Digital influence

Digital influence is the capacity to affect others to take action and/or change opinions and behavior. Gone are the days when the child is affected only by the people around him – father, mother, other relatives, neighbors, classmates. The same is true for the adult. It’s not just his family, friends, neighbors, co-workers that affect him.

Think about it, how much time do you spend talking to your family? Compare that to the time you spend on the internet mindlessly browsing through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. A lot of the things we “consume” today come from the internet. When are we waiting for someone or something, what do we do? Instead of looking around observing our environment, we click our phone and check our email, text, the latest on our feeds and those of the people we follow. In fact, even when on a vacation, chances we are taking photos so we can post on our social media accounts ATM (at the moment)! Then we would check every once in a while how our friends/followers reacted to our post. Here’s an FYI. Do you know why we seem to have that compulsion to do so? Because “likes” and “hearts” give us a dose of dopamine. Yes, that’s the addicting feel good chemical we secrete.

Whether we admit it or not, we are significantly influenced by what we see on our devices. It affects our moods, opinions and behavior.

Last Saturday, I was the moderator of a panel discussion during the annual event of Blogapalooza. Headed by young entrepreneur Ace Gapuz, Blogapalooza is a digital marketing firm that also provides network for bloggers and other digital players. Our topic was Internet Rockstars: Stories of Building Influence in the Digital Space.

Check this out. The panelists, except for Ramon Bautista, were all young enough to be my children. I was totally feeling the Tita of Manila! What can you expect, our average age in the country is 23 years old. This reminds me of a friend’s message, “Rose, I met your son in an investment briefing. I felt so ancient!”

The panelists were Louise delos Reyes, an actress who appears in top rating teleserye “Ang Probinsiyano;” Kim Cruz, a Myx VJ; Joyce Pring, DJ and TV host and Ramon Bautista, comedian film maker and teacher.

From left to right –  The author, Ramon Bautista, Louise delos Reyes, Kim Cruz and Joyce Pring.

The discussion revolved around how they started, how they built their number of followers, how they dealt with haters and bashers and their message to the people who are following them. More discussions happened outside our segment.

The author with Joyce Pring.

I learned that 24-year-old Joyce belongs to a family of OFWs. “I only got my first passport a couple of years ago because for my parents, you travel abroad to work,” she said. But since then this articulate millennial has gone to various countries which she shares in her blog. She started out during the days of Multiply and went on to become a DJ, event host and she recently signed up with GMA 7 for some shows.

The author with Kim Cruz.

Kim Cruz is barely 19 years old and she started blogging about fashion after high school. Her relationship with a showbiz personality made people more interested in her, adding more followers to her social media account. She is currently a Myx VJ while studying at the Ateneo de Manila University, where she is now in her third year.

The author with Louise delos Reyes.

Louise delos Santos started acting at a tender age of eight appearing in movies, TV shows and commercials. She stopped acting to finish schooling, then came back in her teens. She has also won a few beauty titles such as Miss Lyceum, Miss Cavite, Miss Teen Philippines International. Now at 25, she is a micro blogger and plays the role of a SAF (Special Action Force) member in the teleserye “Ang Probinsyano.” She shared, “I have to learn Muay Thai for the role” as she pointed to her bruises with a smile.

The author with Ramon Bautista.

Ramon Bautista is a natural comedian, who delivers his punch lines with a straight face. He wrote, among others, “Bakit hindi ka crush ng crush mo?” which was adapted into a movie. He is also known for his funny pieces of advice on romantic relationships that are shared on the net. When I asked him, “Ramon, how come Wikipedia says you were born in 1986? You’re just as old as EDSA Revolution? Is that fake news?”  To that he replied, “Yes, that’s fake news, I was born in 1991.” 

Aside from the laughs, I brought home these key takeaways from the event:

1. A lot of the so-called internet rock stars are very young.

2. Most of them started out without any grand objective of becoming digital heavy weights, but just got into it out of curiosity, a form of expression, digital diaries and even by just messing around.

3. They have their share of highs as they see their number of followers increasing, that pave the way to bigger things such as hosting, acting, product endorsements, etc.

4. Popularity comes with haters and bashers. They just have to know when to engage and when to ignore.

5. They realize that with great influence/power comes great responsibility. (Oh, I just have to add Ramon Bautista’s version of this maxim, “With great power comes… high electric bills!” )

For more of these Ramon Bautista jokes and words of wisdom from these young internet rock stars, please watch our FQwentuhan tomorrow at 12 noon. 

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ANNOUNCEMENT

1. Our FQwentuhan - Internet Rockstars: Building Influence in the Digital Space will come out at 12 noon on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017 on FQ Mom’s Facebook page. 

2. Want to know your FQ score? Take it today. Click link to take the test. http://tinyurl.com/FQTest

Rose Fres Fausto is a speaker and author of bestselling books “Raising Pinoy Boys” and “The Retelling of The Richest Man in Babylon” (English and Filipino versions). Click this link to read samples – Books of FQ Mom Rose. She is a behavioral economist, a certified gallup strengths coach and the grand prize winner of the first Sinag Financial Literacy Digital Journalism Awards. Follow her on Facebook and You Tube as FQ Mom, and Twitter & Instagram as theFQMom.

ATTRIBUTIONS: Images from the event were used to help deliver the message of the article.