The power of new social media algorithms means anyone can have influence, regardless of following. For brands, it requires a rethink of where they allocate budgets. For influencers, this could translate into the death of their jobs, the death of influencer marketing as we knew it. If influencers are not keen and fast to adapt to new trends, platforms, and formats, they might start to lose their power.
A large number of celebrities provide marketing services for many popular brands through social media. This is why many larger companies partner with them — and are consequently flooded with applications from people seeking to cash in on their popularity.
New studies have found that only 3% of consumers are influenced by celebrity influencers to purchase specific products. Moreover, recent studies have found that traditional top-down influencer marketing is losing its influence.
Customers interact with brands differently than they used to. Instead of passively observing brands and consumers, they actively interact with each other and create tribes out of shared values and interests. This is known as 'authentic, meaningful engagement,' and is a huge shift from the traditional age of the passive audience.
Why are people getting tired of influencers?
Increasing demand for meaningful interactions is the most significant reason for the move away from influencers.
People on social media have grown tired of celebrities putting out generic, cookie-cutter posts about wearing boutique clothing or using appetite-suppressing lollipops. Instead, users are looking for unaltered, genuine content that they can interact with.
Then there's the problem of fake influencers buying engagement on platforms like Instagram and Twitter. When it comes to followers, likes, and comments, influencers face huge incentives to increase their numbers, which leads to problems with bots, paid followers, and other shortcuts. In fact, research has found that influencers hired by big brands have an estimated 70% of the follower base that is fake. This is not only a headache for brands, but also another major cause of general disappointment with influencers.
47% of consumers are fatigued by repetitive influencer content. In fact, this collective frustration has led to some amazing parody accounts (like Insta Repeat) pointing out just how similar a lot of Instagram content can be. This is a major reason behind Instagram users abandoning the platform’s classic aesthetic and looking for something more real.
Instead, a new generation of successful influencers like Emma Chamberlain and this has led to the creation of the new popular app called BeReal, where you can only post during a randomly assigned period of time during the day, battling the fake and photoshopped pictures of other media platforms.
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