Social media influencer is a growing career choice. Colleges have noticed

Have influencers on social media created a new career field worthy of formal education? 

A growing number of universities are looking at classes and majors aimed at giving influencers the skills needed to spot misinformation, communicate effectively with audiences and understand business contracts they could enter. 

“If people are serious about wanting to do a career in influencing or online content creation, they have to know that there is more to it," said Jessica Maddox, co-director for the Office of Politics, Communications and Media at the University of Alabama, who has started a class on the subject called Social Media Storytelling.  

"And, yes, a lot of people have been incredibly successful, kind of figuring it out as they go, working hard, building a channel, paying attention to their analytics, buying the equipment and learning, but I think we, as college professors like myself, we would be remiss if we did not treat this as a skill our students need going out into the world," Maddox added.

Classes on influencing have been popping up around the country as more young people give a serious look to the $2.1 billion industry. 

Summer Harlow, the associate director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas in Austin, teamed up with UNCESCO, to create a class specifically to help influencers tackle misinformation.  

"We kept seeing these different voices having influence on the news," Harlow said, so she and others “decided to launch this project to try and understand how digital content creators were changing the journalism field.” 

After roundtables with invested parties on the topic, the U.N.-backed partnership launched a free class for influencers. 

“It's a four-week course, and it's online. It's free. We're offering it in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. We have nearly 10,000 people enrolled from 170-plus countries. It's incredible. It's probably one of the most successful courses that we've done in terms of the number of participants, and then also in terms of engagement for the very first live session that we had,” Harlow said. 

Meanwhile, Arkansas Tech University has created an entire major it calls the “Bachelor of Arts in Social Media Influencing,” with courses including film production, journalism and public relations. 

“I think it's communication, I think it's production and I think it's business,” Kate Stewart, assistant professors of public relations at Jacksonville State University, said when asked what influencers could study. 

“I think it's that idea where communication and marketing is going to give them the strategies and the ethical grounding to understand what they're about to embark on as an influencer. Two, I think production is needed because it's highly visual. They're producing videos. They're editing videos. They're putting text on video. There's a production value,” Stewart said. “And then, lastly, business, they have to understand the business behind the management companies, the agencies, the brands, the other media companies that they're working with to be able to have the background to be successful.” 

But debate is ongoing over if influencers need a formal education at all — and if universities should be investing in the subject.

“There's definitely still a widespread disparagement of influencers [...] there is a lack of understanding that often sort of borders on scorn, where people are quite dismissive, because they see this as a passion project, where they see this as something that is easy, not very labor-intensive or skills based,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. 

“And the reality is, it's incredibly labor-intensive. It requires strategy and an understanding of the tech environment. But often, those elements of the job get concealed by the narrative that it's ‘not real work,’” she added.  

There are also real legal and financial dangers for those who break the rules, an area where educators hope they can help students avoid falling into trouble.

Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni was recently fined $1 million for misleading consumers about a partnership she had with a cakemaker, falsely making it seem as though funds from purchases would go to charity.

“This really tarnished her brand, and it’s a mistake that even her large team of comms, PR, legal and social media experts ended up making,” said Carolina Are, innovation fellow at Northumbria University’s Centre for Digital Citizens. 

“So, I’d say that now that influencers are slowly rising to the rank of traditional media — see podcasters’ role in the latest U.S. election — they need to be aware of the constraints and rules traditional media face. This should be a focus in any form of education about influencing,” added Are, who is also a content creator and blogger at bloggeronpole.com. 

It remains to been seen if full majors for influencers will become more widespread, particularly considering the rapidly shifting — and sometimes precarious — nature of the profession. 

“As we think about what it would be like to have a degree program focused on influencers, it's important that there is recognition of the often overlooked downsides of the career, and that includes the volatility,” Duffy said.  

Influencers have to deal with “hate and harassment and the persistent demand to turn out content. And so, yes, there are ways to orient people to work within this field, but I think orienting people towards the influencer economy also requires us to reckon with the less auspicious elements of the job,” she added.