In social media, what is considered famous?

No idea. But the people making a living off this, I mean a really wealthy living, are not doing one offs. They have developed an identity and they work at it. This woman I know does daily skits, occasionally bigger shoots with camera crews. Let me reiterate, she has 24 million followers on Instagram. It is a full-time job for her. And she has diversified into a variety of things. She's spokesperson for a bunch of products that I only ever see online. She has a wine label. She's smart.

 

I don't quite understand it, but I love that so many women are breaking out of the old boys club to create their successes on their terms.

I'll try not to ask a thousand questions. When I read about people knowing Imagineers and working the edge of media frontiers like this, the questions bubble to the surface and I have to tamp them down.

 

It utterly fascinates me but I don't understand any of it. And it's a kind of celebrity I will never understand.

 

I have no interest in this kind of life, but the people who get it and succeed at it really work freaking hard at it. If any of you know of Dude Dad, he lives close to me and he has done much of the same, has what seems to be employees, etc. Seen some of that around in person. I have no idea how much things like merch brings into these people, but they almost all seem to have that element too. But to make money you have to have millions of views and likes across the board.

I have sniffed around this kind of marketing enough (again, not something I ever want to do, but with other interests and trying to stay on top of trends, etc.) that those who are successful bust their asses. But there is this huge element that are just looking to hit it big without doing anything. They try to go artificially viral and it drives me crazy. And some of the attempts I have seen have just been doozies. Then they whine when it doesn't work out. The viral thing, it happens either by total luck or a ton of hard work over time and it finally pays off. There is no in-between. So many think it is an easy way to make money. It isn't.

I was at one marketing conference and there was a guy there who finally, sort of hit it off with a Twitter account and got a couple of books out of it. But it was clear his online persona was entirely made up. I am sure many if not most of them are. Another thing that drives me crazy. Anyway, he had a secondary Twitter feed playing a Star Wars character after Force Awakens released. My oldest son got a big kick out of it, so when I found out at this conference that it was him I went up to him and told him how much my kid liked it. Did he say something sincere like, that's great, what was his favorite thing, I love that it reached people or anything like that? No. He said, I really thought that was what was going to make it for me. Ugh. So whenever I see something of his shared out there it just makes me cringe.

There are good people that try to make it as an influencer. But there are a million more that suck for every one that is legit.

 

A few months ago it was considered a huge deal in my work chat that one of my co-workers had been in a YouTube video with someone named Mr. Beast. Apparently he has become decently famous IRL in that town, and he’s apparently massive enough online to get a NYT treatment. But I never bothered watching and couldn’t tell you who he was at knifepoint. More proof that a common culture is going the way of the dodo.

Mr. Beast, YouTube Star, Wants to Take Over the Business World

 

We’ve come a long way from people getting famous merely by a sex tape.

And, admirably, a lot of people are getting well known without resorting to that extreme.

 

Not sure if this is hyperbole, but there’s no way that’s true.

 

It is going to be more balkanized than television.

Is there any kind of rubric set for determining who is supposed to appeal to whom? The advertisers might offer some clues, but then cookies and directed ads probably skew that.

 

Lol that is one of the best descriptors I've ever heard.

 

If you don't clean your room right now I'm going to balkanize your ass!

 

I agreed with you until I read this today:

"...there are now massive databases for these algorithms to learn from. Social networks, streaming services, governments, credit card agencies, and even supermarkets measure and retain every crumb of information they can gather. Public data on the web is also vast. As of late 2020, estimates suggest there are more than 4 billion hours of video freely available online, over 17 billion images, and an untold amount of text covering topics from sports history to weather patterns to municipal records."

from Deep Learning: A Visual Approach by David Glassner 2021 No Starch Press

Looks like those kinds of numbers are possible.

 

Haven’t found a more recent number but as of three years ago there were 3,000 accounts with a million followers.

The number he posted was completely bogus.