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For her winter 2017 FabFitFun box, JoJo Fletcher kicks off her Instagram Story not with the box’s contents, but by goofing around with her favorite face filters on her and fiance Jordan Rodgers (the high-pitched kitty voice is one of her favorites).

Then she gives followers a quick rundown of what to expect, interrupting herself with meta-commentary — “this lighting’s better,” she says, jostling the camera — before settling onto the couch. Jordan’s over her shoulder, “wearing kind of like half the box,” according to JoJo; he’s goofily got on gold eye masks, a plaid BB Dakota poncho, and red fuzzy socks, which we can see when he high-kicks his foot in front of her face. He’s also grabbed the Deep Sleep Pillow Spray, which works so well when spritzed into the air, he immediately falls backwards onto the couch and breaks into a fake-snore.

“Wowwwww,” JoJo smiles. “Look. At. That.”

#jojofletcher #jordanrodgers #thebachelorette #jojoandjordan A post shared by Joelle and Jordan (@jojoandjordansnaps) on Nov 20, 2017 at 3:01pm PST

#jojofletcher #jordanrodgers #thebachelorette #jojoandjordan A post shared by Joelle and Jordan (@jojoandjordansnaps) on Nov 20, 2017 at 3:07pm PST

The Instagram Story continues for several more slides, culminating with the prompt to swipe up and use the code JOJO10 to purchase one yourself. If you happened to miss that Story before it expired, JoJo and Jordan did a second unboxing later that week, with more dress-up shenanigans and filters (and a different discount code). And if you missed both of those Stories, you can relive them on @jojoandjordansnaps, a fan account that reposts all of JoJo’s Instagram and Snapchat stories for repeat views. Yes, a fan account.

Because what makes a popular Bachelor and Bachelorette contestant like JoJo is also what makes an Instagram star, and what makes an Instagram star sells products. The screens may be different sizes, but the rules are the same.

For a show that pokes fun at its contestants’ scattershot professional backgrounds — the roster has included “dog lover,” “aspiring dolphin trainer,” and my personal favorite, “free spirit” — The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor in Paradise have seen countless alumni reliably embrace a very specific post-show career: that of the Instagram influencer.

When The Bachelor debuted on ABC in 2002, social media barely existed. Instagram was still eight years away; a post-show career for the series’ most popular stars consisted of moderate tabloid-level fame — a People cover here, a charity fundraiser there. Today, thanks largely to social media (because, what else?), there are countless ways a former Bachelor or Bachelorette star can leverage his or her 15 minutes of fame for profit, from starting a lifestyle blog to launching a podcast to collaborating on merch.

The most popular career move by far, however, is on Instagram — specifically, by repping brands and endorsing products as Instagram “influencers.”

JoJo, runner-up of The Bachelor season 20 and titular star of The Bachelorette season 12, has recently posted Instagram pics promoting Old Navy, Vera Bradley, Reebok, Dermalogica, Orbit Gum, St. Ives, and the NFL. Her real-life BFF Becca Tilley, who appeared on Farmer Chris’s and Ben’s seasons of The Bachelor, has posted for Ponds, Nexxus, Juicy Couture, Power Rangers, Lifetime, Olive Garden, McDonald’s, and Carrie Underwood’s athleisure brand. Winner of Bachelor season 20 Lauren Bushnell’s Instagram includes posts for Hudson Jeans, Revolve, LiveStrong.com, Lull mattresses, and a Chicago hotel. One of the few Bachelor in Paradise success stories, Jade Tolbert has an Instagram feed crowded with Bachelor-certified brands: MVMT watches, DIFF eyewear, HelloFresh, Teami tea. All four women promote FabFitFun.

Dozens upon dozens of Bachelor franchise alums are earning — or trying to earn — a pretty penny leveraging their Instagram followings for brands, partaking in the growing sector of advertising known as influencer marketing. The definition of an influencer is loose, often defined more by the setting in which an individual promotes a brand rather than the individual her- or himself. (Put Selena Gomez in a Pantene commercial and she’s a celeb with an endorsement deal; pay her to post on her Instagram, and suddenly she’s an influencer.)

Is anyone else obsessive about not getting makeup on your white pillows and sheets? No? Yes? Anyone? No need to stress y’all. The #PONDSTowlettes removes ALL makeup in one quick step for clean and soft skin. #PONDSPillowTest #Ad A post shared by Becca Tilley (@beccatilley) on Nov 2, 2017 at 5:20pm PDT

Influencers come in various tiers based on their followings. A cast member on a reality TV show can typically expect to fall in the micro-influencer range, with anywhere between 50,000 to 250,000 followers. That’s where plenty of former Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants fall, a bit higher if they were finalists or the Bachelorette themselves. Ashley Hebert Rosenbaum, for example — who was a runner-up on The Bachelor, the star of The Bachelorette, and had her wedding televised on ABC — has about 343,000 Instagram followers.

