 I just have my camera, my food, my magazines. You know, I stay busy in bed. Not the kind of busy, you know, people think you're supposed to be in your 20s, but it's work. I'm sweating. Home Interiors and Lifestyle micro-influencer, Janae Brown, has about 30,000 followers. And although we often think of influencers as celebrities with millions of followers and crazy lavish lifestyles, it's becoming possible to succeed as a smaller creator. For micro-influencers, it's less about their scale and it's more about the close connections they have with a smaller group of people. And it's exactly this type of tight-knit community that advertisers in 2019 are trying to get a part of. Which is why someone with 30,000 followers could possibly quit their day job and go full-time on Instagram. So let's head to Brooklyn, see what that life is like. Okay so this grid post has been up now. Let me refresh. It's been up for 14 minutes. And it has 483 likes. Which for me was unheard of literally three months ago. I actually first started Instagram like most people, just posting silly pictures for friends. I was really just having fun. Like I saw that other women were posting fun pictures and cute outfits and I was like, well I don't see that many curvy black women doing that so I'm gonna try that. When I started taking Instagram seriously in January of 2018, my whole mission or point of my page was to be relatable and essentially let more women know that hey like whatever you're going through, you're not alone. Whether you're going through a breakup, whether you're dealing with body image issues, like girl like I've been there, let's chat. It's this approach that has jump-started Jenae's success. And yes, she actually reads just about every comment. She used an orange heart, I'm gonna use an orange heart. It never gets old. Every time I see this room, I just heart eye emojis. The main part of my page is actually the conversations that we're having. Anyone can be an influencer if the people who are following them really care about what they're saying. That's Joe Gagliese. He's one of the co-founders of Viral Nation, a full-service marketing company that specializes in influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is nothing more than word of mouth on steroids. So I know influencers, even friends of mine who have a thousand followers, but that's like a cult following and you know when he talks about some really new cool restaurant he went to in Toronto or New York, people go to it. Oh yeah, this light is pretty. So I'm very open and honest with my audience about hashtag scam for the gram, which the aesthetic we create on Instagram a lot of the times that is not factual. I don't drink coffee, so I just have this one that I keep in the fridge and I just use for photos. So these are photos that I use that are pretty and may catch someone's attention and then in the hopes that they'll read the caption and be able to relate. I know the amount of work I'm putting into my posts. It's not just like take a cute selfie picture. I'm moving furniture, I'm setting things up and then coming up with a relatable caption, responding to these comments, answering questions. And in order to do that, there's going to be a need for some sponsored posts, which will probably for me is only 5% of what I share. Although Jenae's media kit is constantly changing based on her subscriber and engagement accounts, when we visited her in late March of 2019, it looked a little like this. Now Instagram is not Jenae's full time job, but this money is helping her build a brand that could someday turn into a full career. As brands start to realize that it's harder and harder to reach certain people, that influencers are going to be that kind of golden, you know, golden egg that allows that kind of scale big, big audience while also coming across in a way that people are going to consume it. Jenae is in a unique position where she has this strong connection with her audience. But can she retain that as she grows and attempts to make this more than just a side hustle? Yeah, it's gotten to a place where I'm not able to know as many other people's stories. It's hard for me because I feel like I'm being very selfish and it's more of like a take, take, take now. And I'm not giving back by engaging with other people. But yeah, hopefully that's not the case. And I'm hoping as I, you know, learn more how to do each job more efficiently, I'll be able to open up that time again to engage with other people again, because that is really important to me. I'm just slightly overwhelmed at the moment. I just realized that I did not respond to someone's comment. I actually just commented on my own picture five minutes ago saying, OMG, you are seriously the sweetest. But it is not in response to anyone. So we're going to delete that because that is not cute.
 I just have my camera, my food, my magazines.
 You know, I stay busy in bed.
 Not the kind of busy, you know, people think you're supposed to be in your 20s, but it's
 work.
 I'm sweating.
