Social Media Essay: Critical Discussion on Micro-Celebrities

Question

Task: Prepare a social media essay on the topic “What is ‘micro-celebrity’? Respond to this question with reference to its history and by discussing its impact on contemporary culture and identity.

Answer

Introduction to the theme of Social Media Essay
The world is moving in a much faster way, in this fast world social media has captured a larger portion of everyone’s life. Every individual is either part of the social media platform or they are increasing the viewer list. The media has developed from all sides, it has led to an increase in the number of social media platforms. This has diverted the viewers from the big television to social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Hence, these platforms have led emerging new set of celebrities or influencers. With the increasing and growing population, these celebrities or influencers have occupied large space of everyone's life (Khamis, Ang and Welling, 2017). This new term micro-celebrity is beginning used in this world of digital marketing. Hence, the main purpose of this social media essay is to critically evaluate and analyze the micro-celebrities present in social media platforms (Yu, Ahn and Sung, 2018). Keeping the aim of the essay in the mind, the discussion below will be conveying the history of the micro-celebrity. Apart from that, it will be also discussing its impact on contemporary culture and identity. Hence, the discussion below will be initiated with an overview of the term micro-celebrity and what exactly the term is used for in the present world.

Overview of Micro-celebrity
In simple terms, micro-celebrities are the personality who earns fame which is relatively narrow in scope and has the trend to be short-lived. In the present world, the term has slightly elaborated its meaning by adding social media platforms to it. The micro-celebrity is familiar with another name that is micro-influencers. In elaborated meaning, the term micro-celebrity is an individual who is famous within the slot of the people through social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and many more (Hussnain, 2020). They are often considered as one public figure. These platforms have evaluated several micro-celebrities. They earn capital by sharing their creativity on these social platforms. The platforms have provided a wider scope for several people, and present the opportunity to share the ability of the individual. The micro-celebrity has usually followers ranging from 5000 to 20,000 people (Korotina and Jargalsaikhan, 2016). The more the individual will be able to reach out to the audience, the more they would become one of the known personality over the internet. They developed notable fame and reach the audience across the world. These platforms have provided a wider portion of the audience for the micro-celebrity. The influencers are in certain cases are being recruited by several companies for letting the influencer to promote their products and approach to the higher audience. In the contemporary world, these micro-celebrities serve as a crucial influencer to several people (Alperstein, 2019). These micro-celebrities have made to approach a number of things within a short time with their creativity. This creativity includes beauty, technology, education, fashion, politics, music, entertainment, and apart from these several other things.

Based on the popularity they acquired or gain, the micro-celebrities are classified into different types. In some cases, the influencers write down blogs but fail to bring the attention of the audience towards them whereas a famous blogger writing a small article gets population within a few hours. The volume of the audience depends completely on the content and the approach of the micro-celebrity. Hence, these internet celebrities are classified into five different sizes that are nano, micro, mega, and celebrity. In some of the cases, the video gets viral in a single attempt only, as the video circulates rapidly and is understood by the viewers. Hence, depending on the volume the content and creativity have an approach to the audience (Swarte, 2019).

The two most common platforms used by the micro-celebrities are YouTube and Instagram. These two platforms are being occupied and visited by a number of the population. These platforms have brought a huge change in social media, and have let a number of people to share their creativity across the world. The platforms have allowed generating revenue for the people. This revenue generates depends upon the popularity of the individual on these platforms. This allows several brands to approach and share their content through these popular micro-celebrities. The individual present different attractive content, related to any field, and the viewers go through this content which leads to increase their subscribers and enhance the volume of the audience (Djafarova and Trofimenko, 2019). The more they will be able to attract the audience with their creativity, the more they will be able to approach the larger volume of the population.

History of the micro-celebrity
From the last few years, there is a sudden visible growth in social media platforms. Especially from 2008 to 2018, the population that has got committed to social media platforms has increased from 10% to that of 77%. The most occupied sites or platforms are YouTube and Facebook, where a larger number of populations are registered. Apart from these social media platforms a number of other sites or platforms have emerged and have occupied a larger portion of the population and their day-to-day life. The wide acceptance of the people for these websites or platforms has made the growing user avail knowledge at the fingertips. Starting from gaming,cooking, DIY, and entertainment all types of knowledge are available at the fingertips without facing small trouble; these things are available to the user (Vionasafira and Sjabadhyni, 2018). Since their platforms have to lead to involve a larger population of users and has lead to involve a number of content creators, this has brought the urgency of certain "micro-celebrity". The trend of being influenced by the celebrity does not emerge in the last few years; these are followed by a number of people from several decades back. The influences from the celebrity are because of their saturation in the mainstream media which has made a revolutionary impact on fashions, beauty, and lifestyle habits of the general public (Isyanto, Sapitri and Sinaga, 2019).