But there’s a class of former contestants whose Instagram followings match or exceed those of reality stars with longer lifespans, like the Real Housewives we get to know season after season and who become household names. Becca Tilley has 1.1 million followers. Lauren Bushnell: 1.2 million. Amanda Stanton: 1.2 million. Andi Dorfman: 1 million. Jade Tolbert: just shy of a million. Catherine Lowe: 1.2 million. Kaitlyn Bristowe: 1.6 million. Then there’s JoJo, with 2.2 million. Those numbers match (or exceed, in JoJo’s case) Teresa Giudice’s and Bethenny Frankel’s. Which is remarkable, given that Bachelor contestants are a dime a dozen (34 seasons and counting!), and even the most famous ones usually disappear from TV shortly after their seasons air.

But these certain Bachelor women can extend their prominence specifically on Instagram, because the two platforms are so alike.

Both have clear-cut yet unspoken conventions, particularly for women. Both also reward their “stars” for being authentic — within the confines of those conventions. The women who manage to hew to the conventions while also “being themselves” are the ones who see their fan bases on both platforms grow.

For women of the Bachelor franchise, the conventions are as clear as the wine glasses they clutch so dearly. There’s a certain style of dress — the glittery first-night gown, the sexy-but-not-too-sexy bikinis, the cutoff denim shorts, the yoga pants — as well as a beauty look complete with glossy TV-ready hair. Having a thin body is, of course, paramount; toned muscles are a bonus. There are also behaviors we’ve come to expect, from using the show’s peculiar lexicon (“journey” is literally ABC-mandated verbiage) to demonstrating googly-eyed emotions on dates and unoffensive “gal pal” friendliness with fellow contestants.

Violate these norms — wear “weird” clothing, make enemies of the other girls, indicate disinterest in the leading man, be a redhead — and you’re not likely to emerge from The Bachelor a fan favorite. Hew to these conventions without any show of personality, and you’re not likely to either. A sly sense of humor, a penchant for dad jokes, a few awkwardly giggly moments, or whatever else can convey authenticity is essential to make you relatable. Combining that relatability with the aspirational — great body, pretty hair, trendy style — is the recipe for Bachelor likability.

It’s also the recipe for likability on Instagram. Not all influencers on Instagram draw appeal based on being likable, per se; Kardashians or fashion bloggers like Chiara Ferragni trade on their glamorous, utterly unrelatable lifestyles. But for Instagram influencers whose followings are built on relatability, as reality stars’ inevitably are, the formula works about the same: Play by the unspoken visual rules (well-lit pictures, stylish clothing, pristine makeup, an enviable body) while injecting enough personality to seem “real.”

It’s what associate professor of communications at Oakland University Erin Meyers calls “the right kind of ordinary.”

“Reality stars certainly trade on the idea that they are ‘real’ and ‘ordinary,’ but they specifically leverage that ordinariness as a way to become a celebrity,” says Meyers, who’s working on a book about the rise of 2000s reality TV stars. “This happens mostly outside of the show, so in spaces like social media... The idea is that they may be ‘just like us’ on the reality show from which they emerge, but by being the right kind of ordinary, they transcend into the more aspirational and extraordinary realm of celebrity.”

It’s a kind of ordinary we can relate to, but also aspire to enough to stay enthralled. Not to mention it’s soothing in a mindless sort of way: Instagram, like The Bachelor, is a visual platform that rewards the beautiful, the simple, and the inoffensive.

“By being the right kind of ordinary, they transcend into the more aspirational and extraordinary realm of celebrity.”

Instagram also provides the most handsome paycheck for arguably the least amount of work. Reality TV stars can earn anywhere from $1,500 to $7,000 for posting a single sponsored photo, depending on their followings. Paul Desisto, a talent manager who manages the post-show careers of Bachelor stars for a living, cites figures as high as $10,000 to $50,000 for one post. Yearly earnings from Instagram ads alone, he says, could ring in around $200,000. Nearly no other post-TV venture — a blog, a podcast, a line of merch — offers the same kind of effort-to-payoff ratio.

“The amount of money you can make from one Instagram photo versus a blog post [even] with the affiliate linking commission, there’s just no comparison,” says Sharleen Joynt, a fan favorite from Juan Pablo’s Bachelor season who also started a lifestyle blog after the show.

But growing a following and the accompanying sponsorship deals requires cultivating, protecting, and constantly upkeeping that likability from the show to your feed.

“If you’re a reality show-based person, then all of a sudden you start posting unrelatable ‘blogging’ photos, you lose touch with your fans,” says Desisto. The flattering filters, the flat lays, the posed #OOTD shots (or as he puts it, “pictures of coffee and strawberries and chocolates and whatnot”) only go so far for a star whose fame is built on being “real.” Some level of personality has to shine through.

