Your last name doesn’t have to be Jenner or Kardashian to be able to make a living from social media posts, as a new generation of influencers and “micro-influencers” are proving.
It’s perfectly possible you’ve never heard of James Charles.
Birmingham City Council clearly hadn’t.
They were taken by surprise by the thousands of fans who brought the city centre to a standstill when he appeared for a meet-and-greet at the Bullring in January.
Charles is just one example of an influencer – a social media star who may not be an A-list celebrity by conventional standards, but inspires a cult-like following among fans, which is then often used to build an empire. Read more