The secrets of a social media influencer

Lily Haron modeling for a local photographer. Guest | Jai Castro

Exclusive insight from Lily Haron on the challenges of being an influencer

Many people consider a job as an online influencer to be quite simple and most times superficial. Lifestyle, fashion, beauty, gaming, comedic and activist influencers have all been criticized for having “easy” lifestyles and an “undemanding” career. However, becoming an influencer can be much more complex than many people think it may be.

Fashion influencer Lily Haron’s social media status began to climb in June 2020. Shortly after she noticed her TikTok and Instagram profiles gaining more and more attention and positive feedback, she realized that she might actually be able to pursue this.

“I specialize in fashion and lifestyle content and my audience mostly ranges from 18 to 25-year-olds,” Haron said, “I make TikToks and Instagram, but I am trying to transfer over to creating more YouTube content.”

Haron’s following has grown more than she ever imagined over the past year and she plans to continue maintaining a presence on all of her current platforms.

“My favorite social media platform is YouTube just because you can get a lot more personal with people on it,” Haron said. “You can connect a lot more with individuals and you can showcase your personality more than you can through an Instagram photo or a 5-second video.”

However, as effortless as Haron’s work might look to the public eye, it can be quite strenuous at times with juggling her day job, school and personal relationships along with her presence on the internet.

For Haron, the most challenging aspect of maintaining her social media presence is the consistency and pressure.

“There are times when I don’t want to get ready or I’m just having an off week and I don’t feel like sharing that on the internet,” Haron said. “However, sometimes I feel a pressure that I have to share everything even when I don’t want to so my content comes off as disingenuous which isn’t the case at all.”

It can be difficult at times for those who have such a large population observing so many aspects of one’s life. Exposure like this can easily lead an influencer into a negative or unhealthy state of mind.

“I do a lot of Q&As on my platforms to ask people what they would like to see from me content-wise,” Haron said. “But sometimes you can just tell when people aren’t enjoying what you’re posting based on your engagement or likes and comments.”

Many influencers are forced to constantly remind themselves of the importance of their mental health–as everyone should–and the insignificance of the hate they are constantly receiving from complete strangers online.

“I know it’s different for everyone, but receiving hate on my content has never truly bothered me that much unless someone is attacking my friend or a loved one,” Haron said. “But when I personally receive hate, I just remind myself that whoever is commenting that sort of thing on my videos is just bored. I just don’t look at it and try not to pay much attention to the hate.”

All things considered, being a social media influencer is surely not as easy as it often looks. Of course, there are certain positive aspects to having a large following such as the constant praise that oftentimes combats the hate.

No matter who you are in this world, you are bound to face challenges with whatever it is you might try to pursue. However, a victory would not feel as rewarding without the challenge.

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