Anti-excess movement or social media marketing tactic?
First, there was the blogger. Then came the rise of the influencer, otherwise known as the Key Opinion Leader (KOL). But have you heard of the deinfluencer? Well, now you have. Let’s take a Deep Dive.
🛜 An influencer, particularly in the context of social media, is someone who has built a reputation and credibility in a particular field by posting related content on their platform. The most popular of them often have the most engaged follower base, who pay close attention to what they do, say or buy.
📱While influencers typically encourage people to buy a product or say it’s useful, deinfluencers do the opposite. The deinfluencing trend started on the video-sharing app TikTok and involves influencers sharing about what not to buy.
📈 Some experts say inflation and growing costs of living globally are driving the trend, others think it could be another tactic by influencers to build more trust with their audiences to possibly influence another purchase later.
QUOTABLE
“Deinfluencing is living your life, drawing inspiration from what you see, but not necessarily feeling that you need to go out and create a carbon copy of someone else’s life.”
- Paige Pritchard, spending coach and TikTok content creator
BY THE NUMBERS
1.3 billion The hashtag #deinfluencing currently has 1.3 billion views on TikTok.
2 Of 2,000 consumers surveyed, 37 percent said they trust social media influencers over brands; Gen Z and millennials are two times more likely than boomers to trust influencers.
39.4 million In the second quarter of 2022, TikTok earned over $39.4 million in the United States through its iOS app.
QUIZ
Although content creators are putting almost everything under scrutiny, what are they deinfluencing people to buy the most?
A. Software products
B. Fashion and beauty products
C. Furniture
Scroll to the bottom for the answer.
DID YOU KNOW?
The #deinfluencing trend has yet to make its mark on Instagram. In comparison to the 1.3 billion views on TikTok, the hashtag has only accumulated 8,433 posts on Instagram.
THE EDIT
🌹 A rose by any other name. Skeptics say deinfluencing is influencing by another name.
😉 Trust me. Honesty and source credibility are at the heart of influencing, and best practices include using disclosures on sponsored posts and items.
🫦 Reality bites. While influencing aims to create a positive image of a brand or product, deinfluencing’s goal is to create a realistic image by highlighting its shortcomings.
WATCH
Reporters from NBC Chicago summarise the deinfluencing trend and what to watch out for in this 3-minute video.
KEY PLAYER
Mikayla Nogueira
It was in response to #MascaraGate, TikTok beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira’s alleged use of falsies in her paid review of the L’Oreal Telescopic Life mascara, which fuelled the deinfluencing fire—calling for greater transparency from online personalities. Nogueira has yet to publicly address the incident.
HONOUREE TO KNOW
Dennis Lin
PressPlay was co-founded in 2016 by Dennis Lin as a platform for subscription-based crowdfunding content. Its PressPlay Academy is an online learning platform, while its PressPlay Next is an influencer agency with expertise in brand management and content marketing.
ONE FINAL THING
Nogueira’s misstep about her mascara review may have been about actual mascara, but the other highly talked-about “mascara” on the platform isn’t about the beauty product. The #MascaraTrend refers to mascara being used as a code word for sexual experiences, sex toys and more.
