Gadgetory

- [Janae Brown] I just have my camera, my food, my magazines. I stay busy in bed. Not the kind of busy people think you're supposed to be in your twenties, but it's work. (laughs) I'm sweating! - Home interiors and lifestyle micro-influencer, Janae Brown, has about 30,000 followers. And although we often think of influencers as celebrities with millions of followers and crazy lavish lifestyles, it's becoming possible to succeed as a smaller creator. (upbeat music) For micro-influencers, it's less about their scale and it's more about the close connections they have with a smaller group of people. And it's exactly this type of tight-knit community that advertisers of 2019 are trying to get a part of, which is why someone with 30,000 followers could possibly quit their day job and go full time on Instagram. So let's head to Brooklyn, see what that life is like. (easygoing hip-hop music) - Okay, so this grid post has been up now... Let me refresh. It's been up for 14 minutes and it has 483 likes, which for me, was unheard of literally three months ago. (laughs) I actually first started Instagram like most people, just posting silly pictures for friends. I was really just having fun. I saw that other women were posting fun pictures and cute outfits, and I was like, "Well, I don't see "that many curvy, black women doing that, "so I'm gonna try that." When I started taking Instagram seriously in January of 2018, my whole mission or point of my page was to be relatable and, essentially, to let more women know that, hey, whatever you're going through, you're not alone, whether you're going through a break-up, whether you're dealing with body image issues, girl, I've been there, let's chat. - [Becca] It's this approach that has jump-started Janae's success. And, yes, she actually reads just about every comment. - She used an orange heart, I'm gonna use an orange heart. It never gets old, every time I see this room, I just heart eye emojis. The main part of my page is actually the conversations that we're having. - Anyone can be an influencer if the people who are following them really care about what they're saying. - [Becca] That's Joe Gagliese, he's one of the co-founders of Viral Nation, a full service marketing company that specializes in influencer marketing. - Influencer marketing is nothing more than word of mouth on steroids. So I know influencers, even friends of mine, who have a thousand followers, but that's a cult following. And when he talks about some really new, cool restaurant he went to in Toronto or New York, people go to it. - Oh, yeah, this side is pretty. So I'm very open and honest with my audience about #ScamForTheGram, which the aesthetic we create on Instagram all the times that is not factual. I don't drink coffee, so I just have this one that I keep in the fridge and I just use for photos. So, these are photos that I use that are pretty and may catch someone's attention, in the hopes that they'll read the caption and be able to relate. I know the amount of work I'm putting into my posts. It's not just like taking cute selfie picture. I'm moving furniture, I'm setting things up, and then coming up with a relatable caption, responding to these comments, answering questions. And in order to do that, there's gonna be a need for some sponsored posts, which will probably, for me, is only 5% of what I share. - [Becca] Although Janae's media kit is constantly changing based on her subscriber and engagement counts, when we visited her in late March of 2019, it looked a little like this. Now, Instagram is not Janae's full time job, but this money is helping her build a brand that could someday turn into a full career. - As brands start to realize that it's harder and harder to reach certain people, that influencers are gonna be that kind of golden egg that allows that kind of scale, big, big audience, while also coming across in a way that people are gonna consume it. - [Becca] So Janae is in a unique position where she has this strong connection with her audience, but can she retain that as she grows and attempts to make this more than just a side hustle? - Yeah, it's gotten to a place where I'm not able to know as many other people's stories. It's hard for me 'cause I feel like I'm being very selfish and it's more of like a take, take, take now and I'm not giving back by engaging with other people. But... hopefully that's not the case and I'm hoping as I learn more, how to do each job more efficiently, I'll be able to open up that time again to engage with other people again 'cause that is really important to me. I'm just just slightly overwhelmed at the moment. (laughs) I just realized that I did not respond to someone's comment. I actually just commented on my own picture five minutes ago saying, "OMG, you are seriously the sweetest." But it is not in response to anyone, so we're gonna delete that 'cause that is not cute.