Impacts of #deinfluencing on Social Media

Traditionally, social media influencers are known for their ability to shape positive consumer responses toward products and services. However, as influencer landscape is continuously evolving, many influencers now also engage in deinfluencing – sharing negative opinions about products and services. This research aims to examine the impacts of such negative influencer communications in the context of short video recommendations. Relying on extant influencer marketing literature as well as attribution theory, this research sheds light on the deinfluencing trend by evaluating its impacts on (1) the influencers and their perceived trustworthiness and (2) the brands that are interested in collaborating with influencers engaged in sharing deinfleuncing content. The initial results from a pretest indicate that the presence of deinfluencing videos in influencer communications significantly enhances perceptions of influencer altruistic motivations and trustworthiness. This research not only provides theoretical contributions to influencer marketing literature but also offers practical recommendations for both influencers interested in sharing deinfluencing content and brands considering collaborations with such influencers.