This study focuses on the security risks of social media platforms from the perspective of an Social Media Influencer (SMI) or content creator. This study conducts interviews on SMIs and furthermore lists the risks of social media mentioned by the interviewees as well as found in literature. The risks are divided into three main themes: professional, technical and psychological. The conclusion of this study is that working with social media as an individual and with a brand is full of risks from all three themes. For an individual the professional risks cause the most worry, regarding subjects such as cancelling culture, brand image, too much responsibility for one individual, and customer satisfaction. The risks need to be recognized and worked on to ensure a safer working environment for the content creator. In the discussion, also the risks of social media work found in literature will be presented.
In 2024, there are over 5 billion Social Media (SM) user identities worldwide [
A critical issue is understanding the real risks that individuals, including content creators, face when engaging in social media. Users should be aware of specific threats and risks, and consider the likelihood that these threats and risks will have a direct negative impact on them. While it is widely recognized that social media can pose security risks to both individuals and organizations, understanding the practical ways in which these threats manifest themselves is critical.
This paper focuses on the security of content creators and small and medium sized businesses that rely heavily on social media for marketing. It aims to identify the real risks and threats posed by unsafe social media practices, addressing the security concerns of both the business and the individual behind the content. Risks will be examined from professional, physical, and technical perspectives for both individuals and businesses, with additional attention to psychological risks for individuals and marketing-related risks for businesses. The research questions are: RQ1: What are the practical risks that content creators and small businesses face when using social media as a marketing or service delivery platform? RQ2: What are the lived experiences of social media influencers, and what are the most significant?
The risks and solutions associated with the use of social media were identified in two ways: 1) risks found in the literature, 2) risks identified through interviews with content creators. The findings are integrated to create a complementary set of insights for identifying risks in the use of social media.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces SM risks found in literature, Section 3 describes the research method and how practical results were gathered, Section 4 explains the findings of this study and the interviews conducted, Section 5 contains the discussion and presents a Table of the findings in literature, and Section 6 contains the conclusion.
In this section, we will first define the three main terms related to social media and the content creation process. Then, we will review the literature on what are the practical risks of SM from an individual’s point of view (an individual working in a corporation as a marketing professional, a small business owner, an influencer, a content creator, or any other individual working with social media to market a product or their content) and from an organization’s point of view. These risks are divided into three categories: professional, technical, and psychological. This section mentions risks found in the literature that were not discussed during the interviews, which will be discussed in more detail later in this study.
The following terms are central to reading this paper, so they will be explained in this section. There
has been a lot of public debate about how to define social media (SM). One currently popular way of
explaining it is to refer to SM as a collection of Web 2.0 applications. This includes user profiles, a social
network, and user-generated content. [
A key study that provided a baseline for this literature review was conducted by Kapoor et al. [
Professional Risks. Rukavina et al. [
According to a recent study done by Sprout Social in 2017 [
Tow et al. [
Finska et al. [
Creating too many ads weakens the trustworthiness of the content creator by saturating the platform
with ads. [
Due to the dificulty of understanding SM algorithms, Arriagada and Ibáñez studied [
Technical risks. Various technical risks were found such as sending the wrong message to the wrong
person, data integrity issues, posting the wrong content, data leakage due to technical reasons such
as attack on a website, cloud or device, and data leakage due to human error. Internet of Things (IoT)
was also found to pose a risk to content creation. IoT devices often do not support a very high level
of security, which makes them favorable for malware to spread to and through connected devices.
