The power that Instagram has over our global economy is no surprise. What started as a streamlined way to look at and share photos with your friends has boomed into a $100 million business.
Many celebrities and influencers have made careers out of this, sometimes being paid up to $1 million per post. Instagram has ruined the careers of many as well, perhaps after posting a lewd picture or questionable comment or joke. Those celebrities and influencers that are being scrutinized so closely typically have followers in the 2M or even 20K range.
But what about those of us with about 300 followers, one of whom is our mother?
Social media isn't for everyone. Some people prefer to have an air of mystery to their lives — to not be able to be fully vetted before a first date.
But what happens when your career is banking on having "Instafans," even though you'd like some of your private life to stay private?
I for one, have never been much of a social media poster. I am an actress and performer, but I don't take pictures of every gig that I do. In fact, I have to sign NDAs and am on closed sets most of the time. The best I can do in that case is snap a shot of craft services and my bagel with cream cheese, and that gets old.
Day to day, I don't find the time for social media either. I forget to take photos and prefer to engage with the people I'm with. I forget to take photos for fun, let alone try to turn them into a business. But I am feeling the effects of my lack of social media usage in my career.
It's becoming more and more common to be asked for your social media handles at an audition, and I have lost gigs because of my waning numbers.
At the Grill 2018 Conference, United Entertainment manager Jason Newman said:
"If I have two actors up for the same role, and it's between actor A and B, and Actor B has two million followers across all social media platforms, and Actor A has 20 million, but they're neck-in-neck in their acting ability, or maybe Actor B is even a little bit better. But man, we know if we convert one and a half to two percent of their social media following to buyers, I'm hiring that person. I want to have a bigger ROI on my investment, so of course I'm doing that. So yes, social media is playing a massive component in all of this.
Even for smaller productions, such as independent web series, an actor with a good following can make or break the series — particularly if the producers themselves don't have good social media followings. It may not seem like it, but the actor with 2,000 followers will have 1,800 move views than the one with only 200.
Actors of the past were able to hide their dark lifestyles behind their shining careers, remaining enigmas and drawing more people in. The current level or exposure can be frustrating for those of us who want to separate our private lives from our career. We don't want to air our dirty laundry to the public or fake the facade of perfection.
It can be hard to keep up with those who are very active on Instagram, but we have learned as a society that a lot of social media is contrived. Many celebrity accounts have their own social media coordinators posting and editing a lifestyle that fans want to buy into.
The realest of real celebrities, the ones that seem most relatable, even still think about how they are relating to their fans and their brand.
Instagram is definitely more of a business now than ever, so perhaps we can fake it. I myself have been on the fence between doing what I am doing, trying a bit harder or just paying people to follow me.
It's a confusing time we live in. But if technology goes one way, maybe we've got to follow it.
