Welcome to the Influencer Economy
Social media has forever changed how we interact with one another personally and professionally. It has also fundamentally changed our relationship with brands. The highest-volume and most-personalized advertising happens over Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube — not traditional TV or print media. One result of social media has been the democratization of influence and creativity. We no longer need the approval of large corporations to determine what content is worthy of views. We can now simply put out content we enjoy making and let people decide what wins and loses with their views, clicks, and likes — we might even make some money too.
First Steps into the Future
The influencer economy has its roots in the blogging movement. Back in the 1990s, video and image content was not easily captured or displayed online like it is today. As a result, people only really had the option of expressing themselves through written word. Thus “weblogging” began in 1997. However, this first iteration was difficult to use. Only those with the technical chops to program websites could create blogs. This began to change in 1999 when sites such as Blogger were founded. The largest player in this sphere today is WordPress, which launched in 2003. Platforms like these allowed anyone to voice their thoughts, with no technical know-how required.
