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?

So I just refreshed my feed and the first 5 posts went 6mins old / 1 min old / sponsored ad / 15 hours old / 11 hours old. So now you could now see a picture of someone's breakfast at tea time, instead of at breakfast time. Instagram took the Insta out of the Gram when they made your feed driven by the mysterious algorithm.

I thought the algorithms changed to reflecting who had the biggest followers/likes & who you engaged with. So it’s kind of a vicious cycle, you follow someone big, like a post then they appear at the top of your feed, you like etc. So harder for newer, smaller accounts to get noticed.

Same when you search a # the biggest accounts show first.

I could be wrong though.

Yep. And twitter did the same.
It's all driven by the "need" to maximise the eyeball exposure and hence to give advertisers the biggest bang for their buck.

I assume as like fb they need to figure a way of making money of the platforms. Encourages business to buy “ad space”

Yep indeed, that’s why I don’t really use them anymore & haven’t looked at my fb feed in months. I want to see what my friends/relatives have been up too in a relevant time frame not an advert about stationary.

FB ruined instagram for me.

Clemmie (or is she now Snow White - ah, bless) is very happy on Stories tonight. Seems Insta are (rightly) removing bullying comments. Hmm, just to be sure about this - Insta is a monster huge salesroom, making money from the Insta salespeople under their various guises. Let's hope they don't confuse bullying and dissent as they are not the same. Calling someone out for talking crap, monetising their children (despite the concerns of health care professionals - oh the irony!) is not bullying, it is dissent.

I’ve used a bit of social media in the past for work & a small business really needs to spend money to get an advert “out there” in fb now.

I do not get the FB algorithm at all. Every time I open my news feed these days I see the same peoples holiday photo, or picture of someone else's dog or something, for about 48 hours, people I don't even particularly engage with. It's really put me off using Facebook actually, it's so dull.

Sorry, TheMadHouse, it looks a bit like I was referring to you trying to hide disclosure because we posted at the same time. I wasn't.

There aren't the same character limits on Instagram so no need to abbreviate. I snigger when I see an instastory with a huge amount of text and the tiniest #aff in an unreadable swirly font, hidden in the image.

Poor love ran out of space for disclosure. 😢

Well I’m pretty sure FB is loosing or not attracting young users (under 25s) & most new users are older. I’m sure that’s why they bought insta, but I think the yoof prefer snapchat.

Oh that's an interesting take on it MadameGrizzly. You think some were pretending they just had that stuff/ could afford those holidays? How does that work for the advertisers? That 'we' would think we should aspire to it too?

Bingo, NeverWas.

That really makes sense to me MadameGrizzly. Good spot by you. I think a couple of them really enjoyed pulling the wool over people's eyes on that basis.

So ASA are really enabling that by not regulating gifts/freebies. Buuuuut we are all wising up, or some of us, at least.

So the new algorithm encourages people to buy followers and 'engage' by sucking up on bigger accounts, thereby creating more traffic on advertised posts. Blimey, capitalist bastards. Can we start a SM hippy commune without ads?

As it's been noted on these threads, many influencers started from a position of significant wealth and privilege. I think they liked to, well, basically show off to their followers (and friends and family) another lovely outfit, another beautiful cushion, another holiday abroad. All effortless and envy worthy. An advertiser's dream.

Adding #AD or #affiliatelink makes it all a bit grubby and low brow.

If the prestige factor is gone and it looks like they are working for their money, I think some of them will ditch the influencing career.

That’s how I read it neverwas. Which for me goes completely against what insta was in the first place. I liked it as an alternative to a magazine with more diversity & less advertising influence. I was really into fashion bloggers & I didn’t even mind the small brand gifting as it’s great to discover new brands but now the big boys have got involved & it’s very homogenised.

an instastory with a huge amount of text and the tiniest #aff in an unreadable swirly font, hidden in the image

^^ Yes!! I'm positive this is the next thing that's going to start creeping in, exactly the same as what I mentioned earlier with the text being the same color as the background on the photo so as to render it virtually invisible.

@Neverwas
👋🏼 Still here btw, no bullshit but thanks I’m talking about the book post on Monday someone accused me of gatekeeping by deleting some comments. It would appear Instagram deleted them

@themadhouse I used to follow you but unfollowed as I don't enjoy the ad/spon/gift.... I personally think anyone using these abbreviations is just too ashamed to say this is an advert and it makes me uncomfortable. An ad is an ad is an ad. You asked for feedback on this point last year and I dm you explaining that anything you were mentioning in your stories that was not paid for was essentially an ad but never got a reply.

I think there is a huge element of disingenuity from bloggers and like you say we can choose to unfollow. It's all very well saying that the ASA don't have clear rules but every Insta hawker now knows that an advert should be labelled as such. Not gift. Not spon. Not gotitfree.

For what its worth I did enjoy your page. It was different and honest.

And NB leapt straight on MOD's story too, despite this thread clarifying what horseshit the whole #dearmumsnet was.

I am embarrassed for them both.