Malware could include eavesdropping attacks, a virus, Denial of Service (DoS) by depleting the device’s
battery or by exploiting the device’s built-in blocking capabilities, or other unwanted software. An
excessive influx of new followers may seem like a good thing from a marketing perspective, but it can
quickly lead to algorithmic or DoS problems. Such a situation could be caused by a bot attack. In these
situations, it is important to have people who are aware of the possibility, the risks, and how to manage
the situation. [
Falling victim to hacking [
Fake news about the organization or something relevant to the organization can influence employees
and/or customers. Fake news, also called disinformation, can be created for many reasons, but it should
not be confused with misinformation (which can be considered a risk in its own right). Some reasons to
create disinformation are financial gain and false credibility [
Psychological Risks. Cyberpsychology is a new field of psychology that has developed as people have
turned to SM to communicate, and as we now have "digital natives," which refers to people who have
grown up using the internet, computers, and mobile devices to communicate, socialize, and go about
their daily lives. A new term "Facebook depression" has been proposed to describe depression caused
by Social Networking Service (SNS) use. Although low mood and low self-esteem are often publicly
linked to SM and SNS, studies support both the theory that SM causes unhappiness and the theory
that it does not. For example, according to a study conducted by Jelenchick et al. [
In addition to causing depression and lower happiness levels, Becker et al. [
SM has been shown to negatively afect ones body image. Fardouly and Vartanian found in their
study [
In the spring of 2023, five SMIs were interviewed to explore the risks they had encountered in their work and the concerns they had. The influencers all operated in Finland, and had a follower base across platforms between 60 000 - 170 000. All of the interviewees were individual content creators and entrepreneurs. The interviews were conducted via Google Meets. Five interviewees are considered a valid sample, as they all have a significant number of followers and run businesses that benefit from social media. However, additional interviews could provide more clear and reliable data. This study consists of the aforementioned interviews, their analysis and results, which in this case include tables and lists of risks faced by SMIs.
The interview was semi-structured and included the same questions for every interviewee, and the
questions were defined to become a conversation-like discussion where the SMI could without earlier
technical background ponder their relationship with cyber security and their platform security. The
answers for the questions were written down by the interviewee and are analyzed both in an earlier
study by Finska et al [
This section presents the key findings on the risks identified through interviews with SMIs. For clarity, risks are categorized into three tables: professional (Table 1), technical (Table 2), and psychological (Table 3). Additional findings from the literature are included to provide a deeper understanding without expanding the list of risks. The next section (Discussion) addresses additional risks identified in the literature, as all actual risks were not mentioned in the interviews. The identified risks are also ranked based on respondents’ views of the probability and severity of outcomes. However, these rankings are not supported by technical studies, but rather reflect the opinions of the SMIs interviewed. For many of these risks, a possible solution would be to refrain from sharing certain content. However, this contradicts the nature of an SMI’s work, which requires the continuous creation of new content on various topics.
In this section we will be going through the what professional risks were mentioned in the interviews. The results will also be presented in Table 1. Some of the mentioned risks were also found in literature, and they will be marked separately. This section explores the various risks faced by social media influencers (SMIs), focusing on issues such as the fear of losing their platform, privacy concerns, and the challenges of navigating unpredictable algorithms. It also addresses cyberbullying, problematic followers, and the stress of sharing personal information online. In addition, the section discusses the legal risks associated with endorsements and the impact of mistakes on an influencer’s reputation. Overall, it highlights the significant challenges SMIs face in balancing their personal and professional lives while maintaining their online presence.
Losing the platform. All of the interviewed SMIs feared the loss of their platform. And as presented
in Table 1, one of the main causes mentioned during all of the interviews was to only be active on one
platform and then losing that platform for any reason. This would mean losing their livelihood and all
work that they had done. This fear was amplified since many of the interviewees mentioned that they
have seen platform loss happening to colleagues. This is why all of the SMIs mentioned that they are
active on several platforms, and a few mentioned that they try to spread their content even wider to
have a more secure status across platforms. Finska et al. mention in their study that reasons for losing
a SM platform can include the platform being closed down, one’s page getting blocked, shadowbanned,
or closed down, an attack on one’s page due to malicious intent, and the platform losing relevance. [
Privacy. Some of the SMIs mentioned that they are careful with not posting anyone online without permission, especially young children, due to privacy reasons and protecting the child. They also mentioned that platforms are very diferent, and understanding the algorithm on all platforms can be dificult. TikTok is said by the interviewees to be more unstable but it can also cause more visibility quickly, and a person can reach a celebrity-like status quicker than on most platforms. Since the algorithm is very unpredictable, having problems with it can also cost a lot. If the SMI is not able to post an agreed post or it does not perform well, it can cause unhappy clients and ultimately loss of clients in the future.
