Does a High Follower Count Equal Online Leadership?

Good evening everyone and welcome back to The Art of Strategic Communication.

This week I wanted to pose a question to you all... 

Does a high social media follower count equal online leadership?

Personally, growing up as a social media adapter has allowed me to witness many social platforms take ordinary people from having a low social status to a high social status overnight! While these people may have lived a normal life before, their climb to fame has left them with a responsibility to behave in a way that represents them in a good light. With fame comes a certain form of leadership that causes people to want to replicate your every move. If you're popular, many people will do the things you do to try to gain the same level of popularity you have achieved.

Before we begin discussing our topic, let's break this down a little further. What exactly is leadership? According to Forbes, "Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal." According to that statement, a follower count does in fact equal a greater chance for online leadership.

By gaining millions of followers on social media platforms, many celebrities gain access to influence a larger amount of people. Many of these platforms have also made it easy for viral videos to serve as a launchpad for any content creators to gain some of this leadership as their follow count increases as well. For example, let's talk about the D'Amelio family.

In 2019, this family of four was living normal lives in Norwalk, Connecticut. However, they were quickly dubbed "the first family of TikTok" because of the insane collective social media subscriber climb they saw over the course of just a few short months. While Charli is the youngest of the clan, she is currently the most followed content creator on TikTok with approximately 112.6 million followers worldwide. Her sister, Dixie, has approximately 50.9 million followers. Not to mention her parents, Heidi and Marc, follow count which brings the family's overall follower count to around 200 million followers (Wahl, 2021). 

Charli rose to fame after sharing several dancing video clips on the TikTok social media platform. Soon after, her sister Dixie joined the app and the rest is history. Now Charli dances for many events and models for many well-known fashion designers. While Dixie is busy releasing her own music and making a name for herself in the pop industry.

While many people may say that this family's subscriber count has not to lead them into leadership, I would have to disagree. With over 200 million American's following the lives of this family, it would be difficult to say that they are not influencing some of the younger generation's styles and decision making. With such a following, the D'Amelios sisters have not only become instant social media influencers but also have become brand ambassadors for several well-known brands.

Maybe you're wondering, what is the difference between a social media influencer and a brand ambassador? People tend to confuse the two. However, according to the Influencer Marketing Hub, a social media influencer is:

"An individual who has a following in a particular niche, which they actively engage with and has the power to affect purchase decisions. The size of the following depends on the size of the niche." 

A Brand Ambassador is: 

“A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person who is hired by an organization or company to represent a brand in a positive light and by doing so help to increase brand awareness and sales.”

These girls have such a large following that many young girls look up to them to choose their style and actions (Subsign, 2018). Charli, Dixie, and their parents have strived to create a safe, open, and honest space on their social media accounts that have allowed people to see that although they are now famous—they are really just another family who loves spending time together and challenging each other to be the best versions of themselves.

While the D'Amelio sisters have influenced people to try new dances, buy some of their favorite things, and share some of their favorite things online—many of those campaigns were done for free. For example, before Charli became extremely popular on TikTok, she was obsessed with Dunkin Doughnuts. She would post about her orders all the time, and many of her followers would go purchase the drinks.

Fast-forward and these young ladies have partnered with major brands like Hollister Jean Company in 2020 to launch a line of denim for young adults. They also partnered with Morphe to create the Morphe 2 collaboration for teenage girls who wanted to wear minimal makeup with a natural finish. These influencers working with these campaigns have increased sales because young women are more likely to buy something if they trust the opinion of the person who is talking about it.

My sister is one of the D'Amelio's biggest fans. One day last year, she sent me an advertisement for the Morphe 2 makeup collection that Charli and Dixie are the brand ambassadors for. She wanted some of the products because she had been watching the girl's application videos and decided it would be easy for her to use. While my mom and I did not know anything about the products, my sister shared the videos with us and we immediately saw the appeal. Truthfully speaking, that day we allowed two young women to lead us into purchasing makeup for my 12-year-old sister.

Like the D'Amelio's, many influencers will also share their political views online to try to persuade others to vote for their favorite candidate. This is nothing new though as we have seen politicians and news media use social media platforms to influence their followers for years.

Overall, I believe that a high follower count does equal online leadership. If people did not care what a person had to say, all they would have to do is unfollow them. However, if a person chooses to follow another individual, they more than likely value their opinion to some extent and will be lead by them whether they realize it or not.

References:

Kruse, K. (2015, September 2). What is leadership? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/04/09/what-is-leadership/?sh=164931a75b90.

Subsign. (2018, July 12). Influencers vs Brand Ambassadors. Medium. https://subsign.medium.com/influencers-vs-brand-ambassadors-4e2ae6eaadd2.

Wahl, P. (2021, May 19). Charli D'Amelio And Family On The Reality Of Fast TikTok Fame. Gotham Magazine. https://gothammag.com/charli-dixie-damelio-family-cover-story-interview.