 Home Interiors and Lifestyle micro-influencer, Janae Brown, has about 30,000 followers.
 And although we often think of influencers as celebrities with millions of followers
 and crazy lavish lifestyles, it's becoming possible to succeed as a smaller creator.
 For micro-influencers, it's less about their scale and it's more about the close connections
 they have with a smaller group of people.
 And it's exactly this type of tight-knit community that advertisers in 2019 are trying
 to get a part of.
 Which is why someone with 30,000 followers could possibly quit their day job and go full-time
 on Instagram.
 So let's head to Brooklyn, see what that life is like.
 Okay so this grid post has been up now.
 Let me refresh.
 It's been up for 14 minutes.
 And it has 483 likes.
 Which for me was unheard of literally three months ago.
 I actually first started Instagram like most people, just posting silly pictures for friends.
 I was really just having fun.
 Like I saw that other women were posting fun pictures and cute outfits and I was like,
 well I don't see that many curvy black women doing that so I'm gonna try that.
 When I started taking Instagram seriously in January of 2018, my whole mission or point
 of my page was to be relatable and essentially let more women know that hey like whatever
 you're going through, you're not alone.
 Whether you're going through a breakup, whether you're dealing with body image issues, like
 girl like I've been there, let's chat.
 It's this approach that has jump-started Jenae's success.
 And yes, she actually reads just about every comment.
 She used an orange heart, I'm gonna use an orange heart.
 It never gets old.
 Every time I see this room, I just heart eye emojis.
 The main part of my page is actually the conversations that we're having.
 Anyone can be an influencer if the people who are following them really care about what
 they're saying.
 That's Joe Gagliese.
 He's one of the co-founders of Viral Nation, a full-service marketing company that specializes
 in influencer marketing.
 Influencer marketing is nothing more than word of mouth on steroids.
 So I know influencers, even friends of mine who have a thousand followers, but that's
 like a cult following and you know when he talks about some really new cool restaurant
 he went to in Toronto or New York, people go to it.
 Oh yeah, this light is pretty.
 So I'm very open and honest with my audience about hashtag scam for the gram, which the
 aesthetic we create on Instagram a lot of the times that is not factual.
 I don't drink coffee, so I just have this one that I keep in the fridge and I just use
 for photos.
 So these are photos that I use that are pretty and may catch someone's attention and then
 in the hopes that they'll read the caption and be able to relate.
 I know the amount of work I'm putting into my posts.
 It's not just like take a cute selfie picture.
 I'm moving furniture, I'm setting things up and then coming up with a relatable caption,
 responding to these comments, answering questions.
 And in order to do that, there's going to be a need for some sponsored posts, which
 will probably for me is only 5% of what I share.
 Although Jenae's media kit is constantly changing based on her subscriber and engagement
 accounts, when we visited her in late March of 2019, it looked a little like this.
 Now Instagram is not Jenae's full time job, but this money is helping her build a brand
 that could someday turn into a full career.
 As brands start to realize that it's harder and harder to reach certain people, that influencers
 are going to be that kind of golden, you know, golden egg that allows that kind of scale
 big, big audience while also coming across in a way that people are going to consume
 it.
 Jenae is in a unique position where she has this strong connection with her audience.
 But can she retain that as she grows and attempts to make this more than just a side hustle?
 Yeah, it's gotten to a place where I'm not able to know as many other people's stories.
 It's hard for me because I feel like I'm being very selfish and it's more of like a take,
 take, take now.
 And I'm not giving back by engaging with other people.
 But yeah, hopefully that's not the case.
 And I'm hoping as I, you know, learn more how to do each job more efficiently, I'll
 be able to open up that time again to engage with other people again, because that is really
 important to me.
 I'm just slightly overwhelmed at the moment.
 I just realized that I did not respond to someone's comment.
 I actually just commented on my own picture five minutes ago saying, OMG, you are seriously
 the sweetest.
 But it is not in response to anyone.
 So we're going to delete that because that is not cute.