Stardom and Social Media

This essay analyzes the impact of social media on stardom and how social media influencers shape society. It discusses the role of social media in marketing, promotion, branding, and advertising. It also highlights the contribution of social influencers in spreading awareness about social and humanitarian issues. The essay concludes by stating that social influencers play a pivotal role in shaping society and influencing the thought process of the followers to a considerable extent.

Running head: Stardom and social media
Stardom and social media
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Abstract:
In today’s world, stardom is not only restricted to Hollywood celebrities and Television
stars. It is also a getting incorporated in the lives of people with social influence who has a
reputation in a specific domain such as sports, fashion, arts with a huge fan following. People
with a large number of followers on social media can influence and persuade people to believe
and follow any activity or lifestyle that they are passionate about. Due to this remarkable impact
of the social media people can use this as a platform to influence society to a huge extent and
hence this platform is being used by many organizations to endorse and advertise and promote
their field of interest for consumer awareness. On a different perspective, apart from the
commercial point of view, social and humanitarian issues are also getting addressed. This is
tremendously helping the society to create the needed awareness about pressing issues such as
social and mental health, congenital and fatal diseases and the preventive measures, awareness
on equality and breaking stereotypical mentality and the rights of women and LGBT legal rights
are getting addressed regularly with the goal of influencing the mass towards a better future.
Introduction:
In the present scenario, social media has become one of the most important
communication tool and has the power to change social perception to a great extent. The entire
style and nature of exchange of information has been revolutionized by social media. A study
states that, in the United States, in the late half of 2016, 87% of the citizens were internet users
and out of them, 69% were using some form of social media platform (Zhuang et al. 2013). An
exponential rise in this figure is expected in the coming years. Due to the involvement of this
remarkably huge number of people in the social media, business organizations and entrepreneurs
are using social media as a platform for marketing, promotion, branding and advertising.

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According to the studies of Zhuang et al, social media has been mostly used for community
creation, network encouragement, information sharing and spreading awareness.
In recent times, a new form of marketing, called ‘word of mouth’ marketing has emerged
which is being used by many organizations to communicate with potential customers on social
media platforms. The ‘word of mouth’ marketing is mainly done by people with a lot of
influence and fan following on social media known as ‘Social Media Influencers’. These SMIs
are the people who have millions of followers on social media and their followers are blind
supporters of their lifestyle and would follow the choices of the SMIs religiously.
In this essay, an analysis has been made on how the influencers are involved and their
contribution towards shaping the society. Some insights into the journey of some influencers
have also been mentioned in this essay, who have made it large into the world of stardom
through social media.
Discussion:
The formation of a new group called Social Media Influencers or SMIs has taken place
due to social media. These SMIs have a very strong hold on their followers in terms of their
lifestyle choices. The followers of these SMIs support and trust the information given by the
SMIs blindly and religiously due to their popularity and stardom. The tweets, blogs and articles
of these SMIs influence the opinion of the followers. This scenario has been best depicted in the
movie ‘Ingrid Goes West’. This movie has shown the life of a young woman called Ingrid who is
deeply impressed and influenced by the ‘so called’ perfect life of social media celebrity Taylor.
Ingrid tries to copy everything that Taylor does to become like Taylor and hoping to live

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Taylor’s life someday. The deep influence of social media celebrities on common people have
been clearly portrayed in this movie.
According to the statistical data of 2017, influencer marketing has acquired
approximately 325% of the total number of searches on Google and an amount close to 25000 to
50000$ are spent by business organizations on social media advertisements and marketing
((Langner, Hennigs and Wiedmann 2013).
The influences are also known as DIY celebrities and they are normal people that are
passionate about certain hobbies or preferences and are highly active on social media. The
influencers in this way gain public attention through the posts about everyday happenings and
whereabouts. With the advancement of time and the increasing number of fan following, these
influencers acquire the power to influence people in the decision making process. This specific
trait is used as a marketing tool to engage with the market audience. The fact that the social
influencers have a huge fan following is tactfully used by the brands to advertise a product and
involve consumers who would like to listen to the social media influencers and promote business
expansion. The influencers in return are either offered promotional materials or are paid for the
product promotion for the product on their social media account.
A typical idea about who the social influencers are and the manner in which they help in
consumer involvement and marketing has been discussed earlier already. However, it is pivotal
to find out and understand that what exactly makes them acquire celebrity like fame and the
power to control public perception. In this context, it must be stated that consumer behavior is
mainly dependent upon psychological trait as well as cognitive biases. According to Khamis,
Ang and Welling (2017), the credentials of any social influencer is majorly determined upon

