Fifteen years ago there was no such thing as a social media influencer, but fast forward to 2023 and there are now an estimated 50 million full-time ‘creators’ worldwide. It isn’t hard to understand the appeal; no nine-to-five, no domineering boss, no skills, experience or talent necessary. Little input for potentially incredibly high returns, especially if you successfully find a niche.
I cannot think of anything less appealing than broadcasting images of where I sleep to the world
A cleanfluencer from Northern England went from working at M&S to sharing her cleaning tips full time which led to a book deal with Penguin; Live, Laugh, Laundry (I kid you not). A young woman in America known as Miss Excel claims to make $250,000 to $300,000 a month for her spreadsheet explainer videos on TikTok. It is therefore understandable, albeit depressing, that 54 per cent of Americans aged between 13 and 38 aspire to become influencers.
There are influencers for everything: beauty, fitness, illness, and increasingly, home renovations. From reality television stars to the former prime minister’s wife, people are sharing their private sanctums online.
The interest in the lives of others – especially those whose lives are more interesting and beautiful – is nothing new. House Beautiful launched in 1896 and still sells an average of 90,000 copies a week. The interior design magazine Architectural Digest’s YouTube channel has over 1.2 billion views. But it is no longer just the lives of the rich and unattainable that people are interested in. There are hundreds of thousands of accounts on Instagram and TikTok that show ordinary people with ordinary houses doing very ordinary renovations.
Is it because homeownership has become so unattainable that the closest millennials will get to it is living vicariously through others? There are only so many before-and-after shots of dank 1960s bathrooms one can gawp at – however, you can find hundreds of thousands of Instagram accounts peppered with #inspo photos of anything from a spiral staircase to replicas of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
I cannot think of anything less appealing than broadcasting images of where I sleep to the world but as ever, am I missing a trick? Of all the ways to get free stuff – is home renovation influencing the easiest? You don’t even have to commit to a gym membership and you can keep your clothes on. Instead, you film yourself doing mundane DIY tasks – or even just your workmen’s labour – and if you do it well, the cash can follow. Big companies are increasingly devoting chunks of their marketing budget to influencers and an account with tens of thousands of followers will command four-figure sums for a post on Instagram.
One former Made in Chelsea cast member Lucy Watson has an Instagram account solely for her house renovation with 56,000 followers. She has been given – or #gifted – so much stuff it appears she will have at least broken even, if not made a profit on her house renovations. From thousands of pounds of garden furniture to building surveys, companies are giving it away.
Maybe I’m bitter because I know I’ll never own a house, but the faux enthusiasm for some #gifted bathroom grout fixer might be the naffest influencing of all. A free holiday is certainly worth being smug about but a hoard from B&Q? Not so much.
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