Influencer ethics on Instagram

[MadameGrizzly]

Continuing the discussion on whether influencing on Instagram is an ethical business model, particularly around the disclosure of advertising and the over exposure of children.

AIBU to think it isn't a sustainable career unless the influencer is scrupulously ethical?

I cannot believe FODs would ever think an image of his child on a potty was appropriate for IG? My Yr7 niece has just finished some school work on internet privacy and she knows a potty image is very questionable, not to mention crass. This is a classic example of someone (FOD) becoming so drunk on their own celebrity that they eventually believe they can do no wrong, and there is no angle they won't plumb to gain more celebrity status (intimate potty images and careless shots of identifying school uniform FFS).

They never ever engage with comments re: their children's privacy, because they have sold the soul of their family to the Instagram Devil in return for freebie Disney holidays and a wardrobe of M&S outfits.

Ah yes FlyingBird I remember you pointing up the odd DM thing.

Oh you poor thing. Hope MN is keeping you amused at least.

Leandra is a very, very clever woman. But I'm uncomfortable with the image she is portraying on IG to her target market. It might be wise for her to stay offline right now.

I really like The Frugality - she's always seemed one of the more professional ones, but she had an oddly worded, stilted post recently about a cosmetic or something that sounded like an advertisement but had no disclosure.

I've a title for CH's next book: The Mystery of the Coincidental DM. She could really run with that.

I think it's important to decouple disliking a particular person, or what they feature, and the ethical or moral issues. You can - as the insta folk say - just unfollow if you don't like what they are pushing. But there are clear advertising rules which are breached; it is a strange and unsupportable decision to use their children (although presumably it is their decision, whatever one feels about it) and there is something very odd about women being so excluded from work that they have to sell their lives online to make cash. But the issue which really, REALLY troubles me is the conferring of 'expert status' on to people because of the number of (unquestioning) followers they have online. It is absolutely wrong to take the status of a mental health expert and then OPINE UPON IT without any qualification at all. And I really have a problem with MP being the self-appointed champion of the future of flexible work. Why is she shaping this agenda, and taking meetings with government? And why has a correlation been drawn between number of followers and credibility. Are we really saying that because someone puts "skanky manly titty" to music and films themselves trying on clothes, that they speak for anyone, or with any authority, on flexible working. I want to hear from people with knowledge and skills. There are so many experts - people I know - who have contacted MP with advice and insights who have been completely ignored. As is clear from this thread and their website, they are taking credit for the work of others. It's totally self indulgent, completely undemocratic, and deeply infuriating.

Completely agree Bullnoway. And it's part of a wider distrust of experts (e.g. Gove during the Brexit campaign, the sidelining of academics in having a say in running universities etc). There is a world of difference between someone sharing their own experiences of anxiety and someone being presented as an authority on anxiety more generally or attempting to ' raise awareness' of an issue that they have little expertise on. There are so many women with this specialist knowledge who would love to share their work with a wider audience (research impact!) but who gained this knowledge in the boring old fashioned way, rather than using their kids/ lifestyle to boost their status at the expense of proper hard work. That said I Personally I don't have an issue with MP.

I mentioned this on another thread but I did once send a DM and it was quoted by the instamum in her stories. Strangely though I hadn’t actually dm’d her, I had sent the message to a “hater” who was disagreeing with her. So now I don’t trust when people mention dm’s at all.

I have a distrust of the DMs. I have noticed a sensitivity around any discussion on this point.

I think the 'skanky manky titty' tune was due to postpartum haze. There's really no other way to explain it.

It was an instastory so it is sadly lost to the world. I'm not sure it was a high point MP would feel the need to share again. I could be wrong. You could maybe ask nicely?

Agree Bullnoway
And MP made a massive overclaim which luckily Gobbolino eagle eyes spotted. Because that story wasn’t true.

Luckily the people leading the WorkingForward are experts, albeit without the same sort of ig feed

Also selective answers with the obligatory oh have to run

The flip side is at least Sue from Croydon or wherever gets to hear about stuff they might not here about in terms of working. No idea about the meeting will have to scroll back - so many words

Good chat on here

And it was definitely manky.

Agree on the fortuitous dm and I’m not reading but..

Yes Gobbolino wised us all up to exactly what the pukka role was. But Workforce and EHRC don't seem to publicise their relationship with the pukkas. I couldn't find anything when I had a google.

Taking about "manly tittys" - I have been absent as busy on Twitter replying to various men (of course) calling me a TERF.

Anyway, back now and off to catch up

Hmm not that surprising NeverWas

I just scrolled back ‘perhaps disingenuous to claim the conversion was down to us’ that is a big statement

I doubt someone joining the pledge will have even heard of all these different hashtags, let alone join them together esp if WF don’t mention it

They’ll probably remember the name of the person who called or had the meeting (WF) and did the work

Numbers are just likes and comments - It’s very easy to overstate. But people need to take care it’s not just out and out bumpf

I can’t say I’m keen on being an extra focus group / advice etc here either FlyingBird come on people..

Oh soz I meant them not us, using Mn - was a bit unclear I thought that as I wrote it

I lost my MarshaBrady name when an email locked me out and now have to wear the extra o (sob)