Cultivate a public persona like you’re Elvis Presley or Kim Kardashian

Question

This is from an article in Financial Times. The title is Not All Successful Entrepreneurs Crave the Limelight.

He adds that social media and the modern cult of Silicon Valley plays a part, too. “For CEOs and even ordinary people, it’s a lot easier to cultivate a public persona like you’re Elvis Presley or Kim Kardashian. The means are there.

Does the sentence in bold type mean people try to make others think they are Kardashian on the social media? But how could they manage to do that, I think everyone is smarter than that. Thank you.

Answer 1

No, the bolded sentence doesn't mean that people try to impersonate the Kardashians on social media.

The sentence means that with the tools that social media provides, it is easier for people to create and manage a public persona in the same way that Elvis Presley and Kim Kardashian are famous for creating their own public personas.

For example, Kim Kardashian carefully picks which scenes from her life and which photos she shares with the public in order to maintain a particular kind of image to her fans. The article asserts that CEOs and ordinary people can do this too.