Working As A Social Media Influencer For Less Than A Year: What You Should Know!
Healthy Lifestyle Influencer in Indonesia
2020 was a hectic year for me. I traveled back and for between Indonesia and the United States during pandemic and I had to deal with travel restrictions, self quarantined, and taking PCR tests every single flight. Finally, I decided to move back to and settled down in Indonesia at the end of 2020.
I moved to the United States in the spring of 2016 to extend my education. It was a dream comes through moment for me. I never imagined that I would live in the United States over the next four years and living my American Dreams that I had no idea what was it about. My life experience in the US was amazing. I got to experience a new lifestyle and explore my interests. Simply, I started going to the gym and ate better meals. This was the year I found myself living a healthier lifestyle.
Moving back to Indonesia means I am haunted by the old fashion of lifestyles. Before moving to the United States, I had already had a full time job as a public civil servant. There is not a lot of room for creativity when you work for the government. My life was pretty predictable. I had the exact schedule from eight in the morning to five in the afternon everyday. I dealt with clerical duties or met with government officials in the city council meetings. Of course there are several adjustments that I have to make, but this far I think I have successfully maintained my lifestyle after officially becoming a health influencer in Indonesia.
I have been really enthusiastic to live a healthy lifestyle since I was in college. However, it was not who I am until I officialy joined the New L-Men of The Year 2021, a prestigious national male health influencers pageantry in Indonesia. Under this brand, people know me as a health influencer. Since then, my life has completely changed that I now live as a social media influencer who voice healthy lifestyles including sending the message of mental fitness and toxic masculinity.
Social Media Influence In Indonesia
I know for sure that social media has played a significant role in today soceity. In the US, most of the people will get their news from and exchange opinions in twitter as well as conveying their ideas about their interests. Some of them also may take their news from Facebook, which I hardly believe it is happening. Nevertheless, Asia is the leading continent when it comes to social media consumption, and I know Indonesians love social media.
When it comes to social media apps, of course YouTube followed by WhatsApp are still the main two apps that are used the most in Indonesia. Particularly Netizens (social media users) are those in the range age of 18 to 50 years old in Indonesia. Giving the fact that there are more than 270 millions people reside in Indonesia and more than half of those populations are actively using social media, it is a potential market to become a digital creator. This potential market is one of the reason I decided to start my own YouTube channel and jumped into the world of influencers.
The Influencers In Indonesia
Nowadays, everybody can become a social media influencer. Especially for those who born with certain physical advantages, their appearance will definitely make it easier for them to pave their ways as influencers. No wonder social media users in Indonesia can spent more than 3 hours using social media. It has become a common form of a side hustle for many people, so the demand for a better quality of contents cannot longer be resisted.
For me, it seems like a destiny to become a social media influencer. I have always been passionate about living a healthy lifestyle. I love working-out and eating healthy meals. But I also care sharing my opinions about mental health. Giving the fact that many people still lack of mental health literacy in Indonesia, it is a good opportunity to bring awareness about mental health as a health influencer.
However, the challenge I face this far is that not many people who use social media love a heavy discussion about mental health. It is a tough conversation that requires a careful thought process and academic research based evidence. Since I have a master’s degree, it has not been a huge challenge because I am familiar with scholastic based research skill to support my contents. That said, many social media users are still not well educated to be selective in their social media cunsumption. So, it is one of my campaigns to also educate them to identify bias information and black campaigns on social media.
The Bright-side As An Influencer
I think everybody who works as a digital nomad would agree that being an influencer on social media has helped us generating income. Definitely, it is not a stable stream of income but it certainly helps us to stay creative and on top of our game every single day. Another thing that I like as a digital creator is that I have the whole power to decide what kind of contents I would produce and what brands I would work together with. Social media influencers have that privilege to make a decision about the types of products and services they would provide.
It is not a secret anymore that most of social media influencers know what they need to do to gain more exposure. We all know that the more exposure you receive the more your chance to get some deals. Many brands will be willing to pay a higher rate for a single content in return for receiving exposure towards their products. Therefore, the ability to increase our skills by learning new things and deepen our understanding about our niches is an essential part as an influencer. This ability is what sets us apart from the typical white-collar jobs.
Furthermore, being an influencer means you should be able to dive in uncertainty because the world of digital creators has never been steady. It is quite similar to stock market, you need to always be ready to put your steps forward. You run your own business. It is scary sometimes when you realize that your life is so dependable on the internet. However, I think this is what sets us different from other types of job as well. The ability to survive even during a global pandemic such as COVID-19. It teaches us to be resilient.
The Downside As An Influencer
The world of social media influencers has never been easy. There are a lot of consequences that come along with influencers. The most common problem is that the influencers have the ability to spread a false information with or without they knowing it themselves. We all have learned this from the United States 2016 presidential election. Many people will argue that Trump won the election period unquestionable. However, some other will argue that Trump’s campaign strategy to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to deliver his agendas was what made him got elected to the white house. Although it is somewhat controversial, people would not blame it to the artificial intelegent (AI). At least until we know exactly how to regulate such cases. Yet, the ability of AI to bring exposure to a content is remarkable and that is why an influencer plays a significant part in it.
An influencer does not have a stable mean of income. Many influencers have to juggle between one job to another until they found their specific niche. It is not easy to create a personal brand that would be beneficial for everybody. An influencer is demanded to always be creative and follow the trend all the time. Their lives are so dependable on what is happening now. That is why you will see a wave of trends where all social media influencers riding in a single content that has gone viral in a certain period of time. If you cannot jump into the wave this time, it means you have to wait for another waive to make your way to enjoy the world of exposure stream of income.
Your content does not dictate how much you will receive exposure. Most of the time you would waste a lot of your energy to make a single content that will gain lesser exposure than what you expected. After you finished making a content and posted online, the rest of the work will be taken a part in the realm of algorithm. That is the reason sometimes a short silly video can go viral more easily than the aesthetic high definition editing video’s technique one. The world of an influencer is always dictated by algorithm and nobody knows for certain how to manipulate algorithm. New social media influencers will think that watching youtubers explaining about creating enticing thumbnails will help attract viewers while many other youtubers just do not follow the exact rules and still gain more viewers than those who strictly follow the rules. This uncertainty is the real world of social media influencers. Nothing is clear and everyday is a learning process.
In sum, the reality of social media influencers are rarely steady. The curiosity to explore the realm of creativity on oneself is not sufficient to dive through the hectic world of algorithm. Number of netizens are a good indicator to foresee the career oportunity as a digital creator. Nevertheless, it should be mantled with eagerness to develop new skills and stay on top of the game at all costs. For me, this uncertainty excites me to start my day. It gives me a reason to stay alive and live my life to the fullest. In this world of influencers, who can stay focus and engage with their followers are those who would make a living out of internet services.
