From networking with friends/peers and stalking crushes to now majorly consuming content, consumer behaviour has rapidly changed in the last few years on social media platforms. Influencers and content creators have become an integral part of every social media channel.
Today, influencers and creators create highly engaging and unique content to keep their audiences hooked, stay alive on the platform, and generate some good revenue for themselves. Offering an equal opportunity for everyone, social media has become a full-time career option for many.
With time, social media content has seen a massive cultural and consumption shift. It’s no more about posting a high-fashion picture, a selfie with friends, or a meme.
With unique expertise on various topics, many influencers have built distinguished identity by creating relatable, yet highly niche content. Being an epicentre for the content of all types and sectors, social media has now truly become a content universe.
The year 2021 saw a great influx of pop-intellectual content creators who dared to stand out and create content that influenced, entertained, and educated the masses.
Following are some types of influencers that saw the day of the light in 2021:
Gaming
2021 was a golden year for the gaming community. The world and the country witnessed an astronomical growth of the gaming industry, which further accelerated the growth of gamers and gaming influencers. The COVID-19 lockdowns, incredibly affordable smartphones, and easily accessible internet were the factors that catalysed the growth of the gaming community in India.
With kids and young adults moving towards consuming highly thrilling gaming content, gaming influencers have emerged as the next-gen superheroes of this generation. As a result, many gamers and gaming influencers nearly observed 5 to 10 times growth on their channels this year.
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Finance/Crypto
Following the pandemic, many of us went through the toughest phase of our lives, especially financially. We all needed to learn how to invest money and save for the future in smart, easy, and careful ways. This lead to the massive boom of crypto and finance startups and apps, and therefore the fintech influencers.
Soaring up the business market, many of these crypto and finance companies invested in influencers to rightly advise on both the advantages and disadvantages for respective money exchanges and investments.
Taking advantage of the time, many individuals with expertise in finance, blockchain, banking, and investment started creating content on these subjects and eventually became the influencers.Education
Over the last two years, virtual education has been the most important and discussed topic in every household. Due to the growing use of video conferencing and sharing notes via PDFs in schools and colleges, parents were concerned about their children’s cognitive growth. To bridge this gap, many educational experts, edtech founders, and academic counsellors took the medium of social media to share their thoughts and expertise on the subjects.
As these influencers grew, they encouraged children to participate in a few more activities/classes to increase their cognitive skills. A few of the influencers even suggested and offered guidance regarding extracurricular activities, exploring children’s interests, and taking an online course to learn better.
Regional content
Additionally, we saw a significant increase in regional influencers during 2021. While trending content used to be dominated by English or Hindi, Indian languages have inspired aspiring influencers to make videos in their mother tongue to update their followers on current events and provide fun, entertainment, and infotainment content.
Few regional content creators also used their channels in dispelling the myths about the pandemic, virus, and vaccination. Nevertheless, it is said that good content can be enjoyed regardless of the language. Today, the content of some regional influencers is accompanied by subtitles for the benefit of other viewers.
Empathy, diversity, and inclusion
During the year, many leading and aspiring influencers invested their time, energy, and channel to bring in a positive change in the society. Content regarding breaking the mental health stigmas and gender stereotypes was widely created by aspiring influencers to enable a positive atmosphere on social media apps.
Today, there are men promoting beauty products and applying makeup, women guiding about finance, boomers talking about menstruation and mental health, and entrepreneurs highlighting the importance of work-life balance. It is these kinds of social media influencers who are aiming to bring positive change in the society we live, work, and enjoy in.
Edited by Megha Reddy
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
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