• In 2018, Madalin Giorgetta was a fitness influencer with one million followers.
• She looked healthy online, but struggled to eat nutritious food in real life.
• After training as a nutritionist, she found ways to add more nutrients to the foods she loves.

In 2018, Madalin Giorgetta was an influencer with one million followers on social media, an ambassador for the clothing brand Gymshark, and the owner of a fitness empire. She embodied the curvy, muscular, beauty ideal of the late 2010s and would get 60,000 likes on a bikini photo shared on Instagram.

She looked the part of the "fitness girlie" who meal-prepped with "clean" food. But behind the scenes, she was struggling both with her nutrition and body image.

"Before I got into fitness, I didn't look at my body that much. My body was my body. But when I started constantly looking at it in the mirror and taking photos of it, I became very fixated on everything," Giorgetta, 35, who is based in Melbourne, told Business Insider.

After reaching a breaking point in 2019, Giorgetta reevaluated her content, which she realized subconsciously celebrated thinness. "It was clear to me that I was telling people that their body wasn't good enough and needed to change," she said.

Giorgetta took two big steps. She overhauled her social media accounts to promote anti-diet culture messages, earned an undergraduate degree in nutrition in 2023, and registered with the Nutrition Society of Australia. She sees one-to-one clients remotely and shares educational nutrition content on Instagram.

"Even though I don't make nearly the same money, not having to sacrifice my values feels good. Before I felt like I would have to really convince myself into it or not question it at all. This feels right now," she said.

Giorgetta shared how she used to eat when she was a fitness influencer and what her diet looks like now.

Giorgetta was a 'neglectful' eater

Despite looking the picture of health, Giorgetta said she ate barely any nutritious food at the peak of her career as a fitness influencer and didn't eat enough for her training program. In a typical week, she did resistance training four times a week for 45 to 60 minutes.

She described her eating style as "neglectful," with minimal structure and little focus on nutrition. "I would just grab something quick from the fridge, often preferring simple foods like cheese on toast," she said.

Although she promoted a lifestyle of eating more calories and more nutritious food online, she struggled to eat that way herself most of the time. As a result, she often felt tired and lacked energy.

On an average day, she used to eat:

• Post workout: A protein shake with milk, peanut butter, and banana
• Breakfast: Buttered toast with jam and honey
• Lunch: Snacks, such as cheese and crackers
• Dinner: Whatever her husband made, which was usually a Hello Fresh meal or a cheese toastie
• Dessert: Ice cream

She adds nutrients to meals and snacks she likes

Since training as a nutritionist, Giorgetta has prioritized eating a more balanced diet, but it's not "perfect."

She said that she implements strategies that help her get enough nutrients throughout the day, while working around her natural eating habits and preferences. She doesn't follow any particular eating plan.

"I often gravitate toward simple foods like toast with spreads, but now I've tried to implement small changes which don't overwhelm me," she said.

She eats a substantial breakfast, has nutrient-dense snacks, and adds extra protein or fiber to meals. "Instead of having toast with jam, I now have toast with eggs, and instead of a plain cheese toastie, I'll add salad," she said.

Giorgetta strength trains three to four times a week, but also runs once or twice a week. She fuels her body depending on the workout she's doing: for example, she eats a carb-heavy meal or snack before running.

On an average day, she now eats:

• Breakfast or post-workout: Buttered wholemeal toast with cheesy scrambled eggs and avocado
• Snack: Cucumbers and tzatziki dip
• Lunch: A salad sandwich with shredded cheese, lettuce, avocado, red onion, grated carrots, and garlic aioli
• Snack: Greek yogurt, canned peaches, and honey
• Dinner: Green tofu curry with mixed veggies (corn, cauliflower, and peas) and a side of rice
• Dessert: Ice cream or a homemade baked good

• LinkedIn has been gradually rolling out a TikTok-like video feed.
• Some creators say making videos has supercharged their engagement on the platform.
• LinkedIn is encouraging creators to post "short" and "snappy" videos.

LinkedIn is taking aim at TikTok — and creators are intrigued.

Since the spring, the Microsoft-owned platform has been gradually rolling out a TikTok-style vertical video feed that features career advice, industry news, and other creator content. A LinkedIn spokesperson said "most" users now have access to it. Videos can also appear in the app's main feed.

