But the actual phenomenon is really very interesting.
Brands used to primarily rely on in-house marketing teams or external marketing agencies, who might try to get their products in the hands of people with strong platforms, aka the ability to market to lots of people by virtue of their fame, reach, etc.
Now you have a lot of what might be called freelance lifestyle marketers. They're like a copy of InStyle magazine, where the editorial content is themselves and the lux life they (purportedly) lead, and the advertising content is the products they market.
I think a lot of the consternation about social media influencers is because it's a new marketing avenue with fairly little gatekeeping. Someone with 4,000 Instagram followers and someone with 4 million Instagram followers might both present themselves as influencers, and it's hard to tell who's legit.
It's especially hard for smaller businesses, such as an independent hotel or bar, because who has the time to research all of these claims?
What I think we're already starting to see is that some of the people with the largest followings, who legitimately can be called influencers, are being approached by agencies who represent them, because then the agencies are doing the gatekeeping.