What Does De-influencing Mean for Your Brand?

In the ever-evolving landscape of social media marketing, the role of influencers and content creators has become increasingly significant. Social media users now turn to their favorite creators for honest reviews and recommendations, especially when it comes to specific products and services. This shift in consumer behavior highlights the importance of understanding the concept of de-influencing and its implications for your brand.

What Does De-influencing Mean for Your Brand?

De-influencing is the opposite trend of influencing. While influencers bring likes and shares to companies/products, de-influencing can remove these likes and followers from a product.

Sometimes de-influencing can happen when someone has a bad experience. But de-influencing can also be a competing company that wants to harm your brand.

Here’s what the phenomenon of de-influencing is (and what it means) for brands going forward.

What is De-influencing?

De-influencing is an emerging social media trend that discourages consumers from buying certain products that the de-influencer has found to be indulgent, ineffective, or not worth the money. De-influencing is negative word-of-mouth but with the speed and reach of the internet.

For brands, de-influencing can strike one product or might affect an entire range or brand. De-influencing can strike large or small companies as well. While large companies have PR agencies to negate the damage, small companies might have to resort to other techniques.

The rise of hashtag #Deinfluencing has ushered in a new era where social media users are hungry for authentic content. They no longer solely rely on polished promotional posts but seek out de-influencing videos that offer real, unfiltered opinions. This shift poses a significant challenge and opportunity for brands.

To adapt to this change, brands should consider partnering with de-influencers who are willing to provide honest reviews and promote products in a more transparent manner. Whether you’re in the beauty, fashion, or tech industry, collaborating with content creators who resonate with your target audience can help you reach potential customers in a more genuine way.

Is De-influencing Legal/Illegal?

Unless it is a deliberate competitive advantage from one company over another, there’s nothing illegal about de-influencing. The internet has the freedom to decide which products they like (or don’t), and this information can spread just like positive news from an influencer – but with the negative angle of de-influencing your product or brand.

In most cases, de-influencing is legal as long as it’s not libel.

Where You’ll See Deinfluencing

The de-influencing trend is common anywhere influencers and their posts hang out. Social networks like TikTok, X/Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are places where the de-influencing trend might affect your brand name – but sometimes de-influencing can also happen in secret or closed groups like WhatsApp.

Brands should remember that de-influencing isn’t always visible in the last mentioned case.

Sometimes a brand can see harm happen, without having access to the post or information that causes the effect. Invisible de-influencing is possible: if you suspect this, gauge your market with posts, surveys, and calls to action.

Take fast fashion, for example, instead of solely showcasing the glamour of new arrivals, brands can work with de-influencers who are willing to critique the quality and sustainability of the products. These authentic evaluations can resonate with an audience that values ethical and conscious consumer choices.

Deinfluencing has gained momentum as it aligns with the shifting preferences of social media users. While traditional influencer marketing can still be effective, brands should consider embracing honest reviews and open dialogue. In the era of a million views on TikTok and the constant evolution of social media platforms, embracing de-influencing may be the key to staying relevant and building trust with your audience in the ever-competitive world of social media influence.

What Deinfluencing Can Do To Brands

Influencers spread the wealth and merits of a brand amongst their followers. That’s how we’ve gotten to a stage where influencers can have a full-time career – with the right sponsorship deals and management strategy.

But what can deinfluencing do to brands?

The simple effect of deinfluencing can be described in one word: harm. Harm to the brand, harm to the product, and sometimes even long-term harm to sales.

Deinfluencing is what happens when word-of-mouth goes right south.

Influencers Have The Marketing Power

Influencers have the right amount of marketing power to have influence over your brand. Deinfluencing can do the same. This gives influencers a type of marketing power that even most professional PR agencies can’t access or change.

Whether it’s a simple bad experience or a deliberate strategy from another brand, influencers have a lot of marketing power in their hands.

So what do you do if you’re being de-influenced, and it’s already doing harm?

What If You’re Being De-influenced?

The best way to deal with de-influencing is to react as a company or brand.

React with a statement, with your own content, or with communication between the brand and the customer. The best thing to do if you’re being de-influenced is to resolve the issue that’s being claimed.

Deinfluencing should never be ignored. Don’t pretend that it’s not doing harm to your brand, because that will not make it go away.

A proper, calm reaction from a company can be enough to squash deinfluencing right in their tracks.

Techniques Against Deinfluencing

Claim hashtags back by posting relevant content and using your website and social media channels to communicate directly with your customers. Counteract the harm of de-influencing by releasing the right content (statements, blog posts) at appropriate times.

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