Photo: Ron Lach

Is it worth it to be a social media influencer?

As an influencer, you can make some pretty good money. You can also get a bit of fame and admiration from your followers. However, if you fail to be genuine, you may have a difficult time growing your personal brand into a long-term, successful one.

scalefluence.com - 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Become A Social Media Influencer

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Influencer marketing is around every digital corner. There are plenty of micro-influencers and a decent number of mega-influencers ready to take a brand, product, and/or service to the next level using social media.

Online users take influencer recommendations to heart . . .

Simply recommending a business, product, event, etc. can net big-time value for the business. It is also quite profitable for the influencer. The average, run-of-the-mill influencer can make $500 to more than $1,000 per post. Mega-influencers, like celebrities and well-known industry leaders can get a lot more per post. For instance, it’s rumoured Kim Kardashian gets nearly a quarter-million dollars per post. Even the children of mega-influencers can cash in, like DJ Khaled’s son Asahd, who earns around $20,000 per #sponsored post . . .

Pretty crazy!

You are probably considering the influencer path to riches. But the truth is, making $20,000 to $200,000 per post is rare. In fact, you will need to be pretty famous to net that much.

Useful Resource: How to become YouTube famous

From YouTube to Instagram, is becoming a social media influencer impossible? Absolutely NOT! It does, however, take serious discipline and you’ll need to make it a full-time gig. That’s why we came up with a few reasons you probably shouldn’t become a social media influencer.

Let’s dive in!

Reason #1: You want to be part of the growing influencer trend

It is certainly no secret that influencer marketing is trending. It’s trending for businesses and marketers, and it’s trending for social media users with a pretty decent following. However, you shouldn’t become a social media influencer just because it is trending. Building real influence takes time, and if you take the social influencer path with a trend-mindset, online users will know. In fact, you may find your follower count diminish pretty quickly if you are all about the trend. This is a pretty noteworthy example of what it looks like to jump “on the influencer bandwagon”: But who knows, maybe this social media influencer will grow to new heights and end the #trending mindset to increase followers from 9000+ to 30,000+ in the very near future. Whether it’s influencer marketing or something completely different, you shouldn’t do something just because it’s trending. Be yourself, be passionate, and the rest will follow. Reason #2: You want to quit your day job, be a social media influencer, and get rich Don’t quit that day job just yet. You shouldn’t become a social media influencer if you’re only doing it to get rich. The chances of you getting extremely wealthy as an influencer are pretty slim. In fact, the average payment per post if you have less than 2,000 followers is less than $50. Even if you have a pretty decent follower count, between 50k followers to 75k followers, you’ll still only average about $200 per post.

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Long story short, influencer marketing does pay, but you’re not going to be driving a new Ferrari anytime soon. That’s one percent of social media influencers who have been at it for a very, very long time. But you shouldn’t not do it for the money. That’s not what we’re saying. You can probably make a pretty nice passive income. And if you have an affordable lifestyle, you very well could quit your day job and become a full-time influencer like @layla.alnaif for instance . . . She’s a micro-influencer that has taken her healthy lifestyle and habits to social media, netting her pretty decent follower attention per post . . Do it for the money. Do it because you’re passionate about something. But you shouldn’t become a social media influencer if your only goal is to get super rich.

Reason #3: You want to be popular

One of the biggest reasons you shouldn’t become a social media influencer is to win a popularity contest. Yes, there is some popularity pluses that come with being an influencer, but you have to be conscious of the effects popularity can have. “But the very worst, most dangerous part of instafame in your 20s is that it totally messes up your character development,” explained Verity Johnson, an Instagram influencer who learned about the dark side of social media popularity, in an article for The Guardian. “Not only did it make me self obsessed, but it indulged my very worst qualities.” And Johnson is not alone. She is working with a number of other ex-influencers to tackle the issues of social media and online harm. So if you’re considering becoming a social media influencer just to be popular, or to achieve some form of celebrity status in your community, think about the possible long-term consequences. You can certainly enjoy a bit of fame as an influencer, just don’t let it be what consumes you. Reason #4: You don’t want to hang out at the beach and not work all that much This is a big time misconception about the lives of social media influencers. You see the beautiful beach images and free products, but there is definitely more to it than just hanging out at the beach.

Yeah, you do get to enjoy moments like this . . .

But there are a lot of other aspects of being an influencer. It’s certainly not all travel, eating, drinking, and partying. It is actually hard work. Take travel vloggers and YouTube micro-influencers like Kristen & Siya, for instance: The work that goes into storyboarding their videos, editing, and other key vlogging must-dos can take a ton of hours. Being an influencer is definitely not a Monday through Friday 8 hour gig. A one hour video could take days to prepare, pre and post production.

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As an influencer, you’re essentially an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs have anything but a normal job. There are a lot of sleepless nights and hard work needed to run a successful business, especially if you’re a personal brand like an influencer.

Reason #5: You want to be someone else online

This is a very good reason you shouldn’t become an online influencer. Being someone you’re not will only backfire, and honestly, you may even find it difficult to get the following you envision. Brands are also becoming more diligent about vetting the influencers they work with, often digging into an influencer’s past.

A great example is @essena.oneiil . . .

You are probably thinking, “ONLY 2,800+ followers?! She’s not an influencer!” Well, she once had hundreds of thousands of followers, but she surprised everyone by coming clean about who she really was. She started over and took a “this is the real me” approach. She doesn’t have very many posts, and yet she probably has more followers than the average social media user. It’s important to be yourself. Being real on social media, especially as an influencer will help you from falling victim to poor self-worth issues. You may be able to hide behind fake posts and profiles for a while, but it will catch up to you pretty fast.

Are you an influencer for the right reasons?

The above five reasons why you shouldn’t become a social media influencer are very important to consider. Even if you are already an influencer on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or via blog, revisiting the above could be a good idea. As an influencer, you can make some pretty good money. You can also get a bit of fame and admiration from your followers. However, if you fail to be genuine, you may have a difficult time growing your personal brand into a long-term, successful one. Ready to level up as an influencer and turn your social media following into more than just a side hustle? Scalefluence helps influencers connect with brands easily, taking care of collaboration and ensuring a relationship you can nurture with the brands you work with through our influencer platform. Get started today!

scalefluence.com - 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Become A Social Media Influencer

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