Bloggers and brands 2.

[Merriboo]

continuing the discussion from the previous thread about transparency and disclosure (or lack of) by bloggers

Oh, and boys’ Stan Smiths go up to a UK size 5 if anyone’s looking!

Chloe Loves to Shop, agatha

Oh my god...bullshitcallerouter. What an amazing account. The blogger who emailed the hotel asking for a freebie stay has put a new insta story / vlog up ranting about being 'exposed'

Thanks for the tip on the Stan Smiths Judydreamsofhorses, I'm a size 5 and never knew I could buy boys' ones!

Thanks!

OMG the video Elle just put up ranting about being 'exposed' - she's only 22. She spends 16 minutes of edited screen time just... ranting. Apparently we can all live our best life and people don't understand that people and brands can work together, and that her request for a free holiday can from a place of love, not a place of darkness and humiliation.

It just kind of doesn't quite answer the question - if you don't pay for your hotel room, who will pay the chambermaid?

It's a classic case of what happens to a blogger when they are forced to temporarily step outside the echo chamber that is Instagram.

Is that the blogger who sent the email to the hotel?

Who is it?

AgathaMystery Delatron has answered above - it’s chloe loves to shop

Thanks Merri - I saw!

courtney The blogger is Elle Darby by the look of it. I've never heard of her, but had to have a quick peek at her account. I can't believe the