Unlikely identity unmasked as Victoria’s top influencer

Victoria’s top influencer has been revealed, but it isn’t a celebrity chef, health guru or powerhouse content creator.

Tiktok star Caleb Finn has been ranked as the most influential content creator in Victoria. Picture: Mark Stewart

Victoria’s top influencer isn’t a celebrity chef, a health guru or even a glamorous WAG.

Instead, the state’s most powerful online content creator is Caleb Finn; a father-of-one with a penchant for horror movies.

“Who would have thought it would be little old me?” Finn laughed of being crowned the top influencer.

“It’s a very bizarre thing to wrap my head around. I started uploading in 2018 as a little creative side outlet and went full time in 2019.”

Becoming a full-time content creator wasn’t initially his choice. Finn had been working at a primary school running its after-care program when the principal caught wind of his side hustle in making gory online films.

“I was fired,” he said.

“The school found out that I had blown up on TikTok. I had about 1.3 million (followers) by then and because I put a lot of horror stories into my content it didn’t go down too well with them.”

Finn is a young dad with a penchant for horror movies. Picture: Mark Stewart

Three years later and Finn, 27, has now amassed more than 16.5 million followers across TikTok, Instagram and other various platforms. But true social success is about more than just follower numbers.

And in large part because of factors like fan engagement levels, trustworthiness and relatability, Finn is Victorian No.1 on a game-changing chart that for the first time reveals which of Australia’s thousands of “influencers” really make a difference – leaving some well-known names floundering behind newer, younger stars of social.

The Oz Top 100 Influence Index, published exclusively Thursday at theoz.com.au, goes beyond follower counts, using behavioural science to quantify and rank content creators according to their overall impact.

Over time, Finn – who is No.2 nationally on The Oz list – has dialled down some of his posts’ blood and gore and added behind-the-scenes videos of his family life.

But you won’t catch him posting the heavily curated pictures of perfection so common on Instagram.

“I like to be upfront and show people when I have bad days as well as when I have good days,” he said.

“I try to break down that stereotype where life is always happy and picture-perfect because it’s really not like that.”

Finn attributes his success to his warts-and-all approach online. Picture: Mark Stewart

Finn believes that his honesty is a large part of his success – and that would tally with the importance of trustworthiness as an impact factor, according to research by behavioural science experts The Behavioural Architects, who helped create The Oz Influence Index with social intelligence monitoring agency Storyful.

Editor of the oz.com.au, Elyse Popplewell, said of Finn’s position: “I’m so thrilled our index has highlighted Caleb as a very powerful creator. Caleb has patiently and expertly built his content offering and audience, so it’s no wonder his ‘trustworthiness’ score is so high, and his ‘content prominence’ score is the highest possible rating on the index.”

As for Finn, the only way is … what next?

“My goal when I started creating content – it seemed a far-off dream goal at the time – was 10 million followers,” he said.

“And now that’s like so far behind me. It’s just like, what do I do next? I mean, I don’t really care about the numbers anymore. Its more about what I can say to the world or what can I put out there to leave my mark.”

See the full Top 100 Influence Index at TheOz.com.au