![]() ![]() She recently signed with a management company and wants to use her fan base to start making content on new platforms. Ong has amassed more than 1.8 million followers. If you’re able to cultivate a cult of just 100 loyal followers, you can make a very good living in what Ms. “Today, creators can effectively make more money off fewer fans,” wrote Li Jin, a former partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, in a blog post. You no longer need “ 1,000 true fans,” as conventional wisdom dictated a decade ago. They want loyalists willing to do as they command, withstanding the friction of leaving their favorite feed to take actions that benefit their glorious overlords.” As the venture capitalist Josh Constine recently wrote: “Influencers don’t just want fans. This type of bond is incredibly powerful. We are us, we are ourselves, we are the Step Chickens and we are special,” Danny said. “Melissa, as our leader, is not afraid to show people that she is not perfect, and as followers that look up to her, we do not feel like we have to be. Ong relatable and say that her success feels like their own success. Our community is based on embracing our individuality and quirks that make us truly unique and stand out.”įans find Ms. “The Step Chickens, to me, is the antithesis of that. They see these seemingly perfect creators, carbon-copy after carbon-copy,” said Danny Nguyen, 16, one of Ms. “I think that in this social media generation most youths struggle with low self-esteem. It’s a break from it all and a fun way to interact with other people and have fun while everyone is quarantining.” “It’s nice to have a break from everything going on. “With the pandemic, social media is very political and controversial,” Jiayang Li, 22, said. “I think a lot of people want to be a part of something,” said Sam Schmir, 20. Ong’s fans said that joining Step Chickens has helped them feel less isolated in the midst of widespread stay-at-home orders. I did it for the first few, but I stopped because too many people were asking me.” “They want me to officially announce them in the cult war. “At least 50 big TikTokkers have started cults by now,” Ms. Other cults include the Murder Hornets, the Griswolds, the Babbages, Duck Sanctuary, the Flamingos, the Cardi Army (as in “cardigan”), the Beardians, Gary Vee’s Fam and a cult called Jeff, which recently pledged its allegiance to the Step Chickens. Adrian Ortiz, a user with 1.5 million followers, created a cult called the Weenies and challenged the Step Chickens to a battle on YouTube. ![]() Other cults have formed with the aim of taking down the Step Chickens, or at least being recognized by them. Ong represents a relatively new kind of influencer, one who has seized a time of great isolation and idleness to capture the interest of a rapt user base. They’re upstart creators building a fan base on social media. The biggest difference is that TikTok’s cult leaders are not independently famous. Much like the “stans” of pop figures and franchises, members of TikTok cults stream songs, buy merch, create news update accounts and fervently defend their leaders in the comment sections of posts. ![]() Instead, they are open fandoms revolving around a single creator. The image has become nearly ubiquitous on TikTok, as tens of thousands of users have changed their avatars to show their loyalty to its subject: Melissa Ong, the 27-year-old “mother hen” of the platform’s largest and most powerful “cult,” the Step Chickens.Ĭults on TikTok aren’t the ideological ones most people are familiar with. Among the usual suspects of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok appeared an app called Stepchickens, with a cryptic blue selfie as its logo. Last week, a new name broke into Apple’s most-downloaded social networking apps. ![]()
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