The least surprising way to increase revenues when you are an influencer

Long-time readers may remember that I don’t have a high opinion of social media influencers (see here). But since social media has ruined our world, becoming an influencer is increasingly a viable career option to make serious money. So, if you are an influencer or know someone who is, how do you increase the number of followers you have and the ad revenue you generate on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube?

No prizes for guessing the right answer. Of course, it is sex.

Unfortunately, if you want to sell sex, you have to go to OnlyFans, because Instagram and others police the amount of nudity on the pictures and videos shared on their platforms. However, that doesn’t mean there is no nudity on them.

Sophia Gaenssle from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam classified the amount of ‘body exposure’ by influencers on Instagram by systematically trawling through the last twelve images posted by 60 of the most followed Instagram accounts and classifying how many of them showed more than 50% bare skin (other than portrait photos) or the primary sexual organs. Then she analysed the relationship between the ‘body count’ in these pictures and the number of followers and ad revenue generated.

To get an idea of how this works, take a look at the three examples below. For each Instagram account, the twelve images are either scored as one if the image is not a portrait and shows more than 50% of the body naked or focuses on the primary sexual organs or zero otherwise. Correspondingly, the example on the left has a ‘body count’ of 8, the one in the middle has 10, and the one on the right has 0. However, I must say that the one on the right is the most appealing to me because it features 12 images of food. Something must be wrong with me…

Three examples of Instagram accounts to evaluate body exposure scores

Source: Gaenssle (2023)

As you might imagine, Instagram accounts with higher body exposure on average have higher ad revenues. However, the difference between a body exposure count of 1 and a body exposure count of 12 is only statistically significant for accounts in the fitness category.

Relationship between body exposure and ad revenue by category

Source: Gaessle (2023)

For other categories, such as fashion, photography, and even food, there is an increase in ad revenue for accounts that show more nudity; however, this increase is not statistically significant. And for music accounts, the relationship is negative. I mean, imagine an Instagram influencer who posts pictures and videos of him or her playing the piano naked…

…and now I will let you go into the weekend with that image in your head.