A large volume of the people believesto replicate their styles and everything as pretended by the influencers and this makes this feel relatable to them. With the evolution of the new social media platforms, the tendency to follow up the micro-celebrity has increased to a greater level. With time people are no longer dependent on traditional celebrities such as actors, musicians, and models as influencers, rather consumers have depended on the micro-celebrities. As these influencers have included their real-life experience in the creative content, this has increased the trust and dependency over the micro-influencer (ERO?LU and BAYRAKTAR KÖSE, 2019). These influencers are the normal day people who attained thousands or more than millions of followers on these social media platforms. These celebrities are admired by the consumers, as these involve the real-life experience and activity of them. This new trend of marketing involving the micro-celebrity has not only helped the various companies to popularize their product but also helped the influencers to have a substantial volume of viewer who is search to apprehend about the product. These new as well as old companies are trying to bring attention to their product through utilizing these platforms (Moreno-Sandoval et al, 2019). Apart from that, the older traditional celebrity day-by-day is also involving them in these platforms. Now, YouTube and Instagram are also acknowledged by traditional celebrities to promote themselves as well as their movies. Hence, Instagram and YouTube are the two leading platforms of social media; these platforms have made the user more reliable on them. Day-by-day the micro-celebrity is being adopted by a massive volume of people. This has moved the attention of the public from the traditional celebrity and their influencing practices. People have developed the thought that the traditional celebrity does not reveal their real-life experiences while the micro-celebrities are doing this very commonly. Hence, this is making it more adaptable and attractive to various people (Schouten, Janssen and Verspaget, 2019).

Micro-celebrity impact on contemporary culture and identity
The impact of micro-celebrity on contemporary culture is high. There are several causes that attract the vast volume of the population, leading to being dependable over the micro-celebrity at a much higher rate. The contemporary culture and identity have been affected by the micro-celebrity in a huge amount, as these micro-celebrities has made the viewer to be attached to them on a daily basis. The conventional update of their creative world and their life has made people believe that they are engaged with the micro-celebrities in real life. The scope to interact with these celebrities and their life has made people understand them more closely, which work as an inspiration or icons for a number of people (Hou, 2019). The contemporary culture of celebrities like actors, musicians, and many others has been impacting mainly because the people perceive less associated and attached to the people. The traditional celebrity does not present or communicate with the people on a consistent basis as the micro-celebrity does. These celebrities present themselves on the bigger screen at a longer interval of time. Hence, the belief of the people over the contemporary culture of tradition celebrity has been lower down; this space is occupied by the micro-celebrity. Apart from the affection of the people with the micro-celebrities leading to impact the contemporary culture, the endorsement of the various companies over the micro-celebrity is also impacting the contemporary culture and identity. The companies are switching towards the micro-celebrity for a number of reasons. One of the major reasons is that a micro-celebrity is attached to a number of the audience on a regular basis (Carrillat and Ilicic, 2019). The sharing of their life using the product of a particular company will help to attract people towards their product. Promoting a product is more influential if the consumers are able to see that others or their icons are using those products. It impacts in a much stronger way over the consumers (Foos, 2020).

The scope to interact with the micro-celebrity and influencers has helped the viewers to establish the communication to acknowledge advice from them. This has led the population to be more comfortable and approachable to the audience. The lack of these features in contemporary culture has lead to an impact on their popularity and dependability (Boerman, 2020). As everything is available at the fingertips of the individual, people feel more relatable and effective following these micro-celebrities. The traditional celebrities do not enjoy the power they once did, whereas the internet influencer’s product reviews are now much more influential as they are perceived to be more authentic and accessible. The consumers feel more retable to the social media star who defines themselves as merely a normal person with a passion for fashion or beauty, rather than a high status and wealthy person (Gan et al, 2019). This approach of the micro-celebrity let the audience of especially middle-aged men and women to be attracted towards the product. People like to follow the micro-celebrity more than the transitional celebrity. Hence, the impact of the micro-celebrity on contemporary culture is huge and has let their present to be reduced.

Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that micro-celebrities are the people who are approaching the audience through the internet and are able to pull people with their creative content. They are theinfluencersof the present world and have replaced the importance of traditional celebrities such as film actors, actresses, and many other people. The social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram are helping them to reach out to the audience. Micro-celebrities has impacted the contemporary culture extremely, the emerging importance of the micro-celebrity has reduced the influence of the traditional celebrity. The trend to share their personal life with the audience has made the public to communicate with the people and take advice from them. The audience feels more relatable and interactive with the micro-celebrities which has made them more approachable to the large volume of the population. The more they would be socializing with the audience, the stronger they will be able to approach the audience. Apart from their creative content that attracts the audience, several famous brands also help them to have self-branding.

Reference
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