What does it mean to be an influencer in today’s digital world? According to a 2024 poll, over half of Gen Z want to be influencers. Multiple platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest and X (formerly Twitter) offer various forms of content types such as photo dumps, dance videos and text. Content creation has allowed thousands of people to share their niche perspectives on food, drink, travel, dance, education, fashion, etc. and here in Seattle we have our own influencer community.
Jim256 on TikTok, or Jimmy Nguyen, a first-year communications major at the University of Washington, started creating content before he set foot on campus. During the pandemic, he began posting TikTok dances without thinking he would get any attention. However, after consistently posting on the UW campus, tagging landmarks like Denny Hall and Red Square, Nguyen started drawing a lot of attention. The first time Nguyen noticed he was getting a lot of engagement was after posting to the “Sugar on My Tongue” trend, which uses a song by Tyler, the Creator. After posting a viral TikTok a few days later with over 160k views, where he invited “UW baddies” to come collaborate with him, the name ‘Jimmy’ has become a household name for UW students and beyond.
He has become known for the “if you’re a baddie, this is for you” trend, collaborating with everyday students, clubs and other content creators to either bring awareness to their work and events or just meet new people.
“People keep calling me a campus celebrity nowadays, so I would consider myself an influencer,” Nguyen said.
As a Professor of Communications and Media who teaches Social Media Management among other classes, Jiangmeng Liu explores what it means to be an influencer. What sets an influencer apart from an ordinary social media user is focus, consistency and expertise in a particular field or topic. Ordinary users post irregularly or without a clear theme, but once they start to hone in on an identity or niche, they partake in creating content and building credibility.
Liu pinpoints three tips to follow if someone wants to start creating content. First, ask yourself why you want to be an influencer. Do you want to share your passions, or are you hoping for likes and followers?
“Neither answer is necessarily wrong, but the motivation matters. If you genuinely enjoy sharing, then follow that passion and try not to be overly affected by comments from strangers. If you are more motivated by attention, recognition or opportunities, that is also understandable—but then you need to be more strategic,” Liu said.
Two, start small and with something you already know, do or enjoy. This makes it easier to figure out what your content should aim to share or do. Three, be patient and consistent. Becoming an influencer comes from consistently creating content that helps your audience.
After discovering those tactics for himself, Jaime Lambey, or @lambeydoescosplay on Instagram, is a fourth-year theatre major at Seattle University who posts with passion, knowledge and consistency. Lambey has been a cosplayer for 11 years, and after seeing fellow cosplayers turn to social media during the pandemic, he joined in as well. Because conventions during COVID were sparse, Lambey found community by posting on Instagram; while he still prefers in-person company, social media has given him access to a new form of outreach.
If you scroll through Lambey’s Instagram page, you’ll notice Spiderman is the most common character Lambey portrays. Spiderman was a convenient technical choice due to the simplicity of the one-piece costume, but is also an inspiring character for Lambey.
“It’s one of those characters that has fascinated me, that I can spend a lot of time with and that I still discover new things from just from interacting with different people,” Lambey said.
When it comes to the world of influencing, Lambey considers himself a content creator more than an influencer. He sees the latter as being transactional rather than a peer-to-peer relationship, which is what the former means to him. Becoming an ‘influencer’ for Lambey also means the content becomes work rather than fun.
“I’m still in that relationship where I can more or less decide when it’s work and when it’s just fun,” Lambey said.
Along with his cosplayer account, Lambey now also has a theatre account, @lambeydoestheatre, to share his professional work.
Just as Lambey started posting about his hobbies, Zara Wiley, or @zaramixtapes on TikTok, posts music and niche Seattle lifestyle recommendations because of her own interests in the subjects. Once artists and record labels started reaching out to her two years ago to promote their music, she realized social media was something she could take seriously.
“I was trying to listen to an album every day for myself. That was just a fun little goal. And then, I don’t really know why, but I started posting me reviewing the albums I listened to. I guess it was a way to keep track for myself of my own little project. But then I got a lot of positive feedback on them. That feedback helped me grow my confidence,” Wiley said.
Now, Wiley’s content is a bit more structured with scheduled posts each week. Wiley tries to focus on creating relatable content for her audience to connect with. With 29k followers, Wiley’s growth has connected her to other Seattle content creators through influencer events, and has even gotten her event invites from New York and LA. When it comes to the culture of ‘influencers,’ Wiley recognizes that a subsection of influencers seems out of touch and disconnected from what they do compared to a service-industry job (which she also works in).
“It goes both ways. It’s fair to judge us. But it’s also like, don’t judge us all the same. We’re all different people,” Wiley said.
For Rebecca, or @amfqchan on Instagram, their journey with social media began with a private spam account with only their friends following. After getting a content ban warning for sharing her personal opinions and vent sessions on Instagram, Rebecca moved to TikTok so they wouldn’t lose their posts and memories. Their posts focus on fashion, short-form comedy and cosplay, with their bio describing them as a “niche nonbinary internet furry.” One of their most viral videos, filmed on the Quad, features them wearing a fursuit head and paws standing back-to-back with another furry, captioned “this so us twin.”
“Eventually, one of my videos accidentally went viral, and a lot of people seemed to enjoy my content. I then began posting more content geared towards general audiences publicly with my fursuit, and over time, I shifted towards having more of a ‘content creator’ attitude as opposed to my previous unfiltered spamming,” Rebecca wrote in an email to The Spectator.
When it comes to their experiences with other Seattle influencers, Rebecca reflected on an experience when a larger Seattle influencer, who was not named, left a hate comment on one of their earlier posts with less engagement. The same influencer then came back around after Rebecca started going viral, asking to collaborate with them. Rebecca said no; they only collaborate with friends and people they’ve already worked with successfully before.
With their accounts growing to 41k followers on TikTok and 22k followers on Instagram, Rebecca is encouraged by their fans to keep posting. They also host friends and other Seattle influencers to create content together and work on collaborations. The goal isn’t just to grow their accounts, but to have a fun time with like-minded individuals.
“I view them less as events and more as genuine hangout sessions, and I plan on hosting an open-invite influencer event in the near future!” Rebecca wrote.
For Sania Junejo, or @beingsaniai on both TikTok and Instagram, her food content is an extension of sending food recommendations to friends and family. With a primary focus on spotlighting halal food options as well as reviewing local Seattle coffee shops, travel experiences and hidden gems in Seattle, Junejo enjoys the experience of documenting life.
Junejo has gone viral multiple times due to a variety of content: a TikTok revealing Mt. Fuji invisible behind clouds, watching the Super Bowl at her local mosque and an announcement about the new Joe and the Juice and K-Beauty store at Bellevue Mall.
“I want a genuine relationship with my audience. I’d love to continue working with brands, restaurants, hotels and local businesses that fit naturally with my content, but having an authentic voice and connection with my audience is the priority,” Junejo said. “I also want to expand more into travel content over time, especially for Muslim travelers because I think that’s an underserved audience.”
Whether it’s TikTok, Instagram or elsewhere, you can find people dancing to the latest pop song, reviewing their favorite (or least favorite) coffee shop, putting together an outfit for the day and taking you along for a DIML (day in the life). Influencing or content creation, whichever label you prefer, offers a place for anyone to share their passions and interests. The question to ask is: Do you want to be an influencer?
Staff reporter Maddie Rodriguez contributed to this article.
