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Influencer is one of the trendiest words when we talk about social media. Becoming an influencer in social media became a career option in 2020. Social media influencers are now part of our day-to-day life. Public is following their lives in such a manner that they even realise that influencers' thoughts, actions, behaviour are affecting their daily activities. Followers even try to copy what they use, eat, wear irrespective of positive or negative effects in life.
Influencer word found reference in a book ‘A Modest Inquiry into The Mystery of Iniquity’, written by an English Philosopher who described that an influencer is a figure of power in the religious sphere in 1664. In the 21st century, an influencer is a person who has the ability to create trends and can influence the lives of followers.
Currently, influencers and their process of influence are closely linked to social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and others, where they showcase patterns or aspects of their lives to their followers.
Almost 5 billion videos are watched globally per day. So, it is obvious that people enjoy spending time on social media sites. Viewers search video contents depending on their interests. India has top notch influencers who are included in rich community for their significant influential capabilities. Here are some well-known influential influencers.
Bhuvan Bam, a Delhi boy popularly known as BBKiVines with 26 million YouTube followers and 19.3 million Instagram Followers not only known as comedian but also proved himself as actor, writer, and most importantly, as a famous influencer. He started his YouTube journey in 2015, gained fame and popularity with in a very short period of time for his witty, comedic, yet meaningful videos for viewers.
Ajey Nagar, famously known as CarryMinati, is a multifaceted personality in the digital world. He gained prominence as a streamer, rapper, and renowned YouTuber. His content spans a variety of genres including roasting, comedy sketches, and reactions to trending videos. Beyond entertainment, CarryMinati is also celebrated for his skills as a competitive gamer, engaging his audience with gameplay and commentary. With 40 million subscribers in YouTube and 21.4 million followers on Instagram, CarryMinati has become one of the top most influencers in the digital entertainment industry.
Sandeep Maheshwari, the most popular motivational speaker, influencer with 28 million YouTube followers and 5.3 million followers on Instagram, provides intense insights on life to his viewers and listeners. For his inspirational talks, people visit his seminars to experience and collect ideas on various aspects of life. If you need an extra push in your life for personal growth, he can be a good option for you.
Gaurav Chaudhary, known as Technical Guruji, started his YouTube channel in 2015 where he shares different technology related content. Apart from giving product reviews, he guides his audience on complex concepts, mechanisms and technology related developments. Over the years for his high-quality content, collaborations with top rated brands, made him a top influencer in tech world with 23 million subscribers on YouTube and 5.6 million followers on Instagram.
Asish Chanchlani is an Indian influencer with 30.4 million subscribers on YouTube and 17.3 million followers on Instagram known for his comedy videos which he started in 2018. He was awarded the DadaSaheb Phalke International Film Festival Award for best digital influencer. He also directed a short film ‘Akhri Safar ‘which got 15 million views on YouTube.
Besides these popular social media influencers, there are some other influencers who use improper, unethical, way to influence people for their own sake without considering the positive or negative on their audience.
In social media we see everything is so perfect. Influencers portray an ideal version of life, but reality can be different, right? It is difficult for viewers or followers to understand the difference between what is shared and the reality behind the scenes.
Social media influencers curate their content in such a way that their posts, look like perfect. They often edit or enhance the content quality to achieve perfection. A study by university of Pittsburgh has revealed that using social media can cause severe body dissatisfaction in people. Viewers often compare themselves to the influencers they follow. They believe Reel reflects Reality. The edited version of reels is creating unrealistic beauty standards.
We used to see influencers are promoting various brands on social media and convincing followers to use the products. But in reality, most of the time they don't even use the products. Influencers exaggerate the product’s quality during promotion to make it more appealing.
During promotion many influencers don't disclose that the post is sponsored and try to show that their reviews of the products are based on their personal experience. However, the reality is that they are paid for this promotion.
When companies pay a huge amount for promotion, they often provide pre written content to influencers that is more appealing and can catch a larger audience. Even during these promotions likes, comments and followers are sometimes purchased to create fake popularity, influence, impressions.
Focusing only on the positive sides of a product without mentioning its negative effects or side effect is another method practised by social media influencer to mislead the public for the sake of their own profit. Showing before and after effects of a product by editing photos and videos is a commonly used process to manipulate people to increase sale of that product.
Let’s unpack a little bit more, when it comes to the consequences of blindly following the social media influencers. In recent times people follow influencers, worship them, blindly trusting their words, sending them gifts, creating their fan pages and many more things without thinking how these activities affecting their life. Here are just some key points about the impact in lives.
Constant exposure to social world where influencers portray their perfect figures and also encourage followers to achieve similar perfection can sometimes increase body dissatisfaction, depression and even different kind of eating disorders in youth especially in teenagers.
Desire to live the influencers’ life, and dissatisfaction with one’s own life can cause bad impact that can lead to severe depression.
Influencers promote random products and influence viewers to purchase the product for the sake of their own financial benefits
To follow trend which is followed by influencers can lead to financial loss for followers.
Comparing own lifestyle with ideal lifestyle portrayed by influencers can cause severe depression and anxiety.
Spending excessive time on social media can cause addiction, reduce productive work and real-life interaction.
Sometimes to imitate influencers’ life style, followers share personal information which can compromise privacy and increase security risks.
According to the ASCI report for 2022-2023, approximately 8,000 ads were scrutinised and it was found that 75% of the violative ads were spotted in digital media, raising concerns about the online safety of consumers. It was also revealed that one in every four ads had an influencer violation. Not only were influencers guilty of violations, but also celebrities were misleading consumers by pushing them to purchase products without informing them of its side effects. Real money gaming has overtaken education as the largest key violator. Healthcare, personal care, and crypto are the other key violators.
A survey by ASCI among 820 respondents above the age of 18 revealed that six in every ten respondents claim that they spend two hours on social media, and nine out of ten people trust advertising (91% of respondents trust advertising, with 42% having complete trust and 49% trusting advertising somewhat).
In that same report, ASCI also identified that 79% of respondents trust influencers, with 30% of them totally trust influencers while 49% trust them to some extent.
ASCI also mentioned in the report that 90% of respondents purchased at least one item on the basis of influencers’ endorsements, and 61% of respondents claimed that they made a purchase based on influencers’ feedback.
So, it is quite clear both brands and influencers gain through partnerships. ASCI also mentioned that 58% of respondents believe that influencers become trustworthy when they promote brands, and 64% of respondents believe that a brand is trustworthy when influencers promote it.
Since the implementation of guidelines by ASCI in June 2021, ASCI has processed almost 2700 complaints against influencers and brands for not declaring material connections.
ASCI also disclosed data related to platform-wise violations by social media influencers in the 2022 to 2023 survey report: out of 1,176 violations, 65% happened on Instagram, 27% on YouTube, 4% on Facebook, 3% on Twitter, and 1% on LinkedIn.
Social media influencers often portray an idealised version of life that can be misleading. While their content can be inspiring and entertaining, it's important to recognize the discrepancies between what is shared online and the reality behind the scenes.