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COMMENT LES JEUNES RÉVÈLENT LEUR AUTHENTICITÉ EN LIGNE

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The End of Influencers + Rise of Authenticity

Watching Generation Like was an affirming experience for me because I saw many of the aspects I have noticed about social media: the toxic nature of “like” currency, cyclical validation and invalidation provided by this currency, and unexpected downfalls of individuals due to their obsession with “likes”. These aspects long ago caused me to delete most of my social media and voluntarily remove myself from this negative atmosphere.

At the same time, the video caused me to raise many questions on the authenticity of social media and its potential for monetary marketing results as consumers of social media become more aware of these issues. In this post, I argue that as a result of increased saturation of influencers, increased consumer awareness, and a shift in people looking for the “next big thing”, consumers are not as affected by media marketing as they once were.

Although I am not personally active on social media, I assist with the Instagram page for a self-employed artist here in Philadelphia (Lindsay Rapp). This experience is continually demonstrating to me that anyone and seemingly everyone is now an influencer. I read hundreds of comments and profiles per day and have been shocked by the number of influencers sponsored by brands. People with as few as a thousand followers are partner with companies to share their products, and they do so very often. Statistics show that “74% of global marketers reported they will use ‘influence marketing’ as part of their marketing strategy”, which is only trending upwards. Now that the general population has seen people succeed through social media as a result of these companies, many are jumping on the bandwagon and following the template created by pioneer influencers like Tyler Oakley, Jenna Marbles, and Jaclyn Hill. This increase in social media influencers has created a lot of noise for those who use social media for genuine communication and information access.

As a result of the increase in influencers, sponsorships, and subliminal advertising, consumers of social media are much more aware of these once innovative marketing attempts. Not only are they more aware, but they have become more exhausted by it. As an avid Youtube watcher, anytime I see a video with “AD” in the title, I skip it. Anytime I search the description box for products I am interested in buying and see a note denoting it is sponsored, I reconsider my opinions both of the product and on the influencer. Now that consumers are so clouded by sponsored influencers and have tools at their disposal to identify what is sponsored content, they are no longer influenced to buy products as easily. Though Generation Like stated that selling out is no longer considered a bad thing in influencer culture, I do not believe this is true in 2017. Consumers are now very aware of when their favorite social media personality sells out to a company, and they more often than not do view it unfavorably.

This excess of advertising has caused many people (like myself) to leave the social media platforms in search of the “next big thing”. Myspace is a laughing stock, Facebook died years ago (if your parents are on it, it is a sign), and many other platforms will follow this pattern. Social media is just not nearly as hip as it used to be. Due to a less exclusive audience and its now mainstream nature, social media is losing its edge and sphere of influence. Social influencers will soon become ineffective as a result. Clearly, social media is still relevant today (after all I am taking a class on it and using it at my job), but its shift from it being companies’ marketing playground to a space where people can genuinely connect is coming – especially if companies continue to numb their consumer with inescapable advertising.

I predict the impending fall of social media influencer marketing will occur in the next five to ten years due to too many influencers promoting in obviously insincere ways. This will be expedited by more and more people leaving social media in search of novel platforms. I see this as an ultimately positive progression because I believe with the end of influencer marketing will come the beginning of authentic social media communication.