For Gen Z, playing an influencer on TikTok comes naturally

Rachel Aaron, a 24-year-old who works in public relations in New York, recently dressed up for a work event at Bloomingdale’s. In the era of ‘get ready with me’ videos on TikTok, it was a golden opportunity to create content.

Ms. Aaron, who has just 3,300 followers on TikTok, filmed herself chatting to the camera as she picked out a black Skims dress, blazer and belt. Her post got a few hundred views and some rave comments like “Slay mamas.”

Ms. Aaron is neither a huge social media star nor a celebrity. At least not yet. But she’s part of a generation that’s increasingly posting to social media the way professional influencers do: sharing daily routines, pitching or unpacking products, modeling clothes, and promoting personal Amazon storefronts. These videos are often perceived by peers (and sometimes baffled parents) as cool and enterprising. They can also lead to free stuff and extra money.

Ms. Aaron lists an email address for brand questions on her TikTok profile and a link to her page on Linktree, a site that collects her commercial affiliations in one place to signal her influence as a tastemaker. One of the links is her Poshmark page, where she resells her clothes.

“It’s more accepted among people my age to talk on camera and make product recommendations and things like that,” said Ms. Aaron.

She added that Generation Z – defined as the group of people born between 1997 and 2012 – is particularly fluent in such dialogues, and is used to regular people selling goods on YouTube and Instagram. “For a lot of people my age group and Gen Z makers I know, getting in front of the camera and talking like we’re using FaceTime with a friend is probably less cringe-inducing,” she said.

Because people like Ms. Aaron spend time on TikTok and other social media sites, it’s no problem for them to act like advertisers, without the secondhand embarrassment that can come with selling items door-to-door or delivering goods. multi-level marketing pitches.

The guiding idea is that anyone can be a creator and bring in money and free products from companies eager to work with the young and smart on TikTok, where it can be difficult for brands to break into. More than 70 percent of 18- to 29-year-old women on social media follow influencers or content creators, and half of them have purchased something after seeing an influencer’s posts, according to a Pew Research survey last year .

“You might have 12 followers and you’re selling swag,” says Vickie Segar, the founder of Village Marketing, an influencer agency. “The macro movement that everyone is a maker, and the idea that makers should make money any way they can, just trickles down to the common people.”

Ngozi Oka, a 21-year-old junior at the University at Buffalo, said she was inspired to start using TikTok influence after giving a presentation on women of color and makeup for the Black Student Union on her campus.

“I was like, if I can make PowerPoints, I think I can make TikToks too,” said Ms Oka, who has left 5,100 followers on the platform, and specializes in hair and wig videos.

Ms Oka said she created a new email account to put on her TikTok profile for business inquiries, along with a link to her Linktree, where she lists recommended wigs, and to her Amazon store. When people buy her picks on Amazon, she earns a small commission. Despite her modest following, Ms. Oka said several brands have contacted her to recommend their products, and she’s made hundreds of dollars doing so.

The mere presence of a Linktree and Amazon store shows that you’re “a lot into creating and influencing content,” she said.

“It’s very noticeable when you go on someone’s page and see that,” Ms Oka added. “It’s kind of LinkedIn.”

Because most social media sites only allow users to promote one link in their profile, millions of people post a Linktree link in that space, taking visitors to a page listing any number of sites they want to share . While several companies offer similar services, Linktree has tapped into artists and social media personalities, from pop star Katy Perry to TikTok icon Dixie D’Amelio. Even the White House recently joined the service. (People also use Linktree for more than just ecommerce, personal websites, Spotify pages, and more.)

“What Gmail is to email, Linktree is to ‘link in bio,'” said Benoit Vatere, the CEO of Mammoth Media, a marketing company that connects TikTok creators with brands. “It’s a status marker for the Gen Zs.”

One of the hot links to include is to an Amazon storefront, where people curate their recommendations for clothes, makeup, body lotion, and more.

According to Linktree, the data suggested that most users who link to Amazon storefronts are not influencers, but people who act like influencers. 77 percent of Amazon links created on Linktree last year came from users who received fewer than 1,000 visits to their profile.

Yet many young people spend a painstaking amount of time curating their Amazon storefront as part of their TikTok personas. Often it’s the only link in their TikTok bios or the first on their Linktree pages.

Chloe Van Berkel, a 19-year-old freshman at James Madison University, lists 47 items in her Amazon storefront in categories like “skin care” and “summer essentials.” Mrs Van Berkel, who is approx 6,800 TikTok followers, said the commission she earned from her window display was meager, bringing in about $10 a month. But, she added, there was always a chance a video would go viral and drive a lot of traffic to her site.

“It’s just something on the side to make more money, and it’s cool to be able to promote stuff you like, of course, and tell your friends to buy it,” Ms. Van Berkel said.

Ms Van Berkel, who has also been given free bathing suits and workout gear in exchange for social media approval, estimated that one in seven of her friends was pitching products on TikTok or Instagram in their spare time.

“All the time people make videos saying do this, buy this, here are things you need for your dorm,” she said. “It’s certainly not something you see and think is weird.”

The norms are different for many millennials and older generations, who may be more shocked when a friend on social media suddenly throws products into their phone cameras.

Ms. Aaron said millennials often hesitate before speaking to the camera, in what she and her friends jokingly refer to as the “millennial pause.”

Students have been inspired by other students who have become famous on TikTok in recent years. Several women pointed to the meteoric rise of Alix Earle, a senior at the University of Miami who has more than five million followers and prominently advertises her Amazon picks while also working with brands like Nars and American Eagle.

Ms. Oka said she admired Monet McMichael, a TikTok star who has more than three million followers and graduated from nursing school last year, which Ms. Oka said she viewed it as an ambitious balance.

But fame and large following are not necessarily the main goals.

“You don’t need to have thousands of followers and that’s a big misconception many people have,” Ms Oka said. “Once you have that email in your biography showing that you’re influencing, and you want to be more influential, I feel like you’re grabbing the attention of whoever you’re trying to find.”