Instamums 2

[shesakeeper]

Interested to read this in the Guardian today

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/mar/21/instagram-influencers-can-flog-stuff-all-day-but-its-weird-when-they-use-their-kids-to-do-it

You’re an intelligent, brilliant woman. Articulate, original, charismatic. It came across as ‘shucks we are crap at admin’ which felt less authentic than you flogging a new deep fat fried mars bar fryer. But I’ll try to abandon my issues.

MOD’s off on another holiday.

It is just bragging at this point. What are the audience supposed to do/feel in response to her going on another freebie holiday?

Are we supposed to book holidays like hers? I’d love to but I can’t bloody afford to take four people to St Lucia!

Maybe I’m supposed to be grateful that I can live vicariously through MOD’s luxury holiday?

I just don’t really get what the quid pro quo is any more.

I originally followed parenting feeds because they either offered solidarity, or practical, useful tips on baby/kids stuff. Now the same accounts I started following for those reasons no longer offer me any of those things.

It feels like all I get in return for following these days is an opportunity to go ‘oh, great, another freebie, good for you.’ It is completely irrelevant to my life now. Whereas before it wasn’t.

Good post Notasingle you have summed up my feelings on it too.

Why does seeing 10 influencers receive the same jacket make you want it?

I don't think it does, personally. Especially when you know it's a promotion. There was a brilliant point on the S&B thread that I'd never even thought of before and it's that certain brands (i.e Zara, Jo Malone) never, ever do sales or discount codes, even for loyal customers and yet they're happy to send 50-100 bloggers a bunch of free stuff every so often. Some of the posters on the S&B thread have now made of point of NOT shopping with the brands that do this.

I think we're getting wise to it though. We can (mostly) tell now when it's a promotion and when it's an organic trend, even when some bloggers don't #ad.

@PETRONELLAS fair dues. But it definitely was an authentic mistake. Maybe not worth sharing, though.

PavlovaPrincess That’s a good point, I really appreciate the occasional 10% discount etc it doesn’t make that much difference in monetary terms but I feel more valued as a customer.

I used to really like insta for fashion but find it very disingenuous when someone “loves” their new top that isnt their style or doesn’t actually suit them.

That Bubble Babysitting App promotion by many of the instamums just doesn't sit well with me at all.
Are we really meant to believe that these bloggers with hundreds of thousands of followers are really going to leave their children with randoms?
Out of curiosity I looked to see who would be around my area..
There were 6 people in total.All except one were male.And as much as you shouldn't judge a book by its cover..There is no way in hell that I would leave my children with any of them(the woman included)
MP is one of the only instamums I follow.I like her writing style and I'm interested in her Flex Appeal.I worked my way up in a predominantly male industry and there was no opportunity for me to go back once I had my child.
I love Trinny for her eccentricity.
But my two favourite accounts at the moment are Sweary Tattooed Mother of 4(Her House is on another level..And I have watched her wedding video so many times as it's so amazing)
The other is of a similar style and is called Ultimate Girlgang.Both accounts wont be for everyone.I am older than both these women(Im 41) but they both remind me of my pre child days and the amazing time I had in the 90's and 00's.

I looked at Bubble once. The first sitter it recommended was a woman I know from my local toddler group, who smokes over her kids in the buggy as she waits outside and once called one a 'fackin moron' for falling over in some mud.

Immediately deleted Bubble after that.

I’m pretty active on instagram in that I like to use it but the minute I see people flogging stuff which let’s be honest, is very easy to spot I unfollow. I don’t want to see ads on instagram, it’s not why I joined.

One account (not a mum but a weight loss account) started asking people for basically free stuff for her wedding .. ‘oh I can’t get anyone to do my wedding invites’ really?

I've just looked back to when MOD advertised Bubble and I remember her getting some flak. She's since (rather tellingly) disabled the comments on that particular post.

I also used to follow some of these for solidarity and a feeling I wasn't alone. I don't get that feeling anymore and the constant holidays, perfect houses etc I found nauseating. I have unfollowed all the well known knew apart from Hurrah for Gin, who I admire for her business and humour and Peter and Jane who I think is a very talented writer. Any other mums I follow on social media (much fewer these days) are just 'normal' ones, not with loads of followers, whose lives I just find interesting. Like the one who is an expat who lives in Dubai. I forget the name

Well known ones

Disabling comments just reeks of inauthenticity (when any IG famous person does it). Better to see some healthy debate in there and perhaps allow you and/or the brand to gage what potential customers are really thinking.

