By Kaylee Lauriel, PR Intern
In a world where fashion and lifestyle influencers are in abundance, trade influencers are not to be discounted. One of the most popular trade influencers on TikTok, a pool cleaner with the handle @thep00lguy, makes over $14,000 per post and almost $1.3 million a year with sponsorship deals. TikTok influencers are gaining traction and making money, with the possibility of making up to one million dollars a year, and here is why:
Influencers are a very enticing marketing prospect for big brands and companies. Sponsorship opportunities are endless between influencer and brands, shown by @thep00lguy who has capitalized on his niche content to get deals with multiple brands. These sponsorship deals are a chance to get brands noticed and content creators some extra money. Companies can partner with influencers on TikTok to promote their brand by giving them free products to use and advertise for their followers.
TikTok sees many tradesmen influencers. The most popular are automotive and plumbing. One of the most popular trade influencers, with 1.5 million followers, is Sydney Sweeney from the hit TV show Euphoria. Sweeney collects and restores rare vintage cars and documents her progress on TikTok, amassing hundreds of thousands of likes.
The reason influencers on TikTok see more success on this app as opposed to ones like Instagram or Twitter is because of TikTok’s algorithm. It is organic and based on user-generated content, not follower based, meaning that it collects information on what you enjoy and commonly watch and promotes more videos like that on your feed. Instagram and Twitter are more focused on follower content, so if you are not following people who routinely post about the trades, you are not likely to see that content.
Viewers liked being entertained and taught, something that is easy to do when you have a passion, be it your job or a hobby, which is uncommon as some of the trades are. People with no connection to the trades will see videos from trade influencers and, since it is not something they see in their daily life, they will want to learn more.
The Internet is also a place for DIY hacks and learning how to fix things yourself. Trade influencers is how you learn. As long as people have cars that get old and houses that need repairs, trade influencers will be in demand. A big part of social media strategies for influencers are tutorials and how-tos for this exact reason. When things go wrong, people go to the Internet for answers and solutions.
Another factor for the traction that tradesmen influencers have found could originate in part due to the COVID pandemic. During the nation-wide quarantine in 2020, the emergence of niche interests became important just as a way to stay sane. People picked up hobbies, some of them in the trade sector, to keep busy in a time when they could not go about their daily life as usual.
The rise of trade influencers has been a steady, yet undeniable incline. Whether their purpose is entertainment, education or to inform, tradesmen have found a way for their message to be shared by social media and an audience to listen to it. For as long as there are buildings and roads and electricity and more, there will be trade influencers to teach us about them.
To learn more about user-generated content, check out this blog post and see why you should take advantage of it.
