You might see somebody on the Instagram reel or some other social media platform looking all happy, trying or using free products, living the luxurious lifestyle and think why you not give it a try yourself and take a crack at this influencer thing. Well, sorry to burst your bubble but all that glitter may not be gold is true in this case. Influencers face a lot of issues, and this blog lifts the curtain of the glam from an influencer life and take a look at the challenges faced by them.

 Are you ready? So, let’s get started.

Key Challenges Faced by Social Media Influencers

• The Constant Pressure to Perform

I don’t know why the song Mirrorball by Taylor Swift came to my mind thinking about this constant need of performance. One of the things influencers experiences is the pressure to always making content without any breaks. This pressure comes from the need to stay relevant and maintain your following. To cope with this influencer, preplan their content and hire teams to help them create content and take some load off their shoulders. 

• Competition and Saturation

No doubt the power to influence people these days is more in the hands of common people due to relatability factor but due to this excess there is a lot competition and saturation in this line of work. One has to work really hard to become unique and stay at the same position with the passing of time.

• Maintaining Authenticity and Credibility 

Maintaining authenticity and credibility is quite hard because one might get caught up in this world of excess. Credibility and trust are pillars of successful influencer marketing. To maintain their authenticity and credibility influencers should be transparent and clearly mention when a certain product or service is sponsored and give their honest opinion about them. 

• Follower Growth and Algorithm Changes

One of the things influencers have to worry about is follower growth and algorithm changes. Many brands require influencers to have certain number of followers for collaborations. Many times, app updates affect influencer as the algorithm changes might require them to change their approach entirely and might lead to less exposure on their content resulting in less following. To help themselves against these changes’ influencers can buy likes and followers from quality sources. 

• Handling Online Hate and Trolls

With online exposure comes the uninvited hate and trolls. People think just because you are a public figure, they have the right to share their opinion about your life, their trolling and hate is justified. Being an influencer, one must anticipate this and be prepared for it. Do not engage with hate and give haters the attention focus on the positives.

• Balancing Authenticity and Sponsorships

Your goal as an influencer might be to get the sponsorship from the biggest brand on the planet, though there is a tendency to get caught up in this world of excess but it should never sacrifice your authenticity. A sponsorship will end eventually but once you sacrifice your authenticity it is very hard to build it back. Striking a balance between two is essential.

• Time Management and Work-Life Balance

Being an influencer, you might have to work odd and long hours depending upon the nature of collaboration this might affect your personal life. To strike a work life balance you need to schedule your work timing. A balanced life will lead you to a happy and peaceful life.

• Mental Health Impact

Being social media influencer, you are consistently working, collaborating and subjected to online hate and trolls despite all your hard work. The work stress alone, add to that the competitive nature of the job can have adverse effects on mental health. Take care of your mental health by taking breaks, striking a work life balance and seeking professional help.  

• Balancing Personal Privacy and Public Life

The nature of social media influencer job is to be as transparent as you can be but if you do not define your boundaries people will feel entitled to opinions about your personal life. Respect your privacy and strike a balance between sharing what you keep private and what you share with public. 

• Platform Changes and Monetization

Social media platforms are suspect to change and do not have eternal life. Just recently Twitter went through a rebrand as X which resulted in many users shifting to Threads. Changes like these can significantly reduce an influencer reach and effect their status. Platform changes could affect your monetization contract with brand partners. If you are sharing ad-based revenue, then less engagement on your content due to platform changes might not be profitable for both parties. To increase your influencer reach – followers and likes on your content, you can buy likes and followers from quality sources.   

• Negative Comments and Cyberbullying

Anyone, anywhere, anytime can leave negative comments on your social media feeds unprovoked. Cyberbullying in the form of mass hate groups, pages and trolling would directly affect your mental health.    

• Managing Brand Expectations and Deliverables

Managing brand expectation and deliverables is a hard work. Some brands might require you to change the approach and method of your work entirely. Deliverables of certain brands might require you work repeatedly and at odd hours. 

• Legal and FTC Compliance

Being an influencer, you are vulnerable to legal jargon from both your followers and the company. People could sue you if the product or service result in potential harm. Company could sue you for not fulfilling your contract.  As an influencer you need to follow FTC guidelines so that you do not end up upselling products and services just for advertisement only to end up in prison for fraud.  

FAQ’s 

Q: What is hard about being an influencer?

A: Hard thing about being an influencer is to maintain authenticity and credibility, work under pressure to standout, receiving online hate and trolls and to deal with the ever-changing algorithm of social media apps just to name a few. 

Q: What are the biggest challenges of influencer marketing?

A: From a company point of view, the three biggest challenges are to find the right influencer, pricing the influencer right and calculation of ROI (Return of Investment).

Q: How do influencers impact society?

A: Influencers increase the spirit of materialism in people, they promote their unrealistic lifestyle which lead to low self-esteem among people. To keep up with them and trends is simply not possible for a common person. 

Q: What are the pros and cons of being an influencer?

A: The pros of being an influencer are flexible nature of work, ability to be authentic and building a community is rewarding. The cons of being an influencer include mass online hate and troll, constant pressure to create content and not being able to strike a work life balance. 

Concluding Remarks

Thus, though working as an influencer might feel exciting and lucrative to many people but it definitely comes along with its challenges. Some of the challenges include consistent pressure to make content, high competition and saturation, maintaining authenticity and credibility, dealing with online hate and trolls, platform changes and algorithm just to name a few. Influencers need to increase their followers to bag better deals. For their own mental health influencers need to strike a work life balance.  Moreover, to maintain and increase your followers due to changes in algorithm influencers can buy quality likes and followers from trusted sources. So, good luck and thanks for reading!

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