It may be a question that you have thought about in your head but never really looked into until now, but what does your favourite social media influencer hide?
Everyone has heard of the Instagram vs reality, and this article is going be exactly that, the social media life compared to what really happens behind closed doors. So where shall we begin?
1. How much they earn
To be honest, it’s not just influencers who hide about how much they earn, but a lot of people don’t want to be local about their salary. Would you tell how much you earn to someone you don’t know? Probably not. However, some influencers are transparent and do share their earnings as influencer marketing is a growing platform and knowing how much an influencer earns, puts it into practise for when you are ready to barter a collaboration post or something on social media.
There are also other reasons for hiding earnings, and that may involve security. Influencers are in the public eye and because of that, they should be extra careful about what they are saying and doing. Kim Kardashian for example, experienced the Paris robbery and was at gunpoint. Because she was posting about where she was, what she was doing and where she was going, this gave ammunition to the robbers to follow and track her down, taking her valuables knowing she was there for fashion week. Here, privacy is key and whether you’re a nano-influencer or mega-influencer, be careful about what you are posting and telling people for security reasons.
2. Relationship status
Have you ever wondered if your favourite influencer had a boyfriend or girlfriend? Why do influencers hide their relationship or relationship status? Again, for privacy reasons, and for getting work. If you are a male influencer who is a model, who are you appealing to? Most probably a lot of women – naturally, if you had a girlfriend who you were also showing off on your profile, your women followers may lose interest and unfollow.
Unfortunately, that’s the way it is and why influencers may hide their relationship status on their page!
3. Family
This is quite a common one which doesn’t have to be towards just influencers, but anyone with a following or particular niche too who doesn’t show their family. Influencers like the famous Fahmi family in the Middle East can post about family as that’s the main topic of their channel and they all share a high following.
Others, however, are private about their family. Even celebrity couples hide their children when they are born just to protect them like Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas. Protecting family from the public eye is a sense of security in case of any trolls or negative comments that can come up in the future from a bad post or controversial video.
4. Their real images – Photoshop
Would you know if an image was photoshopped? Recently, one Australian influencer named Cartia Mallan with 536K followers on Instagram was roasted for her photoshopped picture. It looked as though she was trying to edit her leg, but fans and followers noticed the edit as the black and white stairs in the background had dramatically changed in a disproportionate way. It doesn’t have to be just their body part that is photoshopped, but slight changes to facial features and even the background.
Just be careful who you are meeting if you decide to date someone from the internet as you may be catfished!
5. Their addictions or mental health status
This is quite a sensitive one to mention. Influencers may hide their addictions or mental health status to protect their friends, family or loved ones or feel a burden to share it with their followers. Recently, TikTok star Cooper Noriega died at the age of 19 after suffering from addiction since the age of 9. Although Cooper was someone who shared his story to try and make a change, no one knew the extent to which Cooper was suffering.
Hiding a mental illness on social media may also be a way of protecting yourself against trolls or not wanting to voice it in case you are afraid of losing work. If you are suffering from a mental health illness then contact emergency services for help, and open up about it- if not on social media, then with a friend or close family member.
Mental health can also come up by the over-use of social media, comparing ourselves to others and therefore making us lose confidence in our own image. You never know what happens behind the camera, so don’t assume that your favourite influencer or other influencers are living a “perfect life.” Everyone has their own story and is going through their own path.
Their real-life passion
There may be a gaming influencer who reacts to gaming video and reached 50 million subscribers on their YouTube channel. But do they actually enjoy watching gaming videos? It sounds crazy if you think about it but it is something that influencers hide – their true passions.
Of course, having 50 million followers on social media means you will definitely be making money through views, ads, sponsors, or merchandise, and the income therefore is the only reason why you are doing it. But what if you really enjoyed travelling and exploring new places? It is hard to step away from something when you have already built a foundation and source of income from one channel with a particular niche.
That’s also the difference between content creators and influencers. Content creators can create content on anything and do it for the enjoyment of creating, not worrying about views, likes or insights. Whereas influencers are more specific to their niche and rely on followers, and interaction on their profile to source work.
It would be interesting to know or ask your influencer what they would be if they were not a fashion influencer, beauty influencer or tech influencer. See what they say!
If you liked this article, let us know by tweeting us @itpliveme.
Stay updated to all of our latest news on ITP Live by subscribing to our Newsletter below.