Meaning of Clout Chasers and its Origin

The introduction of social media has birthed so many words that are not found in today’s dictionary, regardless of the versions. Call them social words or jargon that naturally won’t ‘fly’ in a corporate or proper environment, devoid of social media slangs, it still doesn’t change the fact that words such as as ‘clout chasing’ or ‘clout chaser’ have come to stay and won’t die out anytime soon so long social media remains.

Who is a clout chaser? What does it mean to chase clouts? When do we use the word? How do we use it… These and more are some of the very many questions we shall attempt to answer in this post as we examine the meaning of this urban word.

Meaning of Clout Chaser

‘Clout’ on social media means ‘popularity’. Therefore, a clout chaser is someone who deliberately tries to feed off the popularity of others on social media for his or her personal gains. A clout chaser is also a person that only hangs with certain people or deliberately starts beef with people on social media to gain popularity.

Clout chasers keep evolving almost on a daily basis and ‘desperadoes’, mostly celebrities, try as much as possible to gain greater popularity by deliberately doing certain things that will make people look their way and go as far as following them on social media.

More followership means more power and more power means that these celebrities are likely to be contacted by popular brands to market their products to their huge followers, meaning the drama is worth the money.

Origin of Clout Chasing

Clout chasing is an expression that came out of the American rap music industry; however, no particular person is credited with coining it. Another name for it is clout demon, which speaks more to the subject’s character. Clout in this industry is a bit different than what normally is considered clout