7 Real & Uncensored Reasons Why S’poreans Hate Influencers That We Don’t Talk About

Last Updated on 2021-02-02 , 5:54 pm

Now, before anything, here’s a disclaimer: this has absolutely nothing to do with any influencer. This issue has been part of an ongoing discussion amongst everyone, whether during a chit-chat session in a kopitiam or a deep discussion with your professor for your thesis.

The label of “influencer” is apparently quite loose: how do you define one? Is it one with over 10,000 followers in Instagram, or simply someone who post OOTDs and promo codes every day?

That’s up for debate; even your BFF Google has different answers for that, though if you delve deep enough, you’ll realize that one aspect remains constant: influencers usually have a niche.

Now, to quote an example, World Cup star Cristiano Ronaldo can be considered an influencer: other than scoring goals and diving on the pitch, the superstar regularly “influences” his fans about Nike, some steel plant that we all have no idea what it is about, his own products and even Herbalife.

Happy to announce a 3-year extension to my relationship with @herbalife Nutrition. Proud to call them my partner in performance #HerbalifeNutrition

A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on May 23, 2018 at 6:55am PDT

That would be consistent with what Google said: a person in a niche with high influence, providing opinions (which is why sometimes, agencies called influencers “key opinion leaders”). Think of them as ambassadors but hypercharge it: ambassadors might just be a pretty face of a brand, but influencers directly promote the brand by endorsing it wholeheartedly.

But let’s come back to reality and look at our Instagram feed.

Before that, just a major disclaimer: there are good influencers in Singapore, even if they’re lifestyle or travel influencers. But unfortunately, the bad apples seem to have overshadowed the good ones. And we’re talking about the bad ones today.

The good ones aren’t influencers IMHO. They’re the real key opinion leaders.

So, moving on. Influencers in Singapore don’t seem to have a niche – if there is, it’s usually “lifestyle”, “travel” or “food”. But come on lah, who can be an expert in “lifestyle”?

And this could generally be one of the key reasons why Singaporeans dislike them: they seem to position themselves as an expert in lifestyle by showing us the high-SES life –  of their real life.

Or, perhaps, an expert in photography, which obviously have irked professional photographers.

Now, read on, because this direction influencers take is precisely why the trolls are always after influencers’ neck.

Everything’s Fake

Now, don’t get me wrong: when I say fake, I don’t mean Photoshopping one into a stock image. I’m referring to the high-SES lifestyle or the perfect life they’re living.

YouTuber Trevmonki actually did a perfect video portraying this point:

You see, if they really want to brand themselves as “perfect”, and position themselves living the high life, that itself is already fake. I mean, I’m pretty sure the only person who’s perfect is my boss (hi, boss!) – everyone, whether you’re high-SES or low-SES, is bound to have certain imperfections.

An Instagram profile filled with travel images and food? Yah. Perfect. Too perfect.

And people can smell a pretentious fellow from millions of kilometres away.

You’ve got to wonder why they don’t get it.

Even the comments are fake

I’m not going to go in-depth here; instead, do your own little experiment. Go to at least ten influencers (not the really popular ones, but the wannabes) and look at the comments.

Most of them would be a simple “NICE!” “You so pretty!” or “That looks good on you!”

Now, tap on the profiles of these people who comment. Chances are, they’re also influencers or brands who’re looking to catch more eyeballs.

Just Google online on how to get followers, and you’ll see people suggesting that you need to follow many people, like many photos and comments on them.

Yeah, in other words, these comments aren’t real feedback. They’re just there to find followers.

After all, let’s face it: in real life, when you wear a nice dress, your best friends won’t shout, “NICE! That looks perfect on you, Mandy!”

They’ll either go, “Eh, you look like bazhang in that dress” or “wah seh, where you buy from seh?”

It’s just so clear, but for some reasons, these influencers don’t get it. Or maybe they do, and they can’t do anything to it (coz they’re…doing the same thing?).

They break the fabric of society

Wah, that’s deep and almost a hyperbole, but hold your rotten eggs and let me explain with an analogy.

So, your girlfriend has been following this certain influencer called CBInfluencer. CBInfluencer often posts her travel images, her food images and most importantly, images of how her boyfriend has pampered her like she’s a princess with cheesy captions and that damned hashtag #relationshipgoals.

