Influencer vs. Affluencer

Before getting into detail about the importance of affluencers, it is important to first off introduce the term. The term “affluencer,” is a relatively new term that many people may not be familiar with. However, it is very similar to the term “influencer.” According to Henry Jenkins et al. (2013), an influencer is “an elite member of any given community who…can convince everyone else to follow suit" (p. 80). An affluencer is very close to this idea, however according to Dominus (2008), it specifies these “elite members” to be high-societal affluent consumers, in other words, the rich and famous celebrities that the public constantly sees and hears on the news. It is these celebrities, or affluencers, that were able to propel Twitter to the fame and recognition it has today because their friends and fans would follow them in trying out the new social media site.