Every brand should know that influencers are a direct way to young consumers’ hearts: YPulse data shows they trust them more than most other public figures, and especially heed their judgement for product recommendations. So while everyone has been stressing over de-influencing (and wondering if it’s the end of creators telling followers what to buy), content creators have been as busy as ever. Not only are they continuing to market their fav brands, products, and online shopping finds, but they’re also leading influencing trends that that make it easier for others to succeed in the industry, too.
YPulse data shows that young people see influencing as a viable career path, especially as creators become so open about how they make it work. Our New Content Creators trend report shows that 60% of young consumers agree “I am interested in promoting brands on social media.” But they’re doing so with new sources of knowledge on how to best make it their full-time job. Thanks to creator trends like these three we’ve observed recently, influencing is becoming more accessible than ever:
Pay transparency is helping close the wage gap
Influencing is an industry where it’s unclear how exactly some creators make six figure deals more than monthly, and others exchange Insta pics for a PR box. But as of late, creators have made it a trend to be more transparent about how much they’re making, and how they’re making it. Under the hashtag #InfluencerPayGap (2.5M views) lots of full-time, part-time, and microinfluencers have been sharing exactly what brands they work with, how much they make each month, and way to get in contact with brands even with a low follower count. But there’s many, many more videos of this kind outside one specific hashtag. One example is full-time influencer Tina Lee (@ofleatherandlace) sharing exactly how much she made from different brand deals, including what kinds of posts they entailed. Others, like one from microinfluencer Ann Marie Elaban, show the realistic monthly income for small creators, ranging from $0-1,000 depending on the month.
And in addition to all the reasons this is helpful for new creators or microinfluencers, it’s also become pivotal in eliminating the pay gap between Black and White content creators. It’s well-known at this point that Black influencers are regularly offered far less in compensation than their White counterparts when working with brands, with a 2021 study finding a 35% pay gap. Jackie Aina, who has over 3.5 million subscribers, has been open about the pay disparity she has come across as a Black creator, detailing one case where what a brand offered her compared to a White creator “was the difference between car down payment and house down payment.” Having a manager and/or agency to represent them can be a “gamechanger” for Black creators in terms of getting the pay they deserve, but those who do not are most often relying on their fellow creators to find out what they should be asking for. But White creators being transparent about their pay is also essential. TikToker Victoria Paris posted about “the systemic racism in influencing and gifting” last October, going viral for calling out the “career handicap” created by PR agents and brands’ preferential treatment of White creators. And ultimately, White creators openly sharing how much they make is the only way that Black creators can know what they’re missing out on.
User generated content guides
User generated content for brands’ social media pages is nothing new, but more and more independent UGC creators are sharing their ways to help newbies get in on the opportunity. On TikTok, the hashtag #UGCCreator has over 760M views while #UGCCommunity has 233M and #UGCTips has 127M. The path of user-generated content is being marketed to young people as aspiring creators as the way to “live the influencer life without posting on your [own] socials.”
And because pay transparency is big with the creators who are now acting as UGC influencers (a sort of meta career, wouldn’t you say?), young people can see how profitable this industry is. Videos sharing tips on how to set content rates, get into influencer agencies, and how to create photoshoot set-looking backgrounds in your “non-aesthetic house” all rack up tens of thousands of views. Young creators are incredibly knowledgeable about what kinds of ads their gens want to see, too: YPulse’s Social and Mobile Marketing Preferences report shows 76% of young people agree “I like when brands use regular people’s posts in their advertisements or social media feeds”—so brands can easily tap young people to help them make that exact content.
“Day in my life” content is not losing popularity anytime soon
The unstoppable rise of “day in my life” content is Main Character Energy on film. “Day in my life” vlogs have been popular for years, first on YouTube, and now sensationally so on TikTok—and it’s clearly not going to slow down anytime soon. In fact, the hashtag #DayInMyLife on TikTok has 33.6B views, showing everyone from high school students to full-time beauty influencers, and stay-at-home parents to corporate professionals. And while it seems easy, having the time to film every action of the day is a lift in itself and the sheer amount of activities they complete is a feat of productivity viewers will aspire to (and parody).
The genre has been met with heavy criticism, though, claiming these videos only show the lives of the uber-privileged (predominantly White) “skin care-salad-girlies.” However, others argue it’s quintessentially Gen Z to romanticize the completely average day of a completely average person. But that doesn’t negate the fact that YPulse data shows Gen Z and Millennials do what they can to boost their Main Character Energy, and “day in my life” videos are the trendiest way to feel it right now.
But for brands, this kind of content is one of the easiest ways to partner with influencers—from top names to microinfluencers. As part of their day, they’re constantly sharing the products they’re using, food they’re cooking, and places they’re going, meaning every activity in an opportunity to feature a brand (and of course, hand out their affiliate link).
