Are We Tired of Influencers?

By: Asha Johnson, Senior Writer Edited by: Ava Pettigrew

With just a short scroll on social media, users see one influencer after another talking about a specific product. The influencer smiles at the camera as if talking to a friend while making their sales pitch. For a long time, influencers were heavily copied by their followers. However, as users are exposed to these videos repeatedly on their feeds, that dynamic has recently begun to change, giving way to follower fatigue and skepticism.

Influencers are content creators who use their platforms to partner with brands and market their products. Influencers cover multiple industries, including fashion, lifestyle, travel, etc, and have a variety of audiences they cater to. The term “influencer” comes from their ability to sway or influence the buying decisions of their audience. They build personal relationships with their social following through more relatable and authentic content. Influencers often share personal anecdotes and stories about their lives, and users aspire to recreate their lifestyle. They are effective at building strong parasocial relationships and digital interactions, making their audience more inclined to purchase what they promote. 

It used to be the perfect collaboration. Influencers partner with brands to make money, and in return, brands get crucial visibility delivered to their desired audience. However, times have changed, and content creators are losing the touch that they once had. Users are growing tired of social media and are experiencing influencer fatigue like never before due to the loss of trust and authenticity that they once cultivated. Influencer marketing and engagement just don’t have the same impact on social media users as they did previously. 

Influencer and social media marketing has become a profitable form of marketing and a big phenomenon for brands and content creators. It has higher engagement than traditional ads, so many brands have pivoted their marketing goals towards their social media platforms. These pivots have been profitable. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s Benchmark Report, influencer marketing has a $24 billion market size and is projected to reach $32.55 billion by the end of 2025 globally. 

However, even with how profitable influencer and social media marketing are, users are growing tired of their prominence on platforms and are experiencing forms of influencer and ad fatigue. A main factor of this is the over-saturation of influencers and sponsored content online. According to AD-ID, 50% of Internet users feel annoyed when seeing too many ads, and 61% say that seeing too many ads makes them less likely to purchase something. In recent years, there has been an influencer boom on social media, and becoming an influencer is easier than ever. Anybody with a phone or access to a camera can film, edit, and upload any content they want if there is an audience for it. 

Jai’La Du Rousseau, a Magazine, News, and Digital Journalism graduate student at Syracuse University, said being an influencer is attainable, and many users on social media give themselves the title regardless of their following. “I think people are self-proclaimed influencers,” she said. “There are multiple people that I see on my Instagram that I follow, and I'm not influenced by anything they do, but they believe that they’re influencers because they post their daily lives.” 

Initially, this was a good thing because unique and diverse voices were placed at the forefront online, but now, there are too many voices talking at once. The constant flow of influencers marketing and promoting products can often make users feel overwhelmed. Social media has grown diluted and thus, less impactful. With marketed posts all feeling the same, users are less likely to see influencers as authentic or personal and more like a commercial. 

If users are feeling fatigued with the flow of constant marketing content, they will be less likely to interact with posts through likes, comments, and reposts. Additionally, this tiredness can affect consumers' trust in both brands and influencers. When influencers constantly promote products, users cannot tell whether they genuinely believe in a product or not. This makes users look at social media as a constant stream of advertisements as opposed to an enjoyable use of their time.

Sullivan Towe, a Magazine, News, and Digital Journalism graduate student at Syracuse University, shared this sentiment when it comes to his own personal feed. “It's stuff that I don't care for and stuff I don't need. I want to watch what I want to watch, and I feel like it's all just a big money grab trying to scam people out of money,” he said. “It has made social media a little bit less enjoyable because of the amount of ads that I see. I just know I'm going to get hit with a bunch of ads about ‘buy this, buy that.’”  

There’s a growing disconnect between influencers and their followers. Audiences need a break from the constant stream of ads while brands and influencers work to build their trust back. If brands and influencers continue on this path, they will keep losing their followers’ trust. Influencers need to get back to being authentic and honest with their followers. Right now, digital audiences crave vulnerability and transparency. In turn, brands need to focus less on having as many ads or partnerships as possible and more on creating quality content that audiences can actually relate to. 

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