Although influencer marketing has seen an immense amount of success and progress over the last decade, many content creators are now feeling the pressure. The independent nature of influencer marketing has left many individuals feeling stressed about their work and the metrics that are assigned to their content. Vibely has recently launched its Creator Burnout Report, gathering evidence from a wide range of creators on how they manage this strain.

Who Conducted the Survey?

The data found in the Creator Burnout Report was collected by Vibely in collaboration with Ian Borthwick, the Vice President of Influencer Marketing at SeatGeek. Vibely work to empower creators in their community-building practices. Their platform offers a range of services such as analytics, chat features, and even allows influencers to recruit ambassadors for their brand. 

Survey Methodology

Borthwick and Vibely produced the Creator Burnout Report to highlight how influencers from a variety of niches are coping with increased demand. The report first analyses why influencers are feeling overwhelmed and what impacts this stress. Then, the data goes into more detail about how certain platforms can cause creators to feel a sense of burnout. Finally, Vibely offers a range of helpful resources to help influencers better manage feelings of burnout.

The data was collected using a range of qualitative sources. 150 influencers were interviewed, using their quotations as a backdrop for the wider concerns within the influencer marketing industry. These influencers had an array of follower counts ranging from 100,000 followers to over 5 million followers.

Three Key Takeaways

Vibely’s report pulled upon a range of anecdotes, helping to produce an in-depth report that provides both numerical and anecdotal data. Listed below are three key findings from this report. 

1. 51% of respondents reported anxiety about their follower count to be one of the most taxing causes of burnout.
2. 98% of creators post Instagram Stories on a weekly basis.
3. YouTube is the favorite platform for nearly 25% of creators, and 20% of creators rely on the platform as their main source of revenue. 

What Does This Mean for Influencer Marketing?

The first of these takeaways signifies how influencers are placing a lot of pressure on themselves in order to maintain their audience’s engagement. Vibely explains that this metric is important as it can determine whether an influencer receives more brand sponsorships or promotions. They also view follower counts as a social currency, causing influencers to compare themselves to others in a negative way.

With nearly all of the candidates using Instagram Stories on a weekly basis, this statistic further emphasizes how influencers are moving towards short-form content. The data also explains that these creators are most likely to post content more than three times a week. This elucidates that creators feel most confident on this platform and are more willing to share aspects of their life and work with their audience. 

Finally, the last finding explains that creators find YouTube a very positive and profitable platform. Although many creators use this site as their main source of income, they still see it as an expensive form of content creation, especially with the need for editing software and camera equipment. As such, around 35% of creators only post one video per week. 

Link to the Survey

The Creator Burnout Report can be found on Vibely’s website. The organization also hosts a collection of informative blog articles as well as a selection of creator testimonies.