Any Tom, Dick and Harry would know that it’s just a persona online: for all you know, those travel images might be Photoshopped in (previously we were all just speculating, but now…), those food images are, well pretty real lah and as for her relationship? They quarrelled 23 hours a day, but of course, CBInfluencer just has to post images of that happy 1 hour, because #mylifeisperfectyoubitch

Unfortunately, your girlfriend isn’t called Tom, Dick or Harry, and believed solely that a perfect boyfriend exists. And so, she started to blame you, and in quarrels, she’ll remember how good CBInfluencer’s boyfriend is and wondered why you can’t be just 1% of him.

She talks about #relationshipgoals

Ta-da: quarrels, breakups, fewer marriages, fewer children and Singapore faces a population crunch.

Maybe it’s not that bad, but you agak agak get the idea. Or heck, I won’t even need to explain this point: you might have already experienced it (yesterday).

This is a BGR issue, but sometimes, people’s self-esteem dropped when looking at an influencer’s perfect “open” life.

BTW, I didn’t make this up. It’s already proven, my dear reader. Maybe not breaking the fabric of society but definitely affecting people’s mental health.

Blurring the line between ads and personal preference

Here’s something you might not know: when you see an influencer posting an image of a nice dress, hashtagging the brand and even providing a promo code, three things could happen:

• She’s paid to do this
• She’s not paid to do this: the brand (or its PR agency) merely send the clothes to her, hoping that she’ll post it
• She’s not compensated to do it: she really found out about the brand and realized how good it is.

Chances are, the second point occurs.

You see, brands or PR agencies often send free products to people with high reach: 85% of the times when the doorbell in our office rings, it’s another courier (or sometimes the PR people themselves) sending something over, whether it’s a new drink or a new product. They’re usually packaged nicely, almost IG-worthy.

And these brands are big-name brands.

So influencers, in an effort to associate with big brands, would do this for free. Now here’s when it gets tricky: they’ll have the right to say that it’s not sponsored, yet they get the association.

Influencers are always tapping on lthe oophole. And when a real paid ad comes along? Well, then they can easily pass it off as yet another of these “free stuff”.

But why, you ask.

Because brands want it that way.

Organic reviews usually resonate better with consumers. It would even be better it’s from a trusted friend or family member.

Humblebragging to the max

Let me pose a simple question: do you get anything out from viewing influencers’ images?

Do you, say, get entertained and laugh like when you watch SGAG’s videos, or get informed about Singapore news when you read a Mothership.sg article?

No? Yeah.

So what objective does their content strive to achieve?

Bragging?

Well. You make your own assumption, because from what I see, some influencers’ posts are all just about humblebragging. Nothing but humblebragging.

Watch this and you’ll get it:

Unless you’re like my friend who likes seeing people humblebrag, chances are, you hate them to the bone.

Haolian Queens / Kings

This is very subjective so agree to disagree: in the past, we used to attend events by brands because back then, we needed to let more people know more about us mah

These events, which are always not paid, would have many influencers with big-ass cameras.

Seeing them IRL is almost even worse than in photos: according to my colleagues, they look down on everyone (maybe because we’re small to them, but anyways). Their ego is so big that if you show a bewildered face when they tell you about their Instagram handle, you’re out of their league. And to quote my colleague’s words, “They super haolian seh.”

You see, whether they speak nicely or not, their body language speaks otherwise. Like what my fat boss always said, “When you converse with someone, read their body language and tone, and not their words.” It has always work well for us.

Like what I’ve said, this is subjective, but when we’ve been to so many events and the feedback is often the same, you can bet there could be a pinch of truth there.

Run strawberry business

Unsurprisingly enough, influencers think of what they do as a business, and their face is the brand. One thing we can be certain is that not everyone can run a business.

People who can run one make it work. People who can’t run one is going to be a joke.

And with so many influencers, you can bet most of them belong to the latter.

Just look at the recent hoo-ha, whereby an influencer went MIA after receiving money for a job. And of course not to mention the photographer-turned-graphic-designer saga that went international.

Reading how these influencers run their so-called business is, seriously, Goody Feed material, man.

Now, just to reiterate: there are good influencers. However, unfortunately, the bad influencers have been in the headlines so often for all the wrong reasons, they’ve overshadowed the good ones.

And by the way, lest you’re wondering how influencers earn money and how much they earn, watch this video to the end (and subscribe to our YouTube channel, please!):

Image: Atstock Productions / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)