I'm a Instagram influencer AMA...

[PercyPigfangirl]

...

Well celebrity being offered x amount of money for promoting shampoo, watches, perfume, cars or whatever is a fairly clear cut arrangement. You could take it or leave it. Many influencers fall into shady practices be it monitising their kids, not adequately declaring sponsored products, promoting unattainable lifestyles or generally taking advantage of impressionable followers. Zoella is a prime example, something deeply wrong at the time when a late 20 something women was dressing and acting like tween in order to flog over priced shit to her impressionable young teenagers. Latterly we have seen them promote weight loss plans whilst more people than ever are using food banks, claiming furlough for their companies whilst being worth millions and travelling to Dubai for “work” when all they appear to do is sit on a sun-lounger, drinking cocktails. It just does not sit well with people. There are plenty of influencers out there promoting more positive messages other then flogging fast fashion and a perfect home but I think a lot of folk are just fed up with a lot of the fakeness.

I hope for your sake your influencing is better than your grammar.
its an influencer.

How much turnover they make is always the interesting one as it varies so much and how much tax they do or should pay too "HMRC chases 4,300 social media influencers and online earners over tax" on.ft.com/41crVjU

What is wrong with you?

I never suggested there is not sponsored content, be it a concept 2 erg, a boat manufacturer or training kit, at least the ones I follow offer genuinely useful training advice and insight into the sport rather then just people mooching about being sexy.

Wow, came here hoping to learn something as a micro-influencer myself. But instead I've just discovered how misunderstood it is (and how nasty people can be).

I also have a 'proper job'.
I am dressed at all times.
I declare and pay tax on my work.
I turn down 90% of collaborations as they're not a good fit for my values and audience.
I spend a few days a week on unpaid content of value to my audience too.

Influencing is a specialism, I've learnt photography, videography, caption writing, how to understand and use several social media platforms as well as running my own blog. This is on top of my day job and family life.

I've been nominated for awards for my work and get a least one person a day thanking me for helping them in my specialist area.

But back to the ignorant nastiness.

Are you going to go after every advertising agency and every actor in a commercial?

Is advertising a new concept to you? And does it offend you so much when it's not people at home with computers?

Interesting! I run a music blog and website but wouldn't call myself an influencer really. But people are a bit harsh, cause it's not like you just post pictures.

Are you self conscious that everyone else thinks you don’t have a real job? What do you say you do when people ask what you do for a living, or for example when completing a form that states “occupation”?

It's a shame the OP has now gone.
If animal influencers aren't your thing, that's fine, but the nastiness is baffling.
I hope the online animal community you're in is more supportive OP!

Bloody hell-I did an AMA about my stereotypically disliked 'profession' and had far less aggression than this! I think the mistake the OP made was in their title. Had they said 'I make a living off Instagram' I think people wouldn't have had their feathers ruffled so quickly?

I also think the OP should have expected such responses though and not been so quick to be reactive.

Nowt as queer as folk as they say-OP I hope you come back. And if you do, please try to respond to each question individually and ignoring the 'tone' of some of them.

Shame the OP has gone, I was genuinely interested to read the answers.
If it was animal related, I'm not understanding the hate.
I would be interested to hear what the motive to post really personal stuff is though, such as pregnancy tests, scans, birth pics, every event in a child's life. Are they getting paid millions?

No offence to your 15 year old cousin but if she has around 30K for just posting selfies then her followers will be fake/bought. It’s so easy to buy followers

Unless she’s the child of someone famous then her followers will be organic.

What age range do you influence?

Do you have to deal with any negativity either directly in dms or on Tattle?

If so how do you cope?

I'd love it if it were E - rats, Crumble etc? I'd be chatting to you non stop 🤣

I'm no fan of influencers, some show things half assed, barely even pronouncing the name properly. However, some of them work incredibly hard creating reels or other very good content. A video of a few seconds can take hours - for a good influencer.

What amazing job do you have, genius?

Well done 👏✔️ (meant totally genuinely!)

So do absolutely tons of sport and animal instagram accounts. The OP said she had an animal related hobby page and it grew from there. Not all influencers are wannabe Kim Kardashians.

Do you pay tax as any freelancer would? What about declaring gifts that are taxable?

Yes. Some posters won't be happy until we are all shut in our bedrooms, moaning about RL through our laptops, distrusting all other human beings and planning which passive aggressive emails to send today.

If influencing is such a piece of piss and money for old rope, why isn't everyone on here doing it?

Because it's below them.