Being an Influencer: 25 Pros and Cons

An influencer is a person considered an expert within their particular field that also has a steady following. They regularly post about that topic on social media and generate followings of enthusiasm.

Most brands love social media influencers because they can create trends and encourage their followers to buy products they promote.

Advantages of Being an Influencer	Disadvantages of Being an Influencer
Flexibility	No job guarantee
Connecting with a Community	Income depends on the level of popularity
Authentic	The account may get closed
Free Gifts	Get nasty comments
Make lots of money	Family suffers
Fame	Tough to switch job
Inspire People	Few mistakes can ruin a career
Side Hustle to full time	Few mistakes can ruin a career

Advantages of being an Influencer

Flexibility

An influencer is not bound by a full-time job or a fixed location. Flexibility also lies in the topics that one can explore be it travel, fashion, or even beauty. One gets to decide their working hours and how much he or she works as well.

It gives the flexibility to travel as one just needs a smartphone, laptop, and good internet connection. It is in stark contrast to regular jobs where one needs to go to the office daily and can only explore those topics that are in the purview of the company.

Connecting with a Community

While one becomes an influencer, he creates a community of like-minded people. One not only creates this community but even engages with it regularly. This engagement is done with frequent comments.

This helps to establish solid connections with followers which improves your engagement rate. A higher engagement rate yields better chances of landing deals with brands.

Authentic

Becoming an influencer allows one to be authentic and truthful with their audience. One can let them know what it really took them to become an influencer and what their life is like as an influencer.

Though most influencers make the mistake of showcasing only the good side, it is never entirely true. By showcasing the negative one can give their story a human and emotional touch.

Free Gifts

Some brands prefer to give free gifts to influencers to motivate them to promote the brand’s products or services in return.

After one becomes a popular influencer, there are good chances that many brands will get in touch for collaborations. One might even get invited to get-togethers of influencers that are hosted by brands.

Make lots of money

An influencer makes lots of money. The top earners in this field make high income per year, much more than one would earn in almost all other jobs.

By promoting the brands, often they are offered a share of profit. It is not impossible to become rich as an influencer and if one is willing to work hard for it and also improve their skills every day, one may get to this point sooner or later.

Fame

Influencers can become very famous during their career. As one will share your videos on YouTube and on various other social media channels, chances are that people will recognize him in public sooner or later and that they want to take pictures with him.

They are the online superstars, followed by the public.

Inspire People

An influencer can make a difference in people’s lives. One may not gain millions of followers or become a star overnight. However, when one inspires people, he will gain genuine and loyal followers.

They will look up to influencers for suggestions regarding fashion, beauty, fitness, or their specific niche.

One can leverage his success and voice to talk about some real issues as well. For instance, climate change, gender equality, health, or education and increase awareness among their audience.

Side Hustle to full time

One can build own brand on social media as a side hustle while keeping his day job at the same time.

It gives one financial security and can take away plenty of pressure from one in this regard. Once one acquires a big-enough audience to make a full-time income and at that point in time, he can just quit his day job and go full-time with his influencer career.

Disadvantages of being an Influencer

No job guarantee

An influencer has no job security at all. As one will work self-employed, they will only make money if they monetize their audience in various different ways.

Most often, one will get paid by the company to create a positive image around their product. However, if the company decides that it no longer wants to work with one, it will lose its income from one day to the other.

Income depends on the level of popularity

Not all influencers earn similar amounts of money. One’s income greatly depends upon the level of popularity as well as on overall reach.

If one reaches more people with his posts and videos, companies will pay more. However, if one loses his level of popularity due to various popular reasons, chances are that he will also lose a major part of his income.

The account may get closed

The social media accounts of influencers may get closed. One may have behaved against the rules on the respective platform and getting banned is just the natural consequence of their behavior.

Though this may not be that bad for individuals, it will be detrimental to influencers as they will no longer be able to monetize their audience on their respective social media accounts.

Get nasty comments

An influencer often gets nasty comments. In turn, though his fan base will support him in difficult times, other people who don’t like influencers will try to bring him down on a constant basis.

Most of them will even insult and this can be really annoying and exhausting over time.

Family suffers

Family members may suffer from an influencer career. After one reaches a certain level of fame, he becomes a public figure and will get many annoying comments along the way.

Not only may influencers, but the family may also get affected. Other kids in school will make fun of Influencer’ kids and bully them. Adult members may get taunted in public.

Tough to switch job

An influencer will always be in the spotlight. Though this might be great at the beginning, it can also become a problem once one decides to go for another career path.

If one states a rather controversial thesis in public, chances are that many companies don’t want to employ him anymore since they feel like their brand safety will be at risk.

Few mistakes can ruin a career

Only a few mistakes may ruin the career of influencers. Like if one says something stupid that has a political character, many brands may no longer be willing to work with him and his career may be ruined from one day to the other.

Though influencers exercise caution yet a single wrong post can snow bubble into a big issue and he may lose a significant number of followers.