Study: M’sian influencers mostly fake & can’t really influence people anymore
Ask any kid what they want to be when they grow up and the answer is almost always “influencer†or “YouTuber†or anything related to internet fame, actually.
But it looks like these kids may need new career #goals because InfluencerDB has got some bad news.
Revelation #1: Influencers can’t really influence people anymore.
The shocking revelation comes from the European marketing technology company’s 2019 report on engagement metrics for influencer marketing success.
They calculated the engagement using the Like Follower Ratio (LFR) which is basically number likes per post in relation to number of followers.
When looking at the numbers, the data scientists discovered that
the engagement rate for influencers’ posts have gone down to a mere 1.9% when
this number was a loftier 4.5% in 2016.
Travel influencers seem to be hit the hardest as the average
Like Follower Ratio drop to 4.5% compared to 8% in 2018. So all those #wanderlust
posts were pretty much useless lah.
That’s not all though, all the #sponsored posts are getting
less likes too. The report states that the engagement rate for sponsored posts is
only 2.4%. The number was 4% in 2016.
Revelation #2: Malaysian influencers have a lot of fake followers.
Kinda malu lah, guys..
The report also found that Malaysian influencers had pretty low-quality audiences.
The audience quality grade for Malaysia is only 31.2%. That’s an F!
Even Indonesia did so much better than us with a respectable
51% audience grade.
FYI, the lower the grade, the higher the number of fake
followers. High scores were given to Germany and France with over 65% audience
grade.
Have influencers peaked?
According to InfluencerDB, it’s a no.
They say that the landscape is just changing and evolving. BUT, they do agree that the ‘gold rush’ of influencer marketing is over. Companies can’t just use the ‘spray and pray’ (or “throw money†according to our mums) technique for optimal results.
There’s also a bit of silver lining in the report. Smaller accounts have better engagement compared to influencers with big follower numbers.
Influencers with just 1,000 – 5,000 followers have an engagement
of 8.8% while influencers with at least 10,000 followers have just 3.6% engagement.
It looks like you don’t need to abandon your dreams, fellow kids!
Hop on that low-budget flight to an “exotic†Southeast Asian beach and bless your timeline with avocado toast pictures featuring a random bikini-clad lady 😬
Ps: If you REALLY want to go crazy on your wanderlust posts, we’ve prepared a list of 11 visa-free international party spots that M’sians can visit over a WEEKEND.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article included posts of local personalities. We did not intend to target anyone personally nor imply that the issues raised in this article was in reference to them.
