Reputation Burning: Analyzing the Impact of Brand Sponsorship on Social Influencers.

This article empirically examines the impact of posting sponsored videos on the reputation of social media influencers, operationalized as changes in their number of subscribers. Using a large dataset of 85,669 YouTube videos from 861 English-speaking beauty and lifestyle influencers, the study employs DiNardo-Fortin-Lemieux (DFL) reweighting to create matched treatment (sponsored videos) and control (organic videos) groups. The analysis reveals a statistically significant "reputation-burning effect," where posting sponsored content leads to an average 0.19% loss in subscribers compared to similar organic content, with stronger negative effects observed for influencers with larger audiences. This effect is mitigated when the sponsored content closely fits the influencer's usual style and when the promoted brand is less well known. The findings offer practical implications for influencers, brands, and social media platforms regarding sponsorship strategies and audience engagement.