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factors like trust, skills, similarity or attraction. For example, let us talk about Joe Wicks who is
a public figure on Instagram and manages the page ‘thebodycoach’. The influencer regularly
posts about healthy lifestyle as well as physical fitness and, therefore, posts associated with
healthy meal and protein supplement is sure to positively affect his followers. A post on ‘Lucy
Bee coconut milk’ that was posted by ‘thebodycoach’ had been liked by 8169 who belonged to
different geographical locations and this proves how much he can influence his followers.
Another factor, is ‘attractiveness or the beauty quotient’ of any influencer. For example, ‘Kylie
Jenner’ and the complete ‘Kardashian family’ have over 125 million followers and Instagram
and are the biggest influencers on social media. Shoes, bags, apparels, perfume and makeup
advertised by the Kardashians immediately transform into a trend worldwide. In this case, the
consumer engagement quotient is the beauty quotient and the attractiveness of the influencers.
Also, Huda Kattan, is a Dubai based social influencer who has 19.7 million followers on
facebook as well as Instagram. She is well known for her DIY makeup tutorials and is also a
business entrepreneur. Thus, it should be stated that human psychology is extensively based
upon gorgeous bias and it is an obvious instinct to value the perception of people who are
gorgeous and charismatic. The followers unknowingly get influenced by charismatic bloggers
and in a pursuit to acquire perfect features such as flawless skin and beautiful hair try the
products recommended by them.
However, the attribute of relativity shared with common people differentiates the social
influencers from Hollywood celebrities. Social media celebrities in contrast with Hollywood
celebrities, inspite of their one million followers are treated as common people who share about
their daily life and easily interact with people. Also, the influencers generally share similar
geographical demographics or interests with the followers and makes it easier for the followers

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to contact with them (Hearn and Schoenhoff 2016). The social identity theory suggests that
people find it convenient to identify passionate people like them who pursue a specific interest.
Many famous celebrities attained stardom with the help of social media and their fans have
witnessed them to emerge as a celebrity. Some of the celebrities are, Justin Bieber, Ariana
Grande and Chalie Puth. These sensations had started their music career on their respective
YouTube channel. They steadily acquired popularity with a number of subscribers subscribing to
their channel. According to Lob et al. (2017) social influencers are not limited to brand
endorsements but help in spreading positive messages against social causes.
Ariana Grande, who happens to be a renowned pop singer is well known for performing
for a noble cause. She had performed in a concert that intended to spread awareness for breast
cancer. The collection from the concert was sent to charitable non-profit organizations for
helping women with breast cancer. Also many social influencers have spread awareness
messages about mental health and well being (Gough et al. 2017). Brien Blatt (@brienblatt) is
well known as an influencer on Twitter and has been vocal about mental health concerns and has
highlighted the significance of maintaining a sound mental health. Another influencer, Ruth Fox
(@FoxInTheBox05) is only 19 years old but has raised awareness about mental health issues.
She has posted about her battle against depression and has requested her followers to pay
attention to mental health. Scott Ste Marie (@expressionscott) is also an activitist on twitter who
uploads videos about positive mental health to help people who are battling depression. The
videos shared by him are not just informative but also motivational. In fact, a large number of his
followers have confessed to find relief through his videos. It should be mentioned here that other
than breast cancer and mental health, social influencers have actively spread awareness about
HIV/AIDS as well as STIs (Young et al. 2013). Also, positive messages about homosexual

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relationships and LGBTI relationships have been shared by the social-influencers (McElwee,
McCarthy and Kee 2017). Shane Dawson is a public figure on Instagram with 4.5 million
followers and over 9.6 million YouTube subscribers and he was the first social influencer to
disclose about his bisexual identity on a public forum. The followers responded in positive and it
proves that the social influencers do contribute in changing the structure and perspective of the
society. Eva Gutowski with 5.6 million Instagram followers has also revealed her bisexual
orientation on public forum and her fans have taken it positively. Another LGBTI activist Tyler
Oakley, has also been vocal about the rights of the LGBTI. He is an author and a social activist
with 6.9 million fans and has always been loved and respected by his followers.
Conclusion:
Hence, to conclude, it should be noted that the society is extensively shaped by the
perception and thought process of people who are highly opinionated. This could either comprise
of Hollywood celebrities or Social influencers. Typically, the common people who are active on
social media and follow a passion and are opinionated are identified by the society as social
influencers. There are two ways how the social influencers shape up the society. These include
modifying the societal preferences through marketing and endorsement and spreading awareness
about social issues. The components that direct the attention of the followers comprise of
attractiveness, credibility as well as authenticity of an influencer. Thus, it should be stated that,
social influencers do play a pivotal role in shaping the society and influencing the thought
process of the followers to a considerable extent. Now, the perception could be either used to
change the society and spread an awareness message or endorse a commercial product.

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References:
Gough, A., Hunter, R.F., Ajao, O., Jurek, A., McKeown, G., Hong, J., Barrett, E., Ferguson, M.,
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for the dissemination of public health messages. JMIR public health and surveillance, 3(1).
Hearn, A. and Schoenhoff, S., 2016. From celebrity to influencer (pp. 194-212). Wiley: London.
Khamis, S., Ang, L. and Welling, R., 2017. Self-branding,‘micro-celebrity’and the rise of Social
Media Influencers. Celebrity Studies, 8(2), pp.191-208.
Langner, S., Hennigs, N. and Wiedmann, K.P., 2013. Social persuasion: targeting social
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Young, S.D., Zhao, M., Tieu, K., Kwok, J., Gill, H. and Gill, N., 2013. A social media-based
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