Continuing the discussion around instagram influencers and ethics

[bawbles]

Continued from old thread

@flyingbird I imagine we've stayed in very different kind of holiday destinations with very different facilities! Glad you clarified the shag was with their father.

@boredandtired

We’ve done a whole range of holidays as a family, from camping, to a week in a cottage in Cornwall, to backpacking and staying in £20 a night rooms in a hostel, to 4* comfort. We like to mix it up, and sometimes that means my children go to kids club. But that doesn’t mean that I, or for that matter the Meldrums for all we know, don’t “enjoy going on holiday with their children”.

How’s your pregnancy going by the way?

The only 'instamum' I follow is Allthatisshe who seems lovely and her posts obviously take a lot of time and though! She's not overbearing with ads either which is nice

Another holiday-clubber here

We have a 5 year old, 4 year old and a 2 year old. We are clearly boring bastards as our 2 older ones actually like the holiday club and ask to go. They obviously didn't get the memo about spending quality time with one's parents on holiday as the 5 year old also asked to go to the football classes too on our last hols. . So I dont judge the Meldrums for that, at all. I work from home a few days a week around school and nursery and see a lot of them so clearly familiarity breeds contempt - I could imagine the Meldrum children might feel the same way too and like a nice instagram free break in the kids club.

The ad thing clearly needs clarified however and I absolutely judge not quarantining yourselves appropriatly with d&v

@boredandtired @FlyingBird

My eldest has used kids clubs since being around 3/4. The resorts we use publish a timetable of activities for the week so she’ll pick and choose what she fancies doing. They are usually for 2 hours a day and she’ll often go 3/4 times per week. She really enjoys it and we will use the time to do stuff that we fancy (sadly that never involves shagging) so will go shopping/long walk/posho restaurant that she would moan at and want pizza. I think kids club can be fab if your child enjoys it, wants to be there and doesn’t spend too long there (obviously too long is very subjective)

I can’t imagine leaving my baby but he cries at strangers so I wouldn’t leave him with anyone other than dh/grandparents anyway.

If the Meldrums didn't receive anything from Neilson for tagging them in every post, raving about them at every opportunity and taking over the Neilson Instagram page, then they are mugs quite frankly as they've given them a lot of free advertising. I think they should clarify one way or the other as it just makes them (and Neilson for that matter) look super shady and I can't imagine that even the most naive of their followers don't wonder why the Meldrums only holiday with Neilson and go on SO MANY holidays with them. Errrr....

Neither of them are friendly to people who criticise or ask questions they don't like to answer though, so where does that leave us? I don't get how some "influencers" think they should only disclose certain types of collaborations.

I asked C&C a question about a post after Christmas (was it an advert or not). I wasn't being rude just a simple question and I got a horrible response back. She had a few choice words in her response and told me that I should mind my own business and if it was an advert she'd say it was an advert!!! And then I was blocked by her. Don't figure but life goes on.

@flyingbird and @bawbles haha! Maybe the one we tried was just dire! Put me and my kids right off. To be fair 2 are autistic so probably didn't help.
Am at the hideous last run of pregnancy and dreadfully aneamic so not too much fun. Thank you for asking! X

@boredandtired oh sorry to hear you’re anaemic, that sucks. I hope you’re being taken good care of 🙂

This is much better disclosure from RVK loves, I know some don’t like the #presstrip tag but it’s so much clearer than saying ‘I was a guest at xx hotel’

Hi all! I’ve not posted on these threads before, but I’ve read lots of them and it’s interesting to hear your points of view. I have an Instagram account (albeit a very small one) and I do post sponsored content. I’d be interested to understand how you feel about seeing sponsored posts? Is it that you don’t like seeing them at all? Or is it the way it’s done and the frequency that becomes annoying? Is there anything instagrammers can do to make it better?

I get the point about disclosure and it’s something I’ve listened to and am trying to be as transparent as possible with everything I do going forward. I’m sure I’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past, but I am learning and trying to make sure I do everything by the book.

Transparency aside, are there any other areas where improvements could be made?

@Nonotthatone

I’m happy with brands that fit with the overall theme of the account and are an addition to rather than a large proportion of the content.

I recall MOD took some flack as at one stage a lot of her posts were paid for and it starts to feel like an advertising platform rather than something interesting that also does adverts. Closest I can describe it is like the fashion magazines, that’s certain ones I won’t buy as there’s more advertisements than editorial.

Hunters and heels on instagram is an account that has a very beautiful feed and her #ads although mostly clearly marked as such don’t stand out as the photos are the same look/feel as the account and she promotes brands that fit with her aesthetic. So it feels like she’s genuinely recommending stuff that she would buy/use.

She’s not the greatest at disclosure when sharing discount codes or recommending brands that have gifted her products but the content feels authentic.