Issues with the algorithm. Many of the interviewed SMIs in their study feel that they do not have enough time to complete their work. The paper also highlighted the need to always be creating new content, testing out diferent solutions and reinventing themselves to stay interesting and to compete with the constant stream of content being created by other creators. Gaining audience is not easy, but one must also maintain their current followers. The current fast-pace and instant way to create content such as stories on Instagram cause more work for SMIs and a pressure to spend more time online following the reactions and measuring the impact they have on their audiences. There is also pressure to stay consistent in answering followers messages. The ability for followers to react and comment builds a relationship with the SMI but also causes a lot of work. Also losing the ability to post due to any reason, such as health reasons, technical issues, or algorithm changes as mentioned in Table 1, was mentioned several time during the interviews.
Relationships with clients, colleagues, and followers. All of the interviewees mentioned that social relationships are extremely important in SMI work. These relationships are needed to keep the brand image clean, known, and profitable. Fears mentioned during the interviews and in Table 1 are for example loss of clients, and a bad relationship with SMI colleagues. These both could be caused due to psychological reasons, bad trust, bad social media activity, algorithm changes, technical issues, drama, or misunderstandings.
Cyber bullying. Interviewees for this study also mentioned relationships with other content creators
as both a positive thing and a worry. Another creator might utilize one’s fame and try to hop on the same
trend or even attack a person for visibility. For businesses, it is comparable with competitors feeding
from ones dificulties by amplifying the situation and therefore shifting customers from one provider to
another [
Problematic followers. Some interviewees mentioned that some of their followers could be referred to as "problematic followers". These users come too close to the SMI personally, wanting to know too much about their lives, sharing heavy discussions, and assuming for a close-friend-like connection. These situations can feel heavy and dificult for the SMI. Some SMIs had also experience of followers looking up information about them or realizing things about them that was not intentionally told online. Many of the SMIs mentioned that their security experience as SMI is very diferent from what it was when they were just an individual on SM.
Vast amounts of information shared online. Some SMIs were worried of the information that is already out there about them. It caused anxiety for some, and one interviewee even said they sometimes feel like shutting their account down because of the anxiety caused by all the information that is online about them. They had also wondered, would the information online cause problems in "starting over" with a new job and life. Accidentally sharing too much information, related to business or future plans might be hurtful to a business, and/or its employees. It can also potentially cause issues physically at an event, or technically on other marketing platforms used by the business. Some of the SMIs were aware that their phone number and/or home address is visible online. One had an experience of showing their home on a published video which had caused followers appearing outside of their home and looking into their backyard. One mentioned looking up how to get rid of information about them online.
Legalities and social media rules. Another risk to keep in mind is mistakes or misinformation
related to marking paid content correctly according to the law. In Finland, the Finnish Competition and
Consumer Authority has during the spring of 2024 investigated the actions of influencers that work in
Finland, checking content that has been paid for but is falsely marked, or hidden advertising. [
Other issues mentioned. Other business related risks mentioned by the SMIs and listed in Table 1 were: having another job and the status of a SMI not being OK to the employer, not remembering what not to show online due to the hectic and instant culture of current SM, information slipping by mistake on a live stream (and this possibly being recorded by someone), and family members being afected even though they might wish for more privacy online. As a wrap-up, since SM businesses often spin around the face of the account, if the SMI behind the account has dificulties, the whole business will have dificulties. This makes the SMI an irreplaceable asset for the business, and their well-being or the lack there-of a huge risk.
In this section we will be going through the what technical risks were mentioned in the interviews. The results will also be presented in Table 2. Some of the mentioned risks were also found in literature, and they will be marked separately. This section explores the security risks and technical concerns faced by Social Media Influencers (SMIs). It focuses on the fear of losing control over their accounts, with concerns about phishing attempts and impersonation being prevalent among interviewees. The section will examine the various types of phishing threats, such as fake accounts and malicious links, and the dangers of losing personal information through SE tactics. Additionally, the section will discuss the worries SMIs have about losing their devices, which could lead to information leakage or unauthorized access to sensitive data, including passwords and bank account details. Through these discussions, the section highlights the vulnerability of SMIs to both digital and physical security risks.
