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Somewhere along the way we lost our way when it comes to influencers and the value they provide. Originally an influencer was a person whose value and opinion you trusted – so if they said to go to that restaurant, watch that movie or read that book you would listen to them and do so because most likely the recommendation was for your own benefit.
The classic example was Oprah Winfrey who had a devoted following in the millions and they were all enthusiastic to display their loyalty to her by trying out whatever she suggested. The problem was that marketers realised how valuable this was.
If the endorsement would result in a massive spike in sales, why not go down that path.
Then with the dawn of social media, the influencer space became so incredibly crowded. The original concept was relatively harmless. Someone liked makeup, or fitness, or travel, or fashion, and they shared their experiences online. Their audience grew. Companies noticed. Money followed. Every space had its own set of influencers and it was organic.
But then things went downhill quickly and that was because being an influencer stopped being what you did and starting becoming what you were. Were they living their life or documenting it?
The next stop was that many influencers weren’t providing any real value apart from being good looking and/or having a lot of followers. They were only interested in the benefits of becoming an influencer.
On top of this, was the amount of people wanting to enter the space resulting in a lot of white noise. They weren’t producing quality content which just added to the sense that influencers weren’t contributing anything of value.
This has been exacerbated by the advent of AI which has led to the creation of content that is so poor and sloppy that it has really turned people off the concept of an influencer.
The whole point was that you were a trusted source of information. They were authentic and this loss of authenticity comes with a gain of cynicism and skepticism. So when we get a restaurant recommendation we take it with a grain of salt – are they telling us, because they’ve been paid to do so? Have they even eaten there?
Once they realized that you could monetize authenticity it became a massive Catch-22.
The problem with influence is that it can get confused with importance and visibility with authority. Being good looking or having many followers doesn’t automatically make you an expert at anything.
Just remember that people who appear to have the perfect life are now living their life constantly having to prove it.
Kasey McKillip lives in Salt Lake City. You can find out more information about him here and here.