From fashion to fun, health, parenting and career, you can bet there’s an influencer for that! The people you see on social media with 2 million, 10 million, 100 million followers. The more people you have following you, the more money you make.
The influencer marketing industry has reached $16 billion this year. In fact, 93% of all marketers have opted to use influencers in the past year.
The top influencer is Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best Portuguese soccer players in the world, with 443 million followers. He’s followed by Kylie Jenner, from the Kardashian family, with 339 million followers. Now there’s a new group of influencers taking social media by storm.
Grandfluencers are changing the face of Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Sandra Sallin, 81, has 30,000 loyal fans.
“They’ve told me that they, that I make them happy. That they like seeing a woman of my age who still wears lipstick, I care about the world and that I haven’t given up,” grandfluencer Sallin said.
Lonni Pike goes by gray hair and tattoos.
“The boulder and the brighter and the braver I get, the more colorful I become,” grandfluencer Pike said.
In just three years, Pike’s attracted a million and a half followers on TikTok. The 58-year-old says most of them are millennials.
“I have 1,442,000 women between the ages of 18 and 35 who follow me,” Pike added.
And for some, Pike’s message is a lifesaver.
“You have reaffirmed my commitment to loving myself and my tattoos,” Pike said.
Pike and Sallin are just two of a growing number of grandfluencers.
The Old Gay Guys have more than 2 million followers, Joan MacDonald turned her life around with her first trip to the gym at age 71. Now at 75, she has 1.4 million people following her fitness journey. And although all their themes vary, their messages are very similar.
“I hope that I can inspire women to not give up,” Sallin said. “I’m not invisible, and I won’t let anybody think that I’m invisible.”
Using their social media might show the world you can love the age you are, be relevant and still have something to say.
“You can be just as bright and just as bold and just as fierce at 50 as you can be at 20,” Pike said.
“It’s just kind of letting people know that they can still be alive and living and be curious and that you don’t have to be, what, 14, 18 or a Kardashian,” Sallin said.
How much money you can make as a micro-influencer is up for debate -- a popular formula is a hundred dollars a post for every 10,000 followers.
Pike’s latest venture, she’s doing a podcast with her sons, Robert and Brandon. It’s called, We’re in Trouble Now. You can find that on Spotify and iTunes.