The term ‘influencer’ gets thrown around a lot, and although I’m not exactly sure how it came to exist, I know that a couple of years ago everyone wanted to be labeled an ‘influencer’ whereas today it is a shunned word. Why is it shunned? Because those who truly have influence in their field loathe being thrown in the same pod as the more recent Instagram ‘public figures’ glorifying their material possessions.
But what is an influencer, really?
I personally don’t think it takes tens of thousands or even a million social media followers to make you an influencer. An influencer influences, no matter how small his/her reach is, if that person is able to change opinions and shape minds, then this is the category they fall into from tech gadget savants to beauty product experts. Influence isn’t a matter to take lightly, because with reach comes responsibility, but there are also major cons to this digital phenomenon. There is no denying that a great portion of the blogosphere has become a marketing strategy, and while it is never wrong to monetize one’s influence, there is a fine line between hoarding all the collaborations you can get, and being genuine. The majority of the audience are smart enough to differentiate between authenticity and paid content, but there are still fresher minds that are really influenced by a blogger they look up to, and if the latter is merely posting in return for a few bucks, this particular demographic will be falsely deceived in thinking the reviewed product is a must have and therefore will go ahead and buy it without the proper research.
