We, the People: What We Want From Our Favorite Creators*

We, the people, are constantly plugged in. To wit, the average teen spends over an hour a day on social media, and similar figures can be found for individuals of all ages. And although micro-influencers’ desires have been widely discussed, it remains hard to pin down exactly what their fans want in return.

As part of my work at Wisio, my team and I sought to discover the answer, analyzing data from hundreds of social media users. Here are some of our most significant findings:

Instagram ranks as the #1 place to follow influencers

1. Instagram is king.

Fans enthusiastically (34%) chose the photo and video sharing platform as their go-to place for following influencers. YouTube came in second as the choice of 19% of social media users, ahead of Facebook (16%), Snapchat (14.7%), and Twitter (14.5%). The remaining 1.8% of people surveyed preferred other platforms such as Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

I admit that I was surprised by Facebook’s enduring and strong hold on social media users; the platform is not generally associated with influencers in the same way that other sites are, and it’s popularity is often thought to be in decline, especially with younger users. Equally interesting, Snapchat’s low ranking perhaps reflects its lack of incentives and monetization options for influencers. As a result, influencers may drive their fans to other platforms where they can connect better and monetize easier.

2. We just want to say hi.

More than half of those surveyed — 56% to be exact — don’t interact with the influencers they follow. Nevertheless, influencers captivate us for many reasons, and we often feel connected to the creators we follow despite never having met or spoken personally with them. In fact, more than one third (34.8% — see the chart below for more details) of those surveyed would choose to say hi if they were given the opportunity to interact with their favorite influencer. A true #fangirl (or boy) moment.

A Breakdown of How We’d like to Interact with Influencers

3. But… we also want answers.

With the abundance of YouTube tutorials ranging from cooking demos, product recs, and exercise how-tos, it’s no surprise that 32.4% of people surveyed would use the opportunity to interact with their favorite creator to learn something. Nearly 60% of questions that people wanted to ask were questions to learn about the influencers themselves, such as the influencer’s skincare routine or the equipment used to make videos. In contrast, approximately 40% of fans preferred to have influencers teach them about personal development. Requested topics included open-ended questions, such as “How can I be confident in my own body?” or “How can I learn to stay positive?”

4. Some of us don’t know what we want, but we know we want something

One out of twelve people said they wanted nothing specific from an influencer, but still craved a way to connect.

71% would pay influencers to answer a question

5. We’re willing to pay for the privilege

We found that 71% of the people surveyed were willing to pay influencers to answer a question, and similarly 68% of people would pay to learn something from influencers. In addition, 58% of fans who wanted to say hello would pay to do so. Further, a majority of people who didn’t have anything specific in mind were nonetheless ready to pay just to have an interaction with influencers. These dramatic figures demonstrate the extent to which we feel a deep need to connect with our favorite creators — and how we are overwhelmingly willing to support them in the process.

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Speaking to social media users confirmed what we already instinctively knew: fans love their favorite influencers and want to connect with them in a personal and meaningful way. Indeed, creators offer something no one else can, and our desire to find a better method to interact with them is powerful — despite a market saturated with online learning courses and ways to support creators, we want more. Our hope is that Wisio will fill this void, facilitating connections by acting as a direct line of communication between creators and their fans, where individuals can truly make their voices heard.

* Used interchangeably with “influencers”

A special thank you to Aaron Sam for his valuable contributions and data analysis.