“I hate it. I hate the word ‘influencing.” This is what Karlo replied with when asked how he defined being an influencer. It’s definitely shocking to think that someone would despise a title that gives credibility, more so a title often linked to renown. A lot of people would go great lengths to be called influencers, so why does Karlo hate it? After hearing his reasons, we really got to see it from another perspective. And now we see eye to eye.
To the public, Karlo Carranza is no doubt one of our Tiktok role models. He’s been with us since the pandemic years and his content brought a great deal of entertainment and inspiration. When he began blowing up with his family-centric videos, it proved the importance of the home and family to Filipinos. But it’s not only his wholesome content that people got a hit off of. All his other videos would blow up as well, thanks to his good looks and bubbly personality. But just because he gained traction with these types of videos doesn’t mean he’s the type to ride on the engagement-train and flush out the same content over and over. Because it loses its soul. It loses its sense of authenticity. And Karlo doesn’t have his mind set on the amount of likes he has, but how true to himself he is on his platforms. This is why Karlo said he hates the word ‘influencing’ in the first place.
The Great Divide
In another statement, Karlo discussed his thoughts on the difference of influencing and content creating. “When you’re influencing, I think the main thing is you make content that you intentionally design to engage, to influence other people, so it's external. But for me, I think content creation is internal, galing sa loob mo and I think it could be anything and therefore I think it’s very honest.”
This is why Karlo does his best to integrate his authentic self and never fake it when he’s posting content online. He doesn’t need a false persona to gain his audience’s trust because people will love his true self anyway. And in loving him, people wouldn’t need to be influenced, they would be happy with whatever content he decides to share. These are the things he believes in.
“It’s (influencing) very externally driven. I think I fell in love with the word content creation, content creating, kasi from the start, nag-impostor syndrome ako. I refused to believe that I have influence and I have a platform but it started just blowing up. It started to have traction tapos I had to, at the time, embrace it nalang.”
Whether you’re a public figure or not, impostor syndrome can target anyone. But as someone who experienced it, Karlo showed us how he overcame those challenges by refusing to squeeze himself into a mold and slap on the ‘influencer’ title. Instead, he chose to post the things that were personal to him, even if they didn’t adhere to ‘influencer’ standards. He shared fun moments of his mom stealing plants from restaurants, videos of him dancing after the gym, and even moments where he was singing in front of his sister just to annoy her. In fact, this was what made him more relatable. Audiences felt more of a connection to him than people that only posted about striking brand deals and going to high-end events. And isn’t that what matters in the first place? The connection we build with other people.
But Karlo’s also on a journey to change the meaning behind ‘influencing.’ With him out there, we have more people that we relate to, people like Karlo that flesh out lived experiences for audiences to see. “In Tiktok, the attention was diversified and audiences were democratized so the influence changed. Dati nung Instagram days, mas elitist, mas mayaman lang, mas curated lang. And I think Tiktok really changed the landscape of influencing. And I think that's where I'm coming from when I say influence, the word lang. It’s because of the meaning it had before Tiktok,” Karlo adds.
Karlo’s Way of Pushing for Authenticity
Showing your true self to the world doesn’t mean you have to show everything about you. It’s a challenge in and of itself. This is what Karlo realized when he pushed his personal agenda of publishing genuine content. “I can’t imagine people or online personalities sharing lifestyle, in general lahat. It was personally very hard for me when I did that,” he shared. And we all know how stressful it is behind-the-scenes to constantly be filming your life and feeling like you have no more privacy left.
Karlo shares the same sentiments so he told us how he managed to find a solution while also making it enjoyable for himself. “What happened towards last year till now was I shifted into a niche. That’s when I decided to do fashion and style. There’s still lifestyle but mostly I focus on my niche so I protect my reality, I protect my personal life rin. Parang I felt the need to share everything at some point. Now because I niched up, I’m focusing on this persona of styling and fashion and it protects me.” This way, we still get a glimpse of Karlo’s real self while he gets to keep his more intimate moments to himself.
Metroscene Mag April 2025 COVER: A Good Day
Executive Producer: Gem Ausa (@gemcarloausa)
Creative Director, Art Director, and Editor-in-Chief: Mark Elwyn Baccay (@markelwyn)
Photographed by Renzo Navarro (@_renzonavarro) assisted by Xavier Mallari (@xlmallari) and Dominic Pamatmat (@dompamatmat)
Story by Mark Elwyn Baccay (@markelwyn)
Designer: Mamuro Oki of HA.MU (@mamuroki) and
Abraham Guardian of HA.MU ( @monstrousthoughts)
Head Stylist: Abraham Guardian of HA.MU ( @monstrousthoughts) and Yana Kalaw (@yana__thestylist & @yanakalaw)
Styling Assistant: Raine Dela Rosa ( @pularosa) and Andrei Plaus (@ka_andeng)
BTS Photograper : Jhom Fernando Rusiana (@jamrussians)
Video Director: Dominique Burgos (@dominique.burgos)
BTS Videographer : Prince King Zamora (@mistermeanor_)
Associate Producer: Verazoe (@verazoe__)
Photographer Assistant: Scymone De Vera (@de.scyn_)
Videographer Assistant: Giancarlo Co (@giancarloco_)
Special Thanks to our partners!
Jasu Reducindo of The Corner House (@thecornerhouseph)
CoStar Talent Management ( @costartalents.ph)
Food Sponsor:
Tittos Latin BBQ & Brew (@tittosmnl)
Metroscene Mag interns:
Julian Rosch Dolor (@julieamore__)
Angel Pascual (@cheriecheruby)
