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  • Essay / Social media celebrities as social media influencers

    The contemporary Internet is multifaceted and versatile, as it is integrated into a wide range of social activities as an infrastructure. Local stars are seen by marketing and advertising practitioners as social media influencers, whose media visibility and original content can be leveraged to promote brand messages. Hearn and Schoenhoff argue that the authentic and trustworthy personal brand of social media celebrities can be capitalized on by businesses and advertisers to raise consumer awareness. From a certain point of view, they extend the traditional celebrity function of personalizing the consumption process. From another perspective, marketers are now looking for brand storytellers rather than someone who simply lends their name to the brand. The trusting and intimate relationship between influencers and communities, built through stories, helps contextualize the brand's images and messages. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Not only do brands seek celebrity influence among audiences, but marketing practices in today's converged media environment also actively contribute to the production of celebrity image. Media exposure and representation brought about by endorsement contribute to celebrity status and celebrity image. The reciprocal relationship between the marketing system and celebrity is also implied in the quantitative models developed by marketers to identify social media influencers. Among other popular metrics such as the number of followers and reposts, the number of industry events or brand cooperations a social media celebrity has participated in is also an important index to gauge their popularity. In order to understand the new emerging industrial structure behind social media celebrity, we can first look to its predecessor: traditional celebrity in the entertainment and mass media industries. The birth of the American film industry demonstrates the starting point of industrialized celebrity production. Now movie stars, television personalities, and singers become commodities manufactured and traded for profit, introducing a break with earlier forms of theatrical and artistic fame. Rein et al. suggest that celebrity is central to this activity, supported by and supporting eight sub-industries, including entertainment, communications, advertising, portrayal, appearance, coaching, endorsement, and the legal services industry and commercial. In comparison, the business model of the commercial intermediary companies operating around YouTube closely resembles this structure. Lobato finds that many tasks performed by different types of multichannel networks (MCNs) are actually extensions of existing media work. The industrial foundation of social media celebrity is closely associated with the technical capabilities and business model of the platform. Kim says YouTube was once a “virtual village,” where amateurs shared their user-generated content in online communities. Today, it has been institutionalized into a platform inhabited by professionally generated content. He points out that as traditional media is strategically digitized, new media like YouTube imitate.