Losing the platform and phishing. Respondents also expressed concern about technical issues.
Table 2 shows one of the biggest fears mentioned by all five interviewees, which was losing control of
the their account(s). A common worry also included the fear of lacking technical knowledge in a critical
situation. Phishing is a current risk and threat mentioned by all of the SMIs also, and experienced
phishing attempts included posts that they have been tagged to or messaged by, but do not have
anything to do with them or that seem like robot accounts, and fake impersonation accounts (that tried
to gain authority by impersonation). Impersonation can in practice also mean phishing sent to someone
else using the name of the SMI or another known party [
Losing a device. In addition to phishing, also physically losing their device was mentioned several times. SMIs were worried about information leakage due to someone getting access to their phone, and two SMIs were scared of their passwords, which one had saved into the notes app and one had saved onto the phone password library. Another worry was forgetting their passwords and then losing their phone where the passwords were written down.
Information leakage. Information leakage occurs when sensitive or confidential data is unintentionally or unauthorizedly disclosed. This can happen in a number of ways. Accidental disclosure is a common cause, where individuals post or mention private details online without realizing the consequences. Phishing attacks also play a significant role, as cybercriminals trick users into revealing personal or business-related information. Another risk is the loss of a device, such as a phone or laptop, that may contain stored passwords, private messages, or other sensitive data. For SMIs, information leakage can have serious consequences. Followers can discover private details such as home addresses or financial information, competitors can exploit exposed business strategies, and personal opinions can lead to public backlash.
In this section we will be going through the what psychological risks were mentioned in the interviews. The results will also be presented in Table 3. Some of the mentioned risks were also found in literature, and they will be marked separately. This section examines the psychological challenges faced by social media influencers (SMIs), focusing on the impact of their online presence. It discusses issues such as the lack of privacy, the dificulty of balancing personal and professional time, and the stress caused by cyberbullying and unsolicited advice. The section also explores the fear of "cancel culture" and its impact on mental health, as well as other psychological dificulties such as the pressure to maintain a perfect image and the fear of controversial posts.
Lack of privacy. Most of the worries mentioned by the SMIs were somehow regarding psychological well being. This is a relevant factor, since the well-being of the SMI is crucial for business continuity. As showed in Table 3, many interviewees mentioned, that the celebrity-like status that they have reached due to SM has caused anxiety of being in public places. Some mentioned fear that someone follows them in the streets or to their home, and it was also mentioned that younger followers often do not realize or respect personal space as adults do. Some SMIs said to get anxiety when someone told them they recognized them and saw them in real life, and also the uncertainty of not knowing when somebody recognizes them caused also stress.
Lack of personal time. It was also mentioned that sometimes SMIs find it dificult to recognize what time is personal time (and having too little of it) and what is working time. Also cyberbullying, which was already mentioned earlier, causes anxiety and stress for all of the interviewed SMIs. A few also mentioned anonymous discussion platforms as a source of cyberbullying.
Bullying. Some SMIs mentioned that when getting negative feedback as a content creator, sometimes the happy and thankful messages lose their power due to anxiety caused by the bullying. Some were irritated by unsolicited guiding and advice that is commonly received from followers. Also parasocial relationship was mentioned, where followers think that they are close friends with the SMI and therefore assume them to remember earlier conversations and attributes about them.
Psychological diseases. SM is not an easy place to work in. Table 3 lists possible psychological diseases or issues that SMIs could potentially face, and that were mentioned during the interviews. These include anxiety, worsening of self-image, and even depression. Working around such dificulties can be dificult especially with the feeling of being followed and talked about by thousands of followers.
