Influencer Fatigue

I Don’t Want to Be an Influencer. I Just Want to Do Good Work.

Somewhere along the way, running a business became about much more than doing the actual work.

Now we are told that if we want our businesses to succeed, we must constantly post on social media. We need a website, a blog, a Facebook page, a LinkedIn presence, and perhaps a TikTok or YouTube channel. We must post regularly, engage with everyone, feed the algorithms, build an audience, and somehow funnel all those followers toward our businesses.

The more content, the better—or so we are told.

Nearly everyone seems to be trying to become some version of a social media influencer. People are chasing that magical number of followers that might finally allow them to earn money from the content they create while also bringing attention to the work they actually do.

I have to admit that I started going down that path myself.

I wrote a book. I would love to say that I wrote it entirely for altruistic reasons. There were certainly some of those involved. I wanted to tell the truth about the notary signing agent business. I wanted new notaries to understand what the work really involves, and I wanted experienced notaries to feel seen.

But that was not the whole reason.

I had also read that writing a book establishes you as an authority. It makes you appear more credible and professional, and it can help bring attention to your business. Many people who are successful at what they do eventually write a book, so I followed the formula that everyone else seemed to be following.

The book has helped me. It has brought attention to my business and strengthened my online presence. I am glad I wrote it.

But lately, I have been questioning the larger system we are all participating in.

I remember when another notary first began building her social media presence. She posted a “tip of the day,” and the first tip I saw was to make sure you bring plenty of blue pens to a signing.

I laughed.

A bag full of pens is practically standard equipment for every working notary. We carry blue pens, black pens, backup pens, and probably backup pens for our backup pens. At the time, I remember wondering how desperate someone must be for content if “bring plenty of blue pens” had become the tip of the day.

To be fair, she kept working at it and has built a respectable following. She is ahead of me in that regard, so perhaps she understood the game better than I did.

Still, the memory has stayed with me because it represents something larger. When we are expected to post constantly, we eventually begin turning the most ordinary observations into advice. Everything becomes content. Every appointment becomes a story. Every inconvenience becomes a lesson. Every disagreement becomes a debate. Every person feels pressure to present themselves as an expert.

And every expert is competing against thousands of other experts for a few seconds of attention.

I am becoming fatigued by the whole thing.

This constant competition for visibility seems to breed an enormous amount of judgment. People scrutinize how everyone else works. They argue over tiny differences in procedure. They build authority by pointing out what other people are supposedly doing wrong. Sometimes it feels as though we are no longer simply doing our jobs—we are performing our jobs for an online audience.

There is value in sharing information. I have learned from other people, and I hope other people have learned something from me. Social media can help small-business owners reach customers they never would have reached otherwise. My own writing and online activity have helped people find me.

But there must be a point at which promoting the work begins to take too much time and energy away from doing the work.

I am a notary signing agent. My real expertise was not created by followers, likes, posts, or algorithms. It was developed through thousands of appointments, hundreds of thousands of miles, long days, difficult situations, mistakes, judgment calls, and years of showing up when I said I would.

That experience exists whether the internet applauds it or not.

Lately, I have felt more like putting my head down, doing the job well, and trusting that what is meant for me will come to me.

Perhaps that is not the best social media strategy. Perhaps the algorithms will punish me for failing to post often enough. Perhaps someone else will gain more followers by offering another tip about carrying blue pens.

That is okay.

I do not need a million followers to prove that I know how to do my job. I would rather have the trust of the people who have actually worked with me.

Maybe success does not always have to mean becoming louder, more visible, or more influential. Maybe sometimes success can simply mean becoming very good at what you do—and allowing that work to speak for itself.