AIBU to think influencers should stop asking small businesses for freebies

[PigglyWiggle]

Binky Felstead of Made In Chelsea (hugely privileged, from generational wealth) has been exposed for asking a small independent bakery to create her sons third birthday cake in exchange for “exposure” by tagging the bakery on Instagram. These has also now prompted another woman to come forward who says Binky did the same to her with her 9 layer wedding cake and NEVER did the tagging/exposure. I feel like I really want this to start a bit of a movement of people calling this bollocks out and end this tiresome period of the “influencer” generation.

YABU - Leave her alone
YANBU - Expose them all, they are grabby desperados who need to get a job

I get that if something doesn’t work for a business, they simply wouldn’t do it. Personally, I wouldn’t buy something just because an influencer promotes it. That said, I can see why it works for some businesses, if people weren’t interested in following influencers, they wouldn’t have the exposure

A lot of people follow influencers because the feel what they see on screenlike they’re getting a glimpse into someone’s actual life. I suppose it’s easy for audiences not to always see how it all connects commercially as the public who fall for it are not that intellgient in the first place

Good luck to them if it works, it works. As for me, I just don’t get the appeal of following them, so I don’t really feel the need to criticise it either way.

This is what my BIL does. Using the code gets the new customer a set % off (which he generally does for new customers anyway so doesn’t actually cost him anything) and then refunds after a certain number of orders.

Its worked really well for him as smaller influencers and celebs don’t bother him as they don’t like that deal and the few celebs he has done it with have been big enough names that the impact of them tagging him and doing that kind of deal was worth £££££

Influencers are so blatant. I saw Saff Michaelis - a mummy influencer / Instagrammer - simply asking for clothing for an event for three generations of her family in her Insta stories. Imagine being so lazy you don’t even approach individual brands - just put a general shout out for “free stuff” - anything will do!!

i have around 20k followers and do a lot of ‘outreach’ i.e send 30 emails a day to various brands suggesting 1 x 45 second video in exchange for £X to be posted by X date.

Any business that works in influencer marketing understands how this works and also goes out looking for creators themselves too.

The ones who are chancers and freeloaders are yep, the ones who try it with small business with tiny margins and the influencers who renege on their agreement.

I will say though, that it’s usually brands who mess creators around with payments.

I certainly don't.. I always say nothing they could do would ' influence ' me in the slightest
I'm always aware the reason that they are pushing stuff is because they got it for nothing in the first place

30 emails a day? Gosh that sounds tedious.

It’s all bollocks though as you can’t trust reviews anymore and people are getting wiser to it. It probably does still work for clothing or things that you can see and copy it’s just so false for products or services.

How much £ for 1 x 45 second video?

You think a small business can afford a court case?

Its even crazier when you know how much money these influencers make from Instagram.

In a previous job, they worked with one who had under 100k followers, they were paying her thousands a month over a year contract and gave her thousands of pounds worth of products. When she sent us her monthly engagement figures for her reels/stories the stats were awful. I doubt they even made their 'investment' back. And she was working with lots of other brands, she must have been raking it in!

That sounds like damage limitation. She’s the boss, she instructs her “team”.

It’s so frustrating when they are the people who can genuinely afford to buy these things themselves whilst us “ordinary people” have to pay our own way

That's not really the point though. The free item is basically a sample sent to a company as the influencer is self-employed. It's the same thing as back in the day when magazine beauty editors got sent mascaras and foundations.

I think it's a grubby industry but they aren't just individuals asking for a freebie. They want the item and they want payment for the social media post. The company wants the money from the extra sales/visibility and it only costs them the cost price of the item (not retail price).

I've just had the Coachella gifting suites come up on my Instagram. I'm genuinely gobsmacked at the amount of stuff they get given from different brands! It's insane. And there are so many different suites!

It's devaluing the brands for me though. I like urban decay make-up but I have to save up as it's out of my price range, and they're giving away u tons of full sized products. Last year Dyson was giving away hoovers! At a music festival, it's crazy to me 😂

There’s a guy on IG who calls out this type of influencer.

He posts clips of influencers who give restaurants or cafes, (it often involves food) bad reviews, that, even in their posts, seem unfair.

If he lives near the business, this guy stops by and buys something, always giving a positive review.If he doesn’t live near, he asks his followers to give the business their patronage.

This awful Blinky, the beggar, woman is back in the news today after having asked for more stuff. Has she no shame?

I can understand asking for free stuff if you are in need of it and have no money but she is quite wealthy.

Is she still claiming its her pa and she knows nothing about it?

£300-450

She’s minted and can afford her own wedding cake and son’s birthday cake. Scrounging bitch . Hate influencers . They don’t influence me. Get a real fucking job

This is similar to when Catherine Tyldesley did the same.

Don't know where I got Billy from!

Billie is her sister so reasonable mistake lol

This is just what influencers do. People follow them and lap it all up which is why it continues.

Binky is continuously posting gifted things, the whole of her house has been gifted including a garden sauna. She gets endless haircuts for free, holidays everywhere for free. She even found out she had gum disease and posted asking for “recommendations” and ended up having gifted treatment for that too. She sells her children’s lives on Instagram. She married a very rich man and they’re loaded.