Do Influencers Like What They Promote?

Influencers are constantly promoting new products and the latest fashion trends, but do they actually like what they showcase? With so many influencers endorsing new brands, it’s time to ask if they truly support the brands and products they claim to love. Are they genuinely sharing their opinions with their followers, or simply following whatever a brand tells them to do?

Through brand deals, paid partnerships or engagement on videos, influencers can earn a significant amount of money. Some influencers are able to make more than $2000 a month, or more. But how? On platforms like TikTok, influencers can get paid $0.02-$0.04 per 1,000 views. This means that on average, influencers with high following, who get over 100,000 views per video, could make up to $4000 per video. However, this is excluding brand deals.

So how do influencers make money? They can earn through a variety of methods, including brand deals, sponsored posts, selling products or services, affiliate marketing (where influencers get commission by promoting products through special links), and ad revenue. Because of this, influencers may be paid to wear or use specific brands, showing their audience enthusiasm for a product, even if they do not regularly use it.

Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram prioritise viral content, encouraging short-lived trends. As a result, influencers could feel pressure to keep up with the moving trends of social media promoting products they do not genuinely use or value. This blurs the line between honest recommendations, reviews and paid endorsements, making it harder for audiences to fully put their trust into influencer content. According to statistics, around 69% of consumers trust influencer recommendations.

Influencers also go through forced promotion, their managers and companies send them PR, forcing them to leave a good review and unpackage it in front of their thousands of followers. These packages are made to look exciting and create interest, viewers are enticed to buy products based n how their packages are designed for influencers. For example, Harley Bieber’s brand, ‘Rhode’, has been known to have extremely nice PR packages, however, there have been many cases of customers being disappointed in the package they receive at their front door. In summary, PR packages are just marketing to get an audience hooked, influencers don’t get a choice to buy it or not, they just receive it and need to boost the brands’ image.

In conclusion, the debate is split. Some influencers have a genuine love for fashion, cosmetics, and more. These are the people who do social media for the fun of it and not for the money making scheme. On the other hand, there’s a plethora of people who do it for the recognition, those who don’t genuinely promote products. There is not a straight way to know if influencers like what they promote, there are ways in which influencers are forced to promote products, but we can’t be sure if their love for the product is true.