibility people have when they write their blogs/Instagram/podcast. If yarn can be sold out within minutes of appearing on a podcast, what happens when something detrimental is said about a product? How adversely is the company affected, especially in the yarn world where there are so many sole traders? Can a single adverse review shut down a business? For some they will feel that the testing has been done for them so won’t bother with that product. For me, having seen a negative review of a swift that I have and like, I will carry out my own research.

When I write a bad review, I try not to name names and anything I write here is something I would say in public, I do not hide behind the anonymity of the internet.