Intro to Public Writing: Carly Holladay

Unrecognizable Texts: Influencing

The earliest “influencers” we can cite have most likely deleted their MySpace accounts and blogs, as influencing began primitively in the early 2000s. As the internet became widely used as a form of entertainment, so came those who were popular based on how entertaining and social they were.

Influencing can be anything from showcasing photography, dancing, or even just living an interesting enough life. It’s also a text in the way that influencers have to caption or voice over videos to get their point across to a large audience. This point mainly being promotions or collaborations, where they maintain most of their income.

A modern influencer I will base most of my discussion on is Ms. Rachel, an early developmental education influencer who’s primary audience consists of parents and teachers, more specifically if they have/are teaching children ages 0-5. She currently has a following of 18.7 Million on Youtube and 8.7 Million followers on TikTok.

She utilizes audio text by communicating to toddlers and helping them learn and stay engaged. Her videos on Youtube range from 30 minutes to an hour and consists of sing-a-longs and educational entertainment. In these videos, she engages children by speaking directly to them as if they were the only person watching her, even though her actual audience would be parents and adults.

Her usage of “parantese” or a soft, melodic slow paced way of talking, and frequent pauses are what’s most attributed to her success in children’s education. Her videos aren’t too overstimulating and remain simple so that a toddler can easily stay focused on her. It’s these techniques that have given her a popular audience of both children and adults.

With this large following, Ms. Rachel does many brand promotions on top of the ad revenue that YouTube provides. She’s done collaborations with Netflix, Sesame Street, and Melissa and Doug to name a few. She promotes children’s toys, her own television show outside of YouTube, and does collaboration videos with Sesame Street’s characters.

Her promotions, like all influencers, fit with her online “niche” that many other influencers have created. Beauty and makeup influencers have brand deals with cosmetic brands. Lifestyle influencers promote self care items. Gaming influencers play and promote games. Every influencer cultivates this niche and builds a public along with it where they use certain phrases or inside jokes that other communities might not understand.

Influencing gets overlooked as a text due to the (publicly perceived) frivolous nature of short-form, self-made content. Though it’s just as much as a text as an ad or a television show is. Influencers persuade their audience with their text, and because their audience often shares their interests, there’s a trust between content-creator and audience that enhances this persuasion. The self-made aspect of the content makes this experience just as personal, and often creating parasocial relationships that, though are unhealthy, creates even more revenue for the influencer. The type of text that turns the ordinary person into a millionaire.