Ohh, I didn't know the babysitting app was an advert. Someone I follow (not a mum blogger but a mum, iyswim) was plugging it and it looked very suss - I think there were at least six pages of an Instagram story with links on each one - but I didn't realise it was a widespread plug because I didn't see anyone else plugging it.

The whole thing seemed very insincere though. I wasn't at all convinced that they'd used it themselves.

I agree notasingle and I'm baffled st some of the comments. 'You deserve it' is one. Does she? Does she really deserve a holiday to St Lucia?! She works 1 day a week, her 2 youngest in nursery 80% of the working week while she's an author. Her kids will do long dayscsbd have most aspects of their lives covered by private school. If anyone 'deserves' it, it's FOD. He must spend hours on his Instagram, editing and setting up as well as his job. Remember when he worked in New York for a week and she whinged the whole time and then gleefully dumped the kids on him despite his jet lag? And yet when she went on the cruise and now this he's nothing but pleasant about it. Fine go, be open, get all your freebies but let's not pretend she deserves it, there are people who do actually deserve a break.

I too find the comments from her ‘fans’ quite egotistic. I can’t help but to be cynical but I think the real reason for fod staying behind is to plug his book more. Him by himself looking after the twins, just makes it easier for him to reference back to his book.

Whole thing is bizarre - totally unrelatable. She is monetising her older children for a freebie and she was quite calculated in whipping up the "haters gonna hate" brigade to ward off any criticism.
I find it worrying how these instamums are handling their children as they get older.... MOD said in that Grazia piece that her daughter asked how many likes she was getting while dmbl40 says she only posts photos (which she rarely does) with permission - they are children ffs - parenting is about making those decisions, not passing that responsibility over to a child. When I see how insta plays out amongst my dc and their friends who are teenagers/young adults I wonder how it will be for the children of instamums.

And quite weird to watch your mum (or dad) talking into her phone so frequently to people who are not really there 🤷🏻‍♀️And actually you have no idea who is watching. Your kids teachers, your neighbour. So odd. And to be honest I'd have been embarrassed.

In a way like FOD setting things up and editing later. The kids are filmed or photographed, but with Storying mothers they just the phone... and we are all trying to move away from that surely?

Noticed this mama life had wrote an Instagram story saying ‘mumsnet threads, who has the time?’ Obviously thought better of it and deleted it now.

Il tell you who has the time, mother pukka for a start...and many mothers who don’t have to take 400 pictures a day just to post one of there family eating cereal to sell stuff and there family daily. Sorry I’ve got time to scroll through mumsnet ! And I don’t have to sell my soul, privacy or my kids for the ££, maybe you’d have more time for a mumsnet thread and quality time with your family if everything wasn’t for the, the gram, the blogs or whatever else you flog.

#ad
Goodbye.

These instamums don't like mumsnet do they!?

Wonder if they are popular on netmums?

Ha ha fiftydollarbill

I'm assuming the instas all had the chance to deal with any comments/criticism on their posts and it seems Some of them deleted comments and blocked people so they were bound to end up somewhere else discussing them. (I just look up if accounts rather than follow them and have never been tempted to comment).

The Hadley freeman article had some really amusing and interesting comments.

No they just like the online socials where people ass pat them daily, where everyone’s a yes man, where everything they do in life is applauded with likes and comments to feed their ego. What a sad little life it becomes when everything they do is filmed and everything is for their online life. When everything they take their kids to is just to generate a Photo op. Poor kids.

Also most mommy bloggers on Instagram are just sheep, no originality what so ever. Anyone got anyone they actually like following and has great content? Let me know. I’m in the market!

Sick of the we love plant brigade, plants in baskets, twinning leisure gear, gin gin gin club it’s exhausting and effing boring now.

I’ve seen some horrific hounding of people who have commented on posts. Even polite messages that query whether something is an advert or gift are leapt upon by fawning followers. It’s no wonder people end up over here to discuss things instead.