“They talked about everything from ‘The Bachelor’ to ‘What are you wearing to formal?’” Ms. Krupp said. “We really had that ‘aha!’ moment, that this was built to be something different than where we were at that point.”
The app, which became widely available in September, has about 1,500 members. Not all of them are budding influencers, though many are. The members who are part of 28 Row’s influencer network are referred to as “social butterflies”; on the app, each of them has a star next to her user name.
Megan Parmelee, 25, who joined 28 Row’s influencer network, said that what makes it different from other platforms for influencers is the opportunity to meet like-minded people.
“It’s a lot of people coming together for kind of a common purpose and with a common goal, and that is to just kind of bask in this realm of social media that is the content creation world,” said Ms. Parmelee, a graduate student in the physician assistant program at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y.
“I joined because I want to grow my network,” she added, “and it’s just nice to be able to share what I’ve learned along the way.”
Christian Hughes, a marketing professor at the University of Notre Dame who focuses on digital media, said that new apps like 28 Row may help users deal with the “trials and tribulations” of online life.