Debate: Influencing just isn’t worth it
The inconsistent risk-to-reward conversion of this career is too chaotic
While it can make fast money, influencing is too unstable and emotionally damaging to pursue as a career. (Unsplash/Saulo Mohana)
As social media’s prevalence continues to increase, a new career has emerged where people can promote anything, ranging from a new product to lifestyle choices.
This new career is called influencing, and those who partake are called influencers. If someone chooses to take this career route, they must constantly be showcasing something to potential audiences.
Want to showcase a tasty new flavour of an energy drink, a fancy piece of clothing for others to consider trying out, or promote a lifestyle people could look into experiencing for themselves? Be an influencer.
However, as popular as being an influencer is right now, it is not a sustainable career path.
While being an influencer is theoretically one of the quickest ways to get rich and famous, it’s also one of the most volatile. Considering the amount you invest doesn’t always convert into an equal amount of payoff. It can be hard to know what to expect. This is especially true if the item or concept being showcased isn’t part of a sponsorship with some guarantee of profits and other gains included.
Another problem with choosing to be an influencer as your career is how unpredictable and inconsistent it can be of getting caught up with trends. While this isn’t a problem specific to influencing, if someone isn’t able to adapt and expand upon their influencing platform, it results in putting everything into a trend which can either last for a long time or be forgotten about in a day.
It’s vital for influencers to be multifaceted in showcasing more than one aspect to gain even a bit of sustainability. This is especially important for those able to get past the first of many hurdles and gain a foundation of followers to build off of.
There is also a mental health aspect to being an influencer. Compared to plenty of other careers, influencers are among those putting the most of who they are out in public, open to commentary, attracting potential audiences.
If those pursuing influencing don’t have a certain level of mental and emotional strength to handle the uncontrolled chaos of social media, they’ll end up getting hurt in the long run. This can even lead to the possibility of losing passion for interests influencers are trying to showcase to people online.
Overall, there’s too much risk involved with being an influencer with no guaranteed returns of getting back what you put in. However, if there’s one such career I would suggest where there’s some influencing overlap, it’s being a content creator.
While there are some differences between the two careers, there’s enough similarities that some people consider them interchangeable. Being a content creator focuses more on what the name implies, creating content. One of the big differences between content creating and influencing is that content creators come off as less assertive on what’s being showcased.
Another benefit of being a content creator is that it’s more convenient to become an influencer later on than the other way around since a platform and fanbase is likely already established. Creating content also stems from passion and other intrinsic reasons which makes it more fulfilling and helpful in the long run compared to influencing.
While being an influencer seems appealing right now, being a content creator accomplishes the same.
