Is a "Instagram blogger" really a job?

[babyleavealighton]

I follow quite a lot of Instagram fashion bloggers on Instagram and there job is basically
Taking pictures of clothes-ordering ridiculous amounts of clothes and putting outfits together
I'm a bit jealous they are getting paid to do this.
One girl in particular has a new reel daily of new in from H&M /Zara etc
And she classes "going to work " as going to her study and trying clothes on
Can you imagine ...
Free PR holidays
Etc etc

It's hideous conspicuous consumerism designed to attract idiots and airheads. Totally tone deaf in the current environmental and cost of living crises.

You could argue that anything that provides you with an income to live off is a job.

Where have you been for the last 10 years?!?!

“Influencers” can make money from this of course they can. And making Reels, TikToks etc requires a modicum of technical knowledge. Good luck to them, it’s by definition a short “career” (except for the ground breakers like Zoella et al ) which will only last until the next new person becomes popular.

From the brands point of view paying an influencer a few grand to show their clothes/cleaning gizmo / dog food or whatever to thousands of followers is so much more cost effective than paying for advertising in the media. So it’s a win win all round.

Instagram has just become one huge advert. It’s nice money if you can make it that way I guess.

If you stopped following them, they wouldn't make a living from it. You're literally funding their lifestyle

If you do something, and somebody pays you money to do it, it's work. If you do it on a regular basis, it's a job. So yes, of course it's a job.

15 years ago when I first started my job (work from home web content writer) I had a few friends who told me THAT wasn't a real job. Since covid, with more people working from home, they suddenly understand that just because you're at home doesn't mean you're not working!

@Clymene I know ...I fell down a rabbit hole of watching them just take pictures and show clothes all day
It made my 6 am commute to work a bit more interesting ...living in a fantasy world of free holidays and free clothes 😂

I barely even post on Facebook these days however I can lose plenty of time scrolling TikTok...some of it is good, most of it is middle of the road or absolute garbage. However I do recognize that the ones doing reasonably well must have to do the work - the filming and editorials must take time and knowledge, and the content has to be engaging, and CONSTANT - probably take hours to formulate a well put together make-up/clothing haul/recipe etc 3 minute video.

Although I do also kind of like some of the god-awful ones too :) I guess if you want 15 minutes of fame and recognize that you make what you can in the short time frame you have then yeah, it's a job of sorts.

About 10 ish years ago I used to go to a gym glass with a younger girl/woman who was going off to uni to do a degree in App Development - I remember thinking how utterly bizarre that was!

It’s selling your soul a bit, though. Many are funded behind the scenes by a day job, so effectively they’re working all hours; or by a husband, so precarious; or it really IS their job but then it becomes about selling their life – you get the free holiday but you have to post a bikini shot/tell a personal story/photograph your kids/shill for a distasteful brand. The real money spinner posts are often financial services or boring stuff so for all the sparkly “I adore lipstick, look at my free lipstick!” posts there’s also the cringe “that’s why I’m excited to collaborate with Grey & Stupefying Funeral Plans, the most fashionable thing you can do is fund your funeral” posts.

I think the term these days is “content creator”.

They probably return most of the clothes for a refund afterwards… they’re not really living a luxury lifestyle, it’s all an illusion.

But clearly some of them must make enough money for it to be worth doing.

Well, they make money, but is this really a job? Not for me. Showing your house, your life etc. is my idea of nightmare.

But those things aren't really free are they? It comes with a price - all that posing for the camera, spending a fortune on makeup & Botox & fillers and ever more extreme beauty treatments to be 'perfect'. Hours traipsing around finding the 'perfect' shot, your life on show, the constant hustling for more followers and the worry of knowing that they are a few clicks away from being overtaken by someone younger/prettier/cuter/more fashionable, the underlying insecurity of income and knowing it can't last forever.

They obviously think it's worth it, just as many of us work in jobs we don't especially love because it pays the bills. But I suspect the life is nowhere near as glamorous and carefree as it looks. Even frequent holidays can lost their appeal if you can't really relax and are constantly taking body beautiful pictures and posting them every 5 minutes. I don't feel sorry for them but nor do I envy them.

