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

allergy I think what fruitbowl meant was if that lots of people start following and push the numbers up, those accounts will become targets for advertisers and it’ll ‘ruin’ them.

And actually I think the comments about education, background and names is perfectly relevant in the context of this conversation around authenticity.

The points raised were that all the influencers, even those few influencers who are women of colour, all seem to be middle class, well-educated and wealthy. And in order to shill more stuff to us hoi polloi, they need and want us to believe they’re just like us. But the background and education and, by extension, names, all signify a massive gulf.

And therein lies the problem with social media, Allergy. It's not harmless fun, even if looks like it is. It is creating a society of fucked up people, both those that influence (and who seem to becoming more and more detached from real life) and those being influenced (who you could argue are suffering from the same problem).

Thanks folks that what my - poorly worded - meaning. I shan't be blogging anytime soon....😳

And just to repeat again what many of us have said.
A lot of us don't follow (have never or have unfollowed) many of the people discussed on this thread.
But because we have children or do follow others,many of these mentioned keep popping up on our Insta threads as suggested follows etc.

Totally agree it’s so unhealthy to be this bothered by whay other people do

I think it’s unhealthy to be unconcerned about what social media is doing to people.

Who are you concerned for?

@allaboardtheallergybus you should probably unfollow this thread as it's causing you such unnecessary grief. It was clearly a joke. And your comment is weird, where has anyone criticised name choice or education? No where. Although people have suggested broadcasting your child's school is possibly a risk. Seems like you are making problems where there simply are not any.

Totally agree it’s so unhealthy to be this bothered by whay other people do

See this is the nub of it really. People are bothered by what certain Instagrammers do because those Instagrammers use their followers as currency.

It’s not at all the same as picking a random mum’s account with 150 followers and slagging it off for no reason.

Instamums are trading their followers with brands in exchange for free stuff.

Brands are trading their stuff for free with instamums in exchange for their followers’ attention.

It is not a dynamic in which ‘we’ should just be expected to be passive observers. So it’s really a massive oversimplification to say ‘Why are you bothered? Just ignore it.’

I’m bothered because I willingly bought into one thing and now I’m expected to pay a price for that by unwillingly having a bunch of other crap sold to me.

It’s analogous to signing up to an online service that you want or need, and then getting your inbox spammed forever by penis enlargers and Russian dating sites.

You follow an Instagram account for a reason and then you have to put up with being ‘spammed’ a load of package holiday and posh cereal crap.

Great post @NotASingleDamnBiroInTheHouse

If you don't mind, I'm going to quote that in its entirety the next time someone else comes onto the thread and tells us to 'just unfollow' or asks 'why are you so bothered?'

Nicely put Biro.

If you don't mind, I'm going to quote that in its entirety the next time someone else comes onto the thread and tells us to 'just unfollow' or asks 'why are you so bothered?'

Yeah, crack on.

@NotASingleDamnBiroInTheHouse but I suppose you didn’t buy into it financially. Instagram is free. The content is free. I absolutely get the frustrations around the whole set up - I’m not arguing against that. But I read books over magazines because I can’t be bothered to flick through 35 pages of ads in Vogue - a magazine I’ve paid for - to get to the editor’s letter. If advertising isn’t transparent, that’s a huge issue. If there is a concern for online child safety, that is a big topic of discussion and something these threads are rightly questioning. But content generally costs money and currently you are getting something for nothing - and if you don’t like that something, I do think unfollow is an option. None of this is meant passive aggressively - always hate how the internet messes with tone - just giving a different perspective.

Why does content cost money MP? I mentioned shetlandruthie for example - her feed is lovely in my view. She does feature her art. It she's making that anyway.

MP means that you usually pay to be entertained, whether it's by a magazine or book or Netflix.

I don't read Vogue for that reason either. You're paying five quid for a load of ads.

I think the difference with mags/telly and IG is that with magazines, we know they're ads. We also know that they're necessarily endorsed by the mag either.

Whereas on IG, you get someone who you've bought into (not literally), identified with and trusted for the last few years or so, suddenly telling you that Tena Lady is the best thing since sliced bread and the one thing they can't leave the house without (I'm obviously exaggerating for effect).

And it's only very recently that the bloggers have come out and decided to mark whether it's an ad or not.

Why do you have to 'put up with it' Biro. You are not being forced - you can change your mind and unfollow? 🤔

What is happening is as magazines close almost monthly, people are seeking that style of content elsewhere - on instagram. Instead of models wearing clothes they started to prefer seeing non-models wearing clothes. I used to work as an editor at Time Out and I was paid a salary to write about a topic - things to do in a city that others could enjoy. The ads paid my salary. Regardless of what you think of traditional media vs social media, creating that content took time and in turn I got a salary. I can’t speak for everyone, but I create content on Instagram in a similar vein - blog posts, videos, daily vlogs and reviews of child-friendly places to go in London.

@PavlovaPrincess I suppose it would be interesting to see how magazines started out and if there were similar issues. While I agree pulling the wool over peoples eyes is rubbish, the ASA has a role to play here. A lot of the people on instagram are just that - people - in need of regulation and guidance. Something Mumsnet has delivered.

I can't see it's the same thing. A magazine is created, pays other people to produce. If you decide to run an IG account for a campaign or just to share your cute kids, you're getting as much out of it and the followers/viewers.

Really MP, did instamums (I'm not referring to you, your ads have always seemed pretty upfront) need to be told that if they showed a product they were paid for or gifted they should tell followers/viewers??

Well, I guess time will tell really.

Your followers will either decide that they don't want to be advertised at and unfollow or the brands will decide that the collaborations aren't working out.

We'll just have to wait and see. Speaking honestly, none of the ads I've seen on any of the IG's have made me more inclined to purchase them.

You've head the nail on the head there for me Motherpukka. I don't want to pay you to give me a tour of your fridge/doing jumping jacks. Flexappeal should be a charity if anything.

@Badmotherpukka if you hadn't been able to monetise your account, would you still be doing it?