Being a social media influencer: Is it worth it?

By: Merissa Alyea Binti Omar Ariff

Social media influencers are known to be the modernised pioneers of marketing and advertising during this digital era we are currently living in. A brief description of a social media influencer, is a user of a variety of social media platforms that has credibility in a specific industry. Moreover, these influencers have access to a large number of followers and can easily persuade their followers by their virtue of authenticity and reach.

Most social media influencers in Malaysia commonly use their platforms to advertise products produced by fashion, skincare, clothing and healthcare brands. These influencers receive products from various brands as a ‘PR’ package, and in return these influencers will create content in relation to the product and share it across their social media platforms. Some more established influencers with a larger amount of followers even have their own rate cards, in which they charge a specific amount of money for the various content brands want them to create.

Influencer culture is a big hit in Malaysia, resulting in some of these social media influencers being able to create a full on career out of it. A prime example would be @cupcake_aisyah -at just 20 years old this social media influencer has a whopping 448, 131 followers on her Instagram platform. @cupcake_aisyah has such a strong influence over the buying power of the younger generation that she has even been approached by bigger brands and established companies such as Samsung Malaysia, KitKat Malaysia, Kate Spade Malaysia and Nestlé Malaysia.

On the other hand, there are social media influencers who do not have such an established follower count, however are still able to use their social media platforms to persuade their followers to follow or purchase products from a specific brand. These influencers are usually those who have not made being a social media influencer a full time career.

@maryamsaida on Instagram is a 24-year-old PR consultant and part time social media influencer. This influencer has a follower count of 5,322 on Instagram and is still consistently approached by small local businesses to help promote their goods and services. Even though @maryamsaida’s follower count is not as large as @cupcake_aisyah, her influence over the younger generations buying power is still significant.

@maryamsaida primarily uses her platform to create content for small local businesses such as @thenatty.co, @schwarzkopfpro.mysg and @so.lek. She creates content for these brands in a very aesthetic manner that will help grasp the attention of her followers, she focuses on making sure that the products are advertised in a very elegant and classy manner.

“I am very grateful to be approached to create content for these and use my social media platform to help them grow. I personally feel that the products are very elegant and classy and I try my best to create content that can replicate a visual representation of these products,” said Maryam.

While helping out small brands where she can, @maryamsaida still works a 9-5 job as a PR consultant and sometimes finds it difficult to balance her two duties at the same time. Most companies who approach social media influencers want a specific number of posts for their products and even want them to be posted at a specific time in order to get the most amount of viewers as possible.

“Some brands can be pretty demanding as to when they want the content of their products to be posted, it can be quite draining when working as a PR consultant has me working around the clock most working days. I sometimes find myself overworked, even though being a social media influencer may not seem like much work to the public, but it is still a job as there are deadlines to meet,” said Maryam.

Being a social media influencer may seem like an easygoing job in the public eye but there is actually a lot of thought and effort that goes into planning to create content for specific products. Some social media influencers like @maryamsaida, find themselves being overworked in trying to find the balance between prioritising their 9-5 job and creating content for brands.

“I love my job and I love creating content for brands. I do find myself struggling sometimes to maintain the balance between the two but I do try my hardest to pull through. I personally feel that working in a PR company and being a social media influencer has given me a lot more career opportunities that I am very grateful for, it just can be very overwhelming at times. However, hard work will pay off, and I am thankful that I am able to at least work jobs that I am passionate about,” said Maryam.

Image 1: @maryamsaida’s content for @so.lek. Source