“One thing that’s so unique to The Bachelor is that the [contestants’] followers feel like they know them,” says Ali Grant, founder of Be Social agency, which reps alum like Becca Tilley. “When you go out with one of these girls, people stop them in a way that it’s like they’re their friends.”

That fans are seeking relatability is evident in the likes. “If you just look at the pictures, [fans] are more engaged in photos of them going out with other Bachelor couples, or selfies, or raw photos that aren’t filtered or professional, because they can relate to that better,” says Desisto.

Joynt has witnessed it firsthand. “If I look at the likes on a photo, the most likes are me and [my husband] Andy,” she says. “The second-most likes are me and Bachelor people. If my face is in it, it gets more likes. It could be an outfit that I love, but if my face isn’t in it and I’m not looking cute in it, people don’t care that much.”

Or, as Becca Tilley put it in an email: “I have found people appreciate the real/relatable things in life more than the picture-perfect life that can often come across on social media.”

Most fans also don’t seem to mind the intrusion of #ad or #sp posts, now that they’ve become so common. Banner ads on a blog scream “advertising!” much more intrusively (when Joynt tried putting banners on her blog, “stuff that my readers might be interested in,” she says, “[readers] really hated it. It’s because they feel like they know you, and my longtime readers were like, ‘Oh, you’re selling out now, it’s just about money.’”). Whereas the subtle advertising on Instagram seems to rile followers far less (though it does rile the FTC) and apparently doesn’t undermine the authenticity enough to send them fleeing.

Meanwhile, Instagram Stories help take that authenticity to the next level, something JoJo, Kaitlyn Bristowe, and others leverage expertly. “I’m sure a lot of Bachelor stars have high engagement on their Instagram Stories or their Snapchat, because that’s still a sense of that raw, real content that their followers can digest,” says Grant of Be Social.

And where fans go, brands follow. Brands like MVMT watches, DIFF eyewear, HelloFresh, and Bombay Hair are ubiquitous on Bachelor feeds, strategically staking their marketing budgets on influencers. More established companies with bigger marketing budgets, like McDonald’s and Whole Foods, are starting to also realize the unique kind of influence Bachelor Instagram stars offer. Of course, the most ubiquitous Bachelor brand of all has known this for years.

“In 2014, we were just starting to test the waters working with reality stars and had engaged with a small handful,” says Jolie Jankowitz, director of influencer marketing and partnerships at FabFitFun. “We were looking for influencers that were relatable, and The Bachelor/Bachelorette contestants really fit the bill — they are aspirational, but still have very attainable lifestyles.”

Just like JoJo. Rewatch her FabFitFun Instagram Story and the magic is clear: The living room setting and wobbly camera quality makes it feel candid and un-staged, as does her running meta commentary (“we kinda made a mess...”). The filters show she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Her chattiness makes it feel like advice from a close friend. Her fiance goofs around, resting his chin on her shoulder — enough of a presence to make the scene feel real, but not so intrusive it gets in the way for her female followers. (The Bachelor franchise’s largely female viewership means that female-aimed or gender-neutral products work best for influencers; the male Bachelorette influencer is a rare breed, and even then, he shills mostly female products.)

Plus, Jordan’s gorgeous in a Ken doll sort of way, a complement to her Barbie: makeup perfect, skin glowing, hair so bouncy and shiny it inspires hair tutorials. It’s all entirely aspirational, but also intimate, unpretentious, and ultimately goddamn likable.

“The Bachelor/Bachelorette contestants really fit the bill — they are aspirational, but still have very attainable lifestyles.”

Meanwhile, Tilley, Andi Dorfman, Lauren Bushnell, Amanda Stanton — their feeds are all slick, with plenty of professional photos, airbrushed makeup, and TV Hair. Save for a few selfies and date-night snaps, most of the photos wouldn’t look out of place on a lifestyle blog. It doesn’t help when all the images look kinda the same: One glance at the women’s accounts and the generic aesthetic washes over you like a wave of chilled frosé. (“I think a lot of girls are sharing similar photographers,” offers Grant of Be Social.) Each of the above women has between 1.1 and 1.2 million followers.

On the other end is Catherine Lowe (née Giudici before she won season 17 of The Bachelor), whose feed is mostly unfiltered candids of her husband and baby, with some mirror selfies and a few posed #sponsored posts. She also has around 1.2 million followers.

Compare that to Kaitlyn Bristowe of Bachelorette season 11. While fitting neatly into the show’s physical norms (petite, slender, impeccable makeup), her outspokenness and sex-positive stance on the show pushed the boundaries. But she managed to maintain her likability through the show’s end (choosing the popular hunk over the villain helped) and carried that authenticity over on Instagram with funny, self-deprecating posts blended in with slicker, more posed photos with on-point hair and makeup — to the tune of 1.6 million followers.

And then there’s JoJo, who, at 2.2 million followers, is the reigning Bachelor influencer queen, the one who seems to check all the boxes that fans and brands look for on The Bachelor itself and on Instagram.

After all, what’s the difference?