A person with a large social media following. An influencer can be any age from teenager to senior citizen on platforms such as X/Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube. While many influencers are celebrities in their own right, regular people have gained a huge following due to their unique ability to entertain or convey information. Influencers can be paid by the vendor of the products they endorse or from the number of ads people respond to. See
scaled influence operation.
Influence Marketing
Marketing by influence has become a major vehicle for selling to the public because of the billions of people who use social media. In addition, people are reassured that their favorite celebrity or influencer (who became a celebrity) would not mislead them. There are courses people can take that teach them how to be an effective influence marketer. See
social media.
Virtual Influencers
Sometimes, influencers are not real people, although they may appear to be. Virtual influencers are computer-generated images and animation that in many cases make a lot of money for their producers. See
VTuber.