How can Influencers drive change responsibly?

Do you think creators or influencers are effectively promoting positive change?

In one of our Fireside Chats, we caught up with Benn Farr, a YouTuber with nearly 115K subs, to understand accountability in shaping narratives.

Who is Ben Farr?

Now, let's dive right into the conversation. 👇

Thousand Faces Club: We often hold people in the mainstream accountable for endorsing products- right or wrong. But that isn't the case for influencers. How do you look at this landscape?

Ben: Having access to an audience of people that is very congregated in one little area- that's what influencers provide. It's a trust-based relationship with a larger group of people that all fit into one demographic and the companies know that. So, there's a very big responsibility that creators have to gatekeeper their audience and protect their audience from dangerous products - this isn't often thought about by creators.

Thousand Faces Club: What content or product would you refrain from promoting on your social- not today and even tomorrow? Can you tell us about your framework for choosing a product for endorsing?

Ben: For me, anything I would be promoting or sharing, I would 100% make sure it is something I use and that I believe in. My audience has shown they're into science, education, and tech. So promoting some drink product— its just not gonna make any sense for my brand.

The three things that I would be looking for are usability, value, and the connection to my audience. Just staying true to my belief system would be a big piece of that down the line.

Thousand Faces Club: Makes sense. You've been a shorts creator. And many of your shorts have gone viral and have more than 1 million views. Also, about a year ago a long-form video went viral. How did this change your creative process?

Ben: The concept of shorts is something that I found cool as the audience is way mature for short-form content as compared to other platforms. But I didn't know how the audience would translate and that is something I neglected. So I'd create long-form content that didn't pair up with the audience of my short videos.

So one of the biggest focus on my channel is directing those short-form viewers and the people who are most interested to my long-form content. A lot of that comes down to perfecting the first minute of that video; it has to be successful short in the first minute for people to consider watching. I like to look at it as if I'm making multiple short-form pieces of content in one long-form video.

Check out Ben's YouTube Channel 👇

Thousand Faces Club: How to choose your next video after going viral?

Ben: Based on the viral video, I read that as a signal of what most of my audience wanted whereas it was more of an outlier of a concept. I was creating videos about specific things in media and in culture for a little while and it wasn't what my audience wanted.

What they had found interesting was the approach I was taking to talking about creators or tech but I read that as a full signal that I needed to pivot my content entirely.

If you found this insightful, you’ll find the entire conversation even more useful. Check it out here. 👇

That’s it for this week! We’ll be back with another story next Tuesday. 👋🏻

While you're at it, check out our new stuff on YouTube and Instagram.

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