Cancel culture. A major fear of all respondents was being cancelled. Norris [25] describes cancel culture as using social pressures to achieve cultural ostracism of the intended target. The target receives attempts of criticism, disruption, and/or de-legitimization. Interviewees say that often followers think that SMIs become their posts and posts get polarized easily. Norris found that public shaming is most successful when it finds others who share the same goal and therefore the cancelling gets a shaming side of "we". Cancel culture can destroy the SMIs reputation, livelihood, and privacy, in addition to their mental well-being. One of the interviewed SMIs had been a target of cancelling and mentioned that it had been psychologically extremely dificult. They said that an ad they had done caused hate and even death threats, mental health issues, and self-harm thoughts. Cancelling is a unique aspect of SM and the reasons behind it and concept is ever changing. Cancelling, cyberbullying or similar dificulties can be caused due to many reasons, according to our interviewees. Working with a party or subject that divides opinions, proposing opinions that not everyone agrees with, societal crises, and polarizing political issues were mentioned. SM users were also said to criticize easily the SMIs personal decisions, such as parenting-style, healthcare choices, and beauty related treatments such as taking injections of botulin. One of the SMIs mentioned a fear of sharing their knowledge in a field that they are educated in due to hateful and questioning commentary. The pressure of SM is very real for also SMIs and it does cause psychological dificulties, anxiety, self-image dificulties, and depression.
Other psychological dificulties. Other anxiety causing topics mentioned were: what if something comes up from the past that will cause issues or cancelling, what if the SMI were to post wrong content, what if while spending time in public spaces the discussions that SMIs have are listened to and falsely interpreted, what if the SMI were to post controversial themes online such as talking about money that could cause jealousy, and the stress caused by responsibility in content correctness. As presented in Table 3, for many of the risks no solutions were found during the interviews. The SMIs are struggling with finding ways to combat these risks.
Although this study covers many risks, sub-risks and additional new risks, they are endless and always
depend on the specific situation. The observations and experiences raised by content creators during
the interviews add depth to the risks identified in the literature review. For a a company that uses SM
for its practices, it is important to be aware of these risks and also mitigate them internally by tracking
the risk severity, possibilities for them taking place in practice, and what should be done in case they
did. A suitable framework for risk mitigation has been proposed in a study by Finska et al. [
The literature review highlighted many additional points to consider regarding this topic, which could be used for a more comprehensive study in the future. For practical purposes, the risks identified in the literature review are discussed next. Table 4 lists the risks identified in the literature review (Section 2). However, as some of these risks were also mentioned by the interviewees, they are discussed exclusively in Section 4, along with other risks reported in the interviews. To avoid redundancy, they are not repeated here. Other important risks identified in the literature include: damaging professional image (for any reason), technical issues due to low security of devices, data integrity issues, data leakage due to technical or human error reasons, malware, hacking, mis- and disinformation, mental dificulties, issues with paid ads, shoulder surfing, and the dificulties of the physical security of the SMI.
While writing this paper, the authors also realized that many of the risks mentioned could lead to legal issues. Although this is not specifically addressed in the literature reviewed or in the interviews, it is an important point to consider. In addition, several of the identified risks were found to raise relevant ethical concerns. Sharing a lot of data online, being on the screens of thousands if not millions, and influencing the opinions of anonymous followers, comes with ethical responsibilities that need to be addressed. Here we will mention a few that came up while doing the research for this paper, but more studies regarding this subject are needed.
It can be stated, that a content creator has the ethical responsibility to protect their own privacy, including anyone else visible on or relevant to the channel that the content creator owns. Since cyber bullying and stalking are big problems online, anyone that participates in online conversation has a ethical responsibility to try to create a safer social media and safer environment on all platforms. Employing strong security measures ensure, that not only do they themselves have issues with their platforms, but also their accounts would not be used to fool anyone else online. With a wide reach like theirs, using an influencers account to spread a virus or phishing could be very efective. As a person who creates content for others to view, it is important to provide truthful information to avoid mis- or disinformation. Creating content to vulnerable audiences such as children, the elderly, or people with various health conditions, poses a new risk with content that is safe and trustworthy for all ages and people from all backgrounds. This especially relevant when it comes to paid partnerships. Transparency regarding paid collaborations does not only have an ethical aspect, but a legal one, as well. Like anyone who uses SM, smart devices, and internet, also SMIs and content creators should continuously focus on education and educate themselves on relevant risks, vulnerabilities, and current technologies. Content creators must also remember their own personal health, even though SM can be a dificult place to work in at times. Mental health, their own security, and wellbeing should always be a priority.