Meghana Dhar, a creator with 15,000 LinkedIn followers, said her LinkedIn "engagement has just exploded" since she started posting videos. She added that LinkedIn moving toward video "indicates that they're taking creators really seriously."

Several creators, including Dhar, told BI that they often see much more engagement and impressions on their video posts than on their text or photo ones. Engagement refers to interactions with a post, such as a like, while impressions are how many people view a piece of content.

Dhar said, for example, that a recent text post she shared on LinkedIn got about 10,000 impressions, while a video of her talking to the camera hit over 2 million impressions. Marketing strategist Caroline Giegerich found that her LinkedIn video posts reached three times as many people as her text posts did.

A LinkedIn spokesperson said video posts — including videos shared from individual profiles and pages — get 1.4 times as much engagement on average as other posts on LinkedIn.

While the concept of LinkedIn video might feel strange to some users, it could be a key for the platform to cement itself as a core platform for creators, unlock more ad revenue, and keep people checking their feeds regularly. The top platforms for creators, such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, are all heavily focused on video.

"I am on a personal mission to make LinkedIn a daily habit for people," Jamé Jackson, a LinkedIn community manager, told BI. "We are so much more than just a platform for job searching."

This isn't LinkedIn's first attempt at video. In 2019, LinkedIn launched its live video product. In 2020, it launched a "Stories" feature, which lets users share disappearing videos (that shut down in 2021).

Still, there is some indication that this current, TikTok-like push might be what finally breaks through.

"Our investments in rich formats, like video, strengthen our leadership in B2B advertising and amplify the value we deliver to our customers," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during the company's October earnings call. "Weekly immersive video views increased 6x quarter-over-quarter and total video viewership on LinkedIn is up 36% year-over-year."

LinkedIn's do's and don'ts for video

So, what makes a good LinkedIn video?

Jackson said to avoid creating content that "feels way too sales-y and promotional" and to keep the video to under two minutes: short, snappy, and actionable.

"The call to action is important because I always like to secretly tell people that the comments section is the liquid gold of LinkedIn," Jackson said. "The way you do that is by inviting people to the party, inviting them to the table after you've created that video, asking them to share in the comments things that they have learned."

LinkedIn has also seen an uptick in "faceless video content," where people aren't front and center, Jackson said, adding that it had generally performed well.

The platform has encouraged CEOs and executives to talk about breaking news as well, Jackson said.

Creators are using video to grow audiences but monetization lags

Creators generally say that compared to other platforms like TikTok and Instagram, LinkedIn is much less saturated — and that's an opportunity to build audiences.

"I've been posting on LinkedIn almost daily, certainly every weekday for a couple of years now," said Avi Gandhi, who has 23,000 LinkedIn followers.

Gandhi has recently focused on short-form video content, posting three to four times a week and often promoting his newsletter by calling out the name and including a link to subscribe at the end of the text post.

Career coach and creator Jahleane Dolne said she often uses LinkedIn to post podcast clips. While her largest following is on TikTok (about 34,000), Dolne said her podcast clips are a better fit for the LinkedIn audience.

Despite the audience growth for some creators, the ecosystem for making money on LinkedIn isn't yet fully developed. That may be changing, though. Three of the creators BI spoke with said they were either already working on LinkedIn-focused brand deals or actively reaching out to potential sponsors. And earlier this year, the marketing agency Creator Authority launched with a focus on LinkedIn.

However, the platform has not yet introduced a monetization program similar to those on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube that directly pays creators.

"If LinkedIn launches monetization for videos where you could start making money from the videos that you post, that would be huge," Gandhi said. "That would be incredible and that would make it all worth it."

• A TikTok influencer was arrested after an incident involving the theft of $500 of goods from Target.
• Police say they identified Marlena Velez, who has 360,000+ TikTok followers, through a video she posted.
• The video showed her at Target, wearing the same outfit as in the security footage, police said.

A TikTok influencer with over 360,000 followers who posts aspirational videos of her life as a stay-at-home mom has been arrested after police accused her of stealing about $500 worth of items from Target.

Authorities said the momfluencer later posted a video of the 'shopping' haul to her followers, which they said helped to identify her.

According to a news release, the Cape Coral Police Department in Florida responded to a report last Wednesday about a theft at a Target store in Cape Coral that occurred on October 30.

