Can influencers make or break a business, and what does that say about their sway over society?

Are influencers having a greater impact than before?

A US study last year on over 2,000 adults showed that trust in influencers among Gen Zers and millennials had grown from 51 per cent in 2019 to 61 per cent in 2023. 

Closer to home, market research company YouGov found earlier this month that 21 per cent of those surveyed in Singapore expressed confidence in “at least some” health advice provided by social media influencers. This is higher than the global average of 16 per cent. 

Tellingly, the younger the participants, the more confident: the figures were 28 per cent for Gen Zers and 12 per cent for baby boomers. 

The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic may have also played a part. 

Full-time content creator Nicholas Teo, who goes by the social media moniker @hargaochunks on TikTok, believes the increased relevance of influencers is also due to the past few years of enforced isolation, which led to many youths immersing themselves in social media. 

“There has been a boom recently because of TikTok and COVID; people are just consuming more digital media than traditional media,” said the 29-year-old, who has over 50,000 followers on Chinese-owned TikTok. 

Influencers are also striking a chord because they’re more relatable than your traditional CEO or celebrity, said the Singapore Management University (SMU)’s Lim Sun Sun.

“Previously, our society was very much concentrated on people in positions of power, or people who are particularly famous or successful; these were the very common spokespeople used for various kinds of advertising,” said the professor of communication and technology. 

But social media has democratised content creation and now “basically anyone” can develop a following, she added.

“Let’s say (an influencer who is) a mum with two young children who is very good at juggling her work and her kids; she may actually have a certain pull and traction,” she said. 

Hence businesses and governments are tapping on influencers with a strong following among demographics that they wish to tailor products or polices to, said Prof Lim.

She added that these influencers don’t necessarily need to produce well-crafted content to get their messaging across. 

“Sometimes, (influencers) will show certain days of their lives they feel less competent, when they talk about certain setbacks,” she said. “This kind of honesty actually gives them that air of authenticity, that allows the audience to connect with them on a different level than if you use an official spokesperson or a celebrity.”