Mother pukka is a great example of how to disclose stuff, she anticipates what people want and shares everything which means that rather than nitpick about what she’s probably paid/not paid people can focus on the content.

Her holiday post was excellent not least because she clarified that she selected the resort based on trip advisor then contacted them asking for a discount - it often feels like bloggers will promote any company that gets in touch so this felt like she’d really chosen something based on their family preference so would otherwise have paid in full for the trip and not blogged it

I find the accounts where the ads bother me are where there's either too many or they've just got ridiculously greedy. I follow small shops and brands and I obviously expect to see them advertising what they make/sell. I follow Motherpukka and Papa and like them both a lot, it's very clear what they are about. The only ad that bothers me is pampers as it seems to keep popping up and I really hate such promotion of unethical, gel filled crappy nappies as they could be promoting some of the more biodegradable products on display now. But to be fair MP always takes comments on board and really works with feedback. MOD previously sold out with a list of products as long as your arm which was hidden at first, at that drove me nuts. Firstly as I was duped and then because I realised it was just a business transaction and felt mislead and like lots of the products were not true to the accounts.
My pet irritation is actually the smaller accounts that are so obviously trying to monetise and just so engaging and fawning and delightful. They comment everywhere to get noticed and increase engagement, tag and gush over products and if they do get a deal they are nauseous. It's very tedious.
I love accounts where you know where you are. National Geographic have amazing photos, shops sell products etc, but accounts set up to try and hawk or have discovered they can are a real turn off.

That’s really interesting. So essentially all you want to see is a balance of organic vs sponsored content, that fits with whatever niche an iger has defined for themselves, and you want to see very detailed disclosure around gifted products and trips? Seems fair enough.

I totally get what you mean about magazines too. When you put it that way, I can see that I’ve probably been guilty of posting too many ads at times. It’s sometimes tricky to get that bit right. You can have weeks and weeks with no work on and then it all comes at once or deadlines get moved. That said, if it’s annoying to see and makes people switch off (which I absolutely get) then I need to work to find a way to improve the balance.

@Nonotthatone well you summarised that much more succinctly than I did

Example of a turn off for me is a smallish account, quite pretty feed and very vocal about shopping small brands then suddenly starts flogging Johnson’s based on an event they invited lots of influencers too and quoting what the ‘experts’ (paid for by johnsons) taught her.

Johnsons didn’t fit with her previous content or the previous stuff she’d posted about using on her dc so it felt really disingenuous.

I follow a mix of celebs, feminists, people with pretty feeds and people who make me laugh or are interesting.

People who make me laugh are my favourite @bawbles

With the engagement and fawny bit @boredandtired I can see why that might be annoying to see, but from the other side of the picture (and I know this will sound weird to some, my husband thinks it’s crackers) a lot of the people who are commenting on one another’s posts have built genuine connections with these people. There are some people online that I speak to more than I do my ‘real-life’ friends (again I know some people will think that’s weird). Certainly not all, but a lot of the comments you’re seeing probably do come from a genuine place.

But yeah, totally agree on the excessive tagging of brands. It can look a bit grabby.

This has all given me food for thought, so thank you.

@nonotthatone I think it's easy to tell the difference between comments on 'friends' and the fan stuff. I'm thinking of a few in particular who drive me nuts and are just trying to get noticed...

www.acast.com/thehighlowshow/clemmiehooperonmisogynyonsocialmedia-theworldcup

Clemmie Hooper, aka MoD on a podcast discussing her recent departure and return to IG. At about 47 minutes.

What is this new fangled IG tv?? And how the hell do you get out of it without closing the app?!

at c.57 mins - they discuss how women get more criticism for doing paid partnerships than men.... feels a contrived argument as I’ve read nothing but criticism about FOD monetising his kids.

FOD has received as much if not more. He just ignores it and arrogantly carries on.

Hang on, so Mrs M put her children in a kids club when they'd had a sick bug?!?

I believe so, Habby. Though she’s now claiming she has come down with a bug one of them ‘brought back’ from Greece. I for one would not use Neilson holidays now - extremely shady behaviour in the undisclosed advertising and not a great advert that they are happy to be represented by someone who has no ethical problem with spreading a bug around the hotel.

Wow, that's incredibly selfish. I'd be massively hacked off if I'd paid for a holiday and someone had knowingly been spreading sick bug germs. Yuck.

Curious to know what MoD has to say about her departure and return. Does she acknowledge her role in what happened? Can't imagine it being very balanced or objective - wasn't she just promoting Dolly Anderson's book and didn't Pandora Sykes weigh in to one of her posts to insult the whole of Mumsnet en masse? Sounds like a major back scratching exercise in the money-go-round that Instagram is.