Target's loss prevention team said that an unidentified woman entered the store, selected items, and scanned false barcodes with lower prices instead of the items' actual barcodes at a self-checkout register.

Police said the woman stole 16 items, including household goods and clothing, worth $500.32.

The Cape Coral Police Department shared photographs of the woman on social media to help identify her.

According to the press statement, an anonymous tip received in response to the photos provided officers with information on 22-year-old social media influencer Marlena Velez and directed them to her Instagram handle.

It said that officers subsequently found Velez's TikTok account, which included a video showing Velez wearing the same outfit and glasses as the woman in the photos.

In the video, which is no longer available on her TikTok account, police said it showed Velez going to Target, selecting items, and loading them into her car before leaving.

Mercedes Phillips, a Cape Coral Police Department spokeswoman, said in a subsequent video that: "Everything was documented, even the outfit that she wore."

Phillips added, "It shows her getting ready with the outfit, and even her glasses, and all of that matches in her TikTok with the attempt-to-identify photo that we put out."

Velez did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Lee County Sheriff's Office records show that a woman identified as Marlena Valez, with a different spelling but the same birthdate, was booked last Thursday morning.

Records show that she was released later that day on a cash bond of $150.

• AI models are appearing on adult-content sites like OnlyFans and Fanvue — sometimes with stolen images.
• And some people are selling courses for $220 on how to make your own lucrative AI adult creator.
• Does AI harm adult creators? And do subscribers even know they're talking to a computer?

Last winter, there were a few news items about how AI might be replacing humans in a surprising job: online influencer. The articles said a crop of new Instagram influencers had amassed large followings and even secured brand deals. There was one catch: The influencers were AI.

Some of these AI influencers, like Lil Miquela, are a sort of artsy commentary on the nature of influencing or something conceptually interesting. But when I looked a little further into one of the AI-generated influencer accounts on Instagram — one that had reportedly gotten some brand deals — I found a different type of story.

One of the most popular AI influencers had a link in her bio to a profile on Fanvue, an OnlyFans competitor. On her Fanvue account, the influencer posted proactive photos — and for a $7-a-month subscription, I could see her nude photos. (I feel strange saying "she" and "nude" because this person doesn't exist. Remember: She's AI. But this is where we are in 2024, I suppose.)

Ah, so I get it now: The business was always pornography — Instagram and other social media were just at the top of the conversion funnel. These accounts weren't trying to become "Instagram influencers" who made money through promoting shampoo — they were using Instagram to drive traffic to Fanvue, where they could get men to pay to see their nude photos.

Once potential customers get to the paysites, they encounter more AI-generated pictures and videos.

The tech news site 404 Media just published a deep dive into this world, "Inside the Booming 'AI Pimping' Industry." What reporters found was an astounding amount of AI-fueled accounts on both OnlyFans and Fanvue. Disturbingly, 404 Media found a number of these accounts used images that weren't purely dreamed up by AI. Some were deepfakes — fake images of real people — or were face swaps, using someone's face on an AI-generated body.

There is also a whole side economy of people selling guides and courses on how others can set up their own businesses to create AI models. One person is selling a course for $220 on how to make money with AI adult influencers.

A Fanvue spokesperson told Business Insider that using images that steal someone's identity is against its rules. Fanvue also uses a third-party moderation tool and has human moderators. The spokesperson also said that "deepfakes are an industry challenge." OnlyFans' terms of service prohibit models from using AI chatbots. Those terms also say that AI content is allowed only if users can tell it's AI and only if that content features the verified creator — not someone else.

Potentially stolen images aside, the existence of AI adult content is somewhat fraught. On one hand, some of these AI creators claim that this is not unlike cartoon pornography. But real-life adult content creators have concerns about AI affecting their business. Some told Business Insider's Marta Biino recently that they find AI tools useful — like AI chatbots they use to talk to fans. But they said they also worried that using AI could erode fans' trust.

I'm not sure that the fans of the AI accounts are always aware that these "people" are artificial intelligence. Comments on one obviously AI-generated woman's account read like a lot of people think she's human. On her Fanvue, the AI-generated woman sometimes posts pink-haired anime cartoon versions of herself.

On one of these posts, a paying Fanvue customer wrote that he wanted to see the outfit on the real woman — not an anime version. I'm not sure that he knows neither one is real.