Is being a micro-influencer a real job?

Working with influencers day in, day out puts our team in a unique position to answer this question. Our business process is all about matching brands with the right influencers, but our job doesn’t stop there.
Soleil Manara, Global Community and Campaigns Lead for Narratrs, shares about her working experience with influencers. “Influencers are from all walks of life, but what unifies them is their passion to create great content. Most (if not all), have day jobs or are university students, while a small portion are full-pledged influencers. Their unique life experiences inspire their work and produce truly admirable, scroll-stopping content.” 

Being a successful influencer

According to Brittany Hennessy of Digital Hearst Media, the most successful media influencers have two skills: business savvy and charisma on camera. She says in an interview with Business Insider, “I found the most successful influencers are ones that had jobs before they were influencers. Real jobs. Because they know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of something that’s not so good, and so they make sure they deliver great products.”

Manara echoes this sentiment. “Being an influencer takes a lot of time and effort. They all need to start somewhere — that is, building their own personal brand and an audience with the same set of interests and beliefs. People sometimes do not realize how hard this is without resorting to paid likes and bot followers. To be able to build your influence requires strategic thinking and creativity.”

She also points out that what they’re doing requires so much comfort in their own skin. “It’s difficult to come up with photos and videos that reveal who they genuinely are with the obvious caveats to internet vitriol in more ways than one. But they chose this path, and for the most part, I think most of them already know that it comes with the job.”

So going back to the question Is being an influencer a real job, for Hennessy, it all boils down to people recognizing that what influencers do is not easy and not for everyone. “Everybody buys clothes, everybody buys makeup, everybody buys toys for their kids, if it’s so easy, none of us would have jobs. We all would just take pictures all day and get paid for it, but it’s much more than that.”

And for Manara, it’s a wholeheartedly yes. “Real jobs require talent, sacrifice, and being rewarded for the value they helped create. Being an influencer is exactly the same.” She points out that the negative connotation probably comes from the oft-publicized stories of influencers demanding free products and services. In her experience, it’s more the exception than the norm. “Most of the influencers we work with here at Narratrs really care about providing relevant and creative content. They love what they do, and will do what it takes to be good at it. We are proud of the value that we are able to unlock by matching these influencers and their audiences with brands.”