Actually having the reputed or apparent qualities or character; actually produced by or proceeding from the alleged source or author; sincerely and honestly felt or experienced; ACTUAL, TRUE.
Free from hypocrisy or pretense: SINCERE.
The above definitions are provided by Merriam-Webster for the term “genuine.” Genuine is an adjective that is used to describe something that is presenting itself truthfully, honestly, and sincerely.
Unfortunately, the world is full of people who are not genuine. Sometimes it happens accidentally — people may not know what they want to be, and they must find themselves before they can show the world who they genuinely are. Other times, however, being inauthentic is a conscious choice, where the person is not genuine because acting false gets them something that they want or think they need.
An example that is familiar to ARMYs is clout chasers. Clout chasers are, in essence, owners of large accounts or influencers who use BTS to garner interest in their content and make money. They can exist in any fandom with a sizable population that would be interested in content related to the fandom, and they are generally not true fans of the content — or in this case, BTS. BTS has had to suffer a number of clout chasers over the years due to their growing popularity and the increasingly large number of ARMYs who follow them. ARMY, by extension, has also suffered the same fate.
Recently, a man named Brian Byrne published an article in Business Insider that details his “failure story” of trying to become an influencer as a content creator about BTS. Interestingly, this article is now subscriber-only (coincidence?). If you missed the original story, one ARMY named Andrea kindly took screenshots of the article and posted it on Twitter, which you can reference. It’s a series of tweets to click through, and the link we provided is the beginning of Andrea’s series of posts.
The premise of his article is that there are a few mistakes that an aspiring influencer can make while trying to gain traction on the notoriously mercurial internet landscape. Byrne professes to share important “lessons” for those attempting to be influencers so that they can learn from his mistakes and try their hands at the career of influencing.
On the surface, the lessons themselves (which operate as headings for different subsections of the article) aren’t useless. The first lesson, for example, is that YouTube ad revenue can be inconsistent. This in and of itself is good information to have.
However, once you read beyond the surface, some interesting truths begin to reveal themselves.
Right from the start, it’s obvious that Byrne’s focus was on making money. He specifically states that he wanted to try a career as an influencer and that, due to his work at NowThis, it felt like the “perfect opportunity” to try being an influencer again. While working at NowThis, he’d “produced content about BTS, the biggest band in the world with a famously loyal and dedicated fanbase. One of [his] videos got close to 900,000 views on Twitter, and fans wrote thousands of affirmative comments praising [him] for reporting on the group without prejudice.”
He later states that he “genuinely” likes BTS’ music and posts some stats of how his articles and videos fared on Twitter, in particular calling out threads he created highlighting the prejudice against BTS in the Western music industry. At Borasaek Vision, we also appreciated his viewpoints and support on the matter, as it is something that we ourselves have covered (and will continue to cover).
When you read the whole article and look at it objectively, a pattern begins to emerge. Byrne bemoans the fickle nature of the internet, complains about the backlash when he created a Patreon, and lays out several mistakes he made in detail. In the introduction to the article, he states:
“...our brief interaction helped encourage me to build my own internet following. I made over 70 videos. Some of them blatantly ripped off established influencers. Once, I filmed myself cooking while drunk in the hopes that it would attract an audience as it did for Hannah Hart… I tried everything to stand out, and yet I couldn’t even crack 1,000 subscribers.”
Let’s look at a few more key quotes:
“However, I was hardly earning any money...The views on my videos swung wildly, from highs of hundreds of thousands to lows of a tiny fraction of that, meaning I wasn’t developing a loyal audience who tuned in to every video.”
“The correlation between YouTube views and ad revenue meant that when my videos did well, I felt elated and dreamt about how big my earnings might become in the future.”
“With no other jobs lined up and my savings starting to dwindle, I knew I needed to earn a reliable income — fast.”
“During a conversation with a more established influencer in the K-pop community, I learned that they had grown a significant subscriber base on Patreon by posting reaction videos to various K-pop groups...Until this point, I’d mainly posted content about BTS, so producing reaction videos of other groups was a significant pivot.”
Within the article, he reveals exactly why he had so much trouble. He admits several times that some of his mistakes were his own fault, but he plowed ahead with his efforts in influencing without investigating the root cause of some of his thought patterns. He states it clearly but does not seem to realize the importance of what he’s saying.
In these statements, Byrne admits in his own words that he was heavily copying other people. Whether he was borrowing their ideas directly or trying to copy the format, he was relying on the work of others to provide the basis for his content. Additionally, because he was trying this as his career path, he was focused more on the financial aspects than on the creation and quality of the content.
While it makes sense to be interested in finances when you’re pursuing something as a career, his “get rich quick” approach led to his downfall. Not, as he says, because of fears of financial insecurity, though that certainly played its part.
Rather, it is because he lacked genuineness. His work was not plagiarized, but it was not — as the definition of the word implies — sincere. Liking BTS’ music is a good thing — something we obviously encourage as ARMYs ourselves. But if your main focus is monetization, will your content truly be appealing and exclusive? What will it really show the world?
Byrne mainly demonstrates this in his third lesson when he talks about changing your brand after developing a following. He specifies: “Be wary of changing your brand after you’ve built a following. If you do, expect a large chunk of your audience to unfollow you.” After talking with his fellow K-pop influencer, he explains that he posted a reaction video for BLACKPINK’s “DDU-DU DDU-DU” and his follower count started to plummet.
Instead of investigating why that might be, he instead seems to imply that the “fault” (if it can even be called that, in this case) lies with the fans for not sticking with him. However, the answer is in the question: his influencer associate was a K-pop influencer by his own admission. However, if Byrne presents himself as a BTS fan and then hard swaps to something else (which, again, he did by his own admission), it raises a lot of questions. It makes it look like he is just... clout-chasing. Using BTS — and also, in this case, BLACKPINK — for money.
If you’re in it for the money, is your focus really on your content? Are you really making a brand for yourself instead of copying someone else’s brand to try and mimic their success?
It is not surprising that an influencer might fall prey to these same traps that Byrne did without a clear direction. Using ourselves as an example, if we at Borasaek Vision suddenly began talking about other groups and reviewing their music without explanation or preamble as to why we are expanding our horizons in that way, should it come as a surprise to us that our followers and readers stop reading our content?
As a person grows and changes, so might their interests. Might they wish to expand their horizons? Of course. And that’s perfectly okay. The issue with Byrne is less that he did it, but more with how he did it. Clever marketing could have saved him a lot of trouble — or, perhaps, stepping back and reviewing his focus.
While some people on the internet may follow blindly, there are just as many who pay attention. People can see if you are genuine, and eventually, if you are not.
BTS encourages all of us to find ourselves. The only way to create a brand is to be yourself. In the end, no one can do that for you. Only you can find yourself.
DISCLAIMER: We do not own any audio & visual content in this video except for the editing. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS. No copyright infringement intended.
Written By: Anna Moon
Edit By: Esma
Checked By: Clare