I also agree the conspicuous consumerism, wastefulness and fatuous focus on appearances is 'off' in the current climate.

I realise I'm probably not the generation that influencers aim at but I just can't understand why people can't think for themselves and decide what to wear or buy.

I have a vague relative who's a wannabe influencer, Her reels consist of speeded up videos of her tidying the kitchen and putting the shopping away or recommending hideous clothes that she seems to order and then return on repeat,
Just what is the point of that?

It's an advertising/ sales job for those that make money out of it. But remember for every successful one that makes a living from it there's tens of thousands who put in all the time and effort but don't make a living from it.

There’s a ‘content creator’ at Dc’s school.

Her life is nothing like her tiktok insta life. And her DH is about to divorce her as he didn’t sign up for any of it, but she’s flogged her whole family life for free gousto boxes and invites to lunches with roomfuls of other narcissists.

same reason why women used to read magazines that advertised the latest fashion/makeup. I have found out about new makeup products to try because of videos by beauty influencers. I don't buy things because they tell me to but sometimes i find out about stuff that I would like from the video. There are lots of online makeup brands now that don't have a physical store. Or sometimes I just don't have time to browse John Lewis/Selfridges/Liberty/Boots/Superdrug. And i live in London; for people who live in rural areas, it must be useful to find out about new releases online.

Of course it's a job. Just like an actor for an advert is promoting a product, the influencers are.

I think it's a shame that our younger generation look to SM for any sort of influence but that appears to be the world we live in now.

Also, nobody wants to hang out with her as she films literally everything. She tried to artfully top shot snap a pizza express kids lunch at the end of term and got annoyed no one would stand up to be out of her picture, or wait for her to snap it before eating.

I often think that when I watch the poor reluctant bloke doing some cringey dance on an Instagram reel with the over enthusiastic wife 🤦🏼‍♀️

Really sad but absolutely believable that this sort of shit is breaking up couples and families.

I loathe the desperate and unoriginal mummy bloggers flogging their children’s privacy for money. I’m really torn on the unmumsy mum as she is hilarious, a talented writer and the original and genuine mum blogger who has really helped many of us over the years. But her kids are constantly paraded in front of millions of followers, are totally recognisable and easy to locate and basically it makes me shrivel up in disgust that she has basically sold their childhoods online. Could it not be done with kids names and faces changed/blurred out?

On another note, does anyone know roughly how much money people are making from Instagram? As a UK influencer with say 10,000 followers? Or 100,000?

I follow someone who is a full time influencer with around 200,000 followers but it looks obvious that many of them are paid for bots. Im wondering how much money is really in it. Is it all free stuff or is there actual cash at that kind of level?

Clearly I’m more fascinated than I’d like to think 🤣

I have a relative who is dabbling in this - she gets more freebies (products, clothes) than actual money, though she has managed to wangle the odd 'collab' which means a free night in a hotel in exchange for lots of 'content'. She enjoys it, but PPs who say it dominates every situation are right - my partner and I went on holiday with her before, and we were constantly having to stop while she took selfies/help her with photos of her looking into the distance meaningfully while posing with one of the products... to be honest, it got old pretty fast, we just wanted to experience the places we were seeing, not live them through a phone screen! I almost felt that she didn't experience things organically any more, she was just always on the lookout for 'content'...

Should add, in case we sound ungrateful, the holiday in question wasn't a freebie/collaboration/anything to do with her Instagramming - it was a normal trip that we'd all paid for, which quickly became a string of photo opportunities!

It’s the same with YouTube imo. One woman who I actually like her content is forever trying to sell Debt Solutions, no thanks love!

Googling would suggest that if you can get a brand to sponsor a post, they’ll pay $500 if you have 100,000 followers.

If they earn money from it (and it's legal) then it's a job. I think in 5-10 years this type of 'job' will go away (hopefully).