'Edgier' YouTubers proving more popular: A new era of social influencing?

Controversial vlogger Logan Paul has been named as the most popular YouTuber among young people in the UK.

This is according to a poll carried out by Childwise, which found that the US vlogger has knocked previous favourite YouTuber Zoella off the top spot in the popularity rankings among five to 16-year-olds.

So, does this signal a new era of social media influencing, with young people more likely to respond to riskier posts?

Simon Leggett, research director at Childwise, commented: "Zoella losing her top YouTuber slot to Logan Paul shows that we could be moving into a new era with a change in the kind of vloggers that are popular with children."

He explained that there seems to have been a shift away from more wholesome social influencers to "more edgy" vloggers.

While there has been some controversy around the actions of some of these edgier YouTubers, the findings do provide some interesting insights into young people's viewing behaviour. Brands may want to bear these in mind when deciding which influencers to work with in order to promote their products.