This paper highlighted the need for proper understanding of the risks SM poses for businesses and
their individuals. Due to the high amount of risks and also because of the importance of soft skills and
the understanding of practices, it is beneficial in future work to study how these practices and employee
education could be implemented to SM users in the most efective way. As a proposed action, the
authors of this paper recognize the need to study efective user and employee training with regards to
SM. User awareness and training of soft skills and practices have a relevant role in rising the information
security levels of a business. Through such action, many attacks can be mitigated or avoided. [
In addition to these findings, the authors of this paper also considered the possibility of changing one’s field of work if a person had previously been active on social media. The question is – how can SM make reinventing oneself more dificult in professional life? Another question that rose during the writing of this study was how to keep a SM team happy and motivated to work while surrounded by applications that are designed to cause addictive scrolling. How to make sure employees create content instead of surfing, or is this a worry for SM related businesses?
This study explored the multifaceted risks that Social Media Influencers (SMIs) face in their professional, technical, and psychological spheres. SMIs and content creators and their businesses face many risks related to their security online, extending also to risks regarding their brand, mental wellbeing, physical security, and economical situation. We found three types of risks, and we cathegorized them into professional, technical, and psychological concerns. Through interviews, we identified key threats that impact their online presence, mental well-being, and business continuity. The findings show that while social media platforms ofer lucrative opportunities, they also present significant challenges that require constant adaptation and risk management.
Professionally, SMIs are particularly concerned about losing their platform, which could potentially result in the loss of their livelihood. Privacy concerns, including the management of personal information and the unpredictable nature of algorithms, also pose significant risks. Additionally, issues such as cyberbullying, problematic followers, and the impact of legal concerns related to paid content were also discussed during the interviews. Maintaining a balance between personal and professional life, while managing the visibility of their personal information, adds further complexity to their work. Technically, SMIs worry about losing access to their accounts, being targeted by phishing attacks, and the potential security risks associated with losing devices or passwords. These concerns are accompanied by the growing threat of impersonation and SE, which could lead to identity theft or loss of control over their digital presence. Psychologically, the pressures of maintaining a public image contribute significantly to anxiety and stress among SMIs. The lack of privacy, the risk and fear of getting stalked, and the psychological toll of cyberbullying are constant issues. Additionally, the phenomenon of "cancel culture" remains a liability, as it can quickly ruin an influencer’s reputation and mental health. The constant scrutiny, coupled with the demands of always creating new content, leaves SMIs with little personal time, which further worsens their psychological strain.
This study underscores the complex risk landscape that SMIs navigate on a daily basis. These risks—ranging from professional setbacks to technical vulnerabilities and significant psychological pressures—underscore the delicate nature of their work. The interplay between these concerns calls for better management of their digital presence, legal compliance, and mental well-being to ensure long-term sustainability in the highly demanding social media landscape. The findings underscore the need for proactive risk mitigation strategies, including diversifying platform presence, implementing robust cybersecurity measures, and seeking mental health support. As social media continues to evolve, influencers and organizations alike must remain adaptable and vigilant to ensure sustainable and safe online engagement. There is a need for further research to explore specific coping mechanisms and industry-wide best practices that aim to improve the safety and well-being of SMIs in the digital space. The security of one SMI is not only important due to that one person, but also due to their followers, their business partners, and their own business and possible employees. More education regarding SM security is needed and a more broad understanding and SM cyber security friendly culture.
No Generative AI tools were utilized in preparation of this article. at https://www.kkv.fi/kuluttaja-asiat/tietoa-ja-ohjeita-yrityksille/kuluttaja-asiamiehen-linjaukset/ vaikuttajamarkkinointi-sosiaalisessa-mediassa, 2019. [24] F. Kyei, Piilomainonnan siivoustalkoisiin tarvitaan sekä vaikuttajat, yritykset että alustat, Available online at https://www.kkv.fi/blogit/kkv-blogi/ piilomainonnan-siivoustalkoisiin-tarvitaan-seka-vaikuttajat-yritykset-etta-alustat, 2024. [25] P. Norris, Cancel culture: Myth or reality?, Political Studies 71 (2021) 145–174.