We have always looked to others for inspiration, direction, knowledge, companionship and a sense of belonging and the search extends well beyond our physical family and friend circles.to now include online influencers.

Why are some people able to get millions of people to follow them and hang on their every digital word and image?

Why does Christiano Ronaldo, world famous Portuguese football player, with 235 million Instagram followers get paid $775,000 for a single post and Ariana Grande with 197 million followers get paid $652.000 per post.

This week Hong Kong Radio 3’s Phil Whelan and I chat about all things “influencer” what one is, why they exist, what they offer and why we follow them.

And its not only humans that are influencers, we have dogs, cats, cars, brands, places and objects all with huge followings and not to be out done, we also have robot influencers.

Lil Miquela (a.k.a. Miquela) a Japanese virtual rock star with a decade of sold out real life concerts, is a digital synthetic human (cartoon / avatar) that has a huge real life human following.

Noonoouri an activist, vegan and fur-free supporter struts the virtual runways of the world wearing designer outfits created by Givenchy and other high end fashion houses and is also growing in her ability to influence.

And behind all of this all the social media platforms need these influencers to thrive and grow in popularity, the better they do, the more people they influence the more people log on to the platform.

This weeks chat also starts with a personal reflection of the toll the COVID 19 lock-down is having on Melbourne, Australia and me.

Take a listen now as we chat all things influencer (17 mins 48 secs).