The rise of the Pitt-fluencer: Student content creators thrive in the digital world

Student content creators are active on Pitt’s campus, posting with a passion for social media and monetization opportunities.

Following an increased presence of brand social media campaigns on college campuses, students are embracing content creation online, whether as a side gig to earn extra cash or to explore a passion for making videos. While some influencers cater to non-Pitt audiences, many take inspiration from their student lives.

According to RJ Thompson, a digital narrative and interactive design teaching associate professor and vice chair of the advisory board for the National Institute for Social Media, influencers create engaging content through characters and their own personality.

“[Influencers’] technical skills and their communication skills — whether or not they know they have them — creates an appeal, so much so that that appeal essentially makes them a character, and people find resonance in characters,” Thompson said. 

Students may be familiar with influencer Ashraf Badru, a first-year bioengineering major otherwise known by his alias, “Lone Starzz.” Badru has been making social media videos for the last five years, but created his alias in 2023 as a character extension of himself.

Badru says his content varies between his own beliefs and other content for his audience that he doesn’t necessarily align with.

“It depends on what portion of my content that we’re talking about, but I feel like what I do post on Lone Starzz is somewhat a reflection of what I believe or what I think, and some of it is not,” Badru said. 

As a creator with over two million likes on TikTok, Badru said he took to social media for more than just fame. 

“I do social media because I know that I can and I will be successful in this. I feel like everyone just aspires to be famous, but I just aspired to be heard, like my message, what I want people to know,” Badru said.

Badru tries to post four to five times a day on all his platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat, and is inspired by campus life and the community when ideating his content. 

Community inspiration is a common content focus for Katherine Sakdalan, a creator and senior biology major. Sakdalan creates day-in-my-life videos, beauty-related content and posts about her life as a pre-med student, which has connected her to a larger audience of prospective students.

“I feel especially [regarding] posting about Pitt, I know that there’s an audience in that, because people are looking for ‘What do students go through?’ ‘What do their days look like?’” 

Sakdalan, who goes by @katesakdalan on TikTok, has garnered over 36,000 likes on the platform. Despite her looser style when it comes to content planning, as she doesn’t have a set amount of posts per day, Sakdalan said social media is a creative outlet and “video diary” and something she only plans on stopping if it becomes no longer fun.

“This platform I have now will only stay up for as long as I’m like, ‘Wait, I like doing this. I like going to events and I like posting about these sorts of things. I like responding to questions,’ but I think the second that runs out for me, it wouldn’t be worth it anymore,” Sakdalan said. 

While influencers grow on Pitt’s campus, the student body is adapting to their presence. Jessica Matts, a junior psychology major, said she is generally supportive of students who try to become influencers on Pitt’s campus, but draws a line with some behaviors.

“If I see someone awkwardly filming in the middle of class, I’m like, ‘It’s 9 a.m. on a Monday. I don’t need that.’ But, game days, all the fun things — great, love that,” Matts said.

Respect for one’s environment also affects Gia Routh, a senior majoring in gender sexuality and women’s studies and philosophy. 

“[Without] social awareness and respect for other people, then that will be when it gets in the way, obviously. But if somebody’s like, ‘I want to try and be a Pitt influencer,’ I don’t care,” Routh said. 

Thompson said that the difference between an influencer and someone with a lot of followers — such as a celebrity — lies in the content and monetization. Influencers shape their content to persuade and advertise, more often than not for monetization.

“There are some people that aren’t selling anything that have high follower accounts because they make entertaining content or they make content that just finds an audience, and they’re not looking to get anything out of it. But more often than not, most cases involve revenue generation and monetization,” Thompson said. 

Badru monetizes his content through TikTok and Meta as well as collaborating with brands on various occasions. Despite his commitment to the account’s success, Badru said he still prioritizes school over some brand opportunities and chances to bring his accounts to their full potential. 

“There’s certain instances where, yes, it has potential to become really lucrative for me, but also I have to sacrifice that passion for school so I can still pass.” Badru said.

Miles Miller, an undecided sophomore and fitness creator, recently started monetizing his content on Instagram, where he has over 31,000 followers. Miller said he has found diverse forms of lucrative opportunities through his platform, including a partnership with Endorphins Running to run the Austin Marathon in which the brand will pay for lodging, travel and marathon expenses.

“To me, that’s really lucrative, and it’s an opportunity I’m very much looking forward to. Sure, I’m not getting paid from that, but that opportunity to me is worth more than a lot of other forms of payment that I could receive,” Miller said.