Influencer Content Is Fun to Watch. Too Bad the Creators Are Miserable

According to The Small Business Blog, there may be as many as 37.8 million influencers on social platforms across the world—and as many as 40,000 reach followings of more than 1 million. Yet even among that rarified group, few can boast the kind of celebrity status enjoyed by a fresh-faced Irish bloke named Seán William McLoughlin. McLoughlin posts game-play videos under the name of Jacksepticeye, a moniker his friends gave him after a ghastly football injury. Since 2012, when he began posting on YouTube, McLoughlin has amassed 28.8 million subscribers. His videos have racked up 15.6 billion views. And, according to Forbes, his yearly income now hovers around $16.8 million. McLoughlin built that kind of following by posting videos every day, regular as the sunrise. But in 2018, the YouTuber shocked his fans by doing the unthinkable: He was going to take some time off. “I’ve always been someone who’s prided myself on not missing a day,” McLoughlin said in a video titled I Have to Go Away for a While. “My mental health has not been in the best place recently,” he continued. “So the reason I've been taking more time off is because I need to. I need to take the time off to get my brain back in order.” A Nonprofit Is Shedding Light on Unhealthy Digital Relationships With a Series of PSAs The birth of burnout At the time, it was a startling admission. This was three years before gymnast Simone Biles cited mental health concerns for pulling out of the Tokyo Olympics finals, a move that did much to normalize the discussion of the psychological perils that public figures expose themselves to. It’s a common assumption that the upper tiers of content creators can suffer from burnout. But now comes a new body of research that shows just how serious the problem is. In a recent study conducted by affiliate marketing platform Awin Group, 78% of influencers said they were suffering from burnout, with 66% admitting that the problem is bad enough to affect their overall mental health. What’s more, burnout isn’t limited to mega-influencers with audiences of a million or more. Over half of Awin’s respondents had followings between 1,000 and 5,000. The travails are worst for Instagrammers, with 71% reporting significant burnout, followed by TikTokers, where the problem affects 39% of content creators, according to the study. Wondermind Wants to Get Your Mental Health in Shape Opening Pandora's box In a sense, mental health problems associated with content creation were inevitable. After YouTube launched its Partner Program in 2007 and Instagram introduced paid advertisements in 2013, it became possible for people with large followings to make careers out of content creation. By 2017, as this magazine reported, 28% of content creators in a Hashoff survey said social media was their full-time job. Some were bound to fry their circuits doing it. “That’s become more prevalent,” said Awin’s influencer partnerships team lead Carissa Flinders. “You see a lot of creators that say, 'I think I'm going to do this full time now. I've quit my job.' So then that pressure is really there.” Shane Barker is a noted digital marketing consultant who’s watched influencers grow in numbers and strength over the years. While the opportunities to make money have increased, he said, so has the pressure to hold onto the influence. If you’re not on that stage, guess what’s going to happen? Someone else will replace you.Shane Barker, marketing consultant “When you're in a creator economy, you constantly need to be performing,” Barker said. “You constantly need to be pushing out content—and at a high level.” Barker recalled the story of one of his fitness influencer clients who, after building her income up to $1.6 million a year at only 23, found that she had to share more and more of her personal life in order to satisfy the growing demand of her followers. Eventually, she got trolled over her choice of boyfriends—a topic that had nothing to do with fitness. “When you open up Pandora’s box, you can’t close that box,” Barker said, adding that taking time off isn’t always an option, either. “If you’re not on that stage, guess what’s going to happen? Someone else will replace you.” The role of Covid As one might guess, the pandemic has been a catalyst for feelings of stress, with 56% of influencers reporting that pandemic living had increased their burnout. When Covid-19 turned millions of people's homes into their offices, legions of them (nearly 62%, according to a 2020 SellCell study) spent work time meandering through social media platforms. That audience only increased the demand for more posts, more vlogs, more videos. But Awin’s research exposed multiple causes for the increased stress. Another was the penchant social media platforms have for constantly tweaking their algorithms, which can easily slash influencers’ audiences and, with them, their paychecks. Constant platform changes were a factor cited by 72% of Awin’s respondents as contributing to their burnout. How to Be Mindful of Employee Burnout During Tough Times Why brands should care Influencers’ mental fatigue might seem like their issue alone, but it’s ultimately a problem for brands, too. As CPG companies increasingly rely on content creators to reach the niche audiences they want, their marketing strategy is imperiled when those influencers get sick of influencing. Flinders said one purpose of Awin’s study was to “provide a level of understanding that lets brands know this is what creators are feeling… to drive more awareness and understanding on the brand side.” Influencers today have a range of options when it comes to earning a living. With YouTube’s Partner Program, for example, Google shares a percentage of gross revenue based on views. A content creator who does sponsored posts gets paid directly to pitch a specific brand. Then there’s affiliate marketing, by which a network (like Awin, Rakuten or CJ Affiliate) drops links into the influencer’s videos and pays a percentage to the creator when watchers click on those links. Flinders contends that creators relying on affiliate marketing are under less pressure and, it follows, may suffer less burnout. “If you are in a brand's affiliate program, you have the flexibility to say, 'Well, I can post about whatever I want and I can still monetize my content based off of purchases that are made from what I'm sharing,'” she said. “But there’s not necessarily that level of pressure there to say that, 'I have to complete X, Y and Z deliverables.'” Creator, heal thyself Even so, it’s clear that when it comes to burnout or other mental wellbeing issues, influencers are largely on their own. For now, at least. “The influencer needs to protect the influencer,” Barker said. “The brand isn’t going to come through and say, ‘Hey, how’s your mental condition?’ They’re going to say: ‘Hey, I’ve got a $50,000 budget and you’re going to do three videos.’ Most brands aren’t going to ask you qualifying questions to see if you’re burned out.” The Awin study’s respondents would appear to agree: 54% said their host platforms have been “no help at all” when it comes to their mental wellbeing. Close to half (49%) reported that mental health concerns had led them to look for other income sources outside of social media. Major Brands Leave Social Activism on the Bench Ahead of FIFA World Cup 2022 But Flinders believes it’s in brands’ best interests to work with creators to prevent mental fatigue. “A real buzzword in the influencer marketing industry as of late is authenticity—we want authentic partnerships, we want long term partnerships,” she said. And since burned-out creator isn’t going to be an authentic one, it behooves brands to be conscious of the problem. “[If] you can create a more symbiotic relationships,” she added, brands and influencers can “come up with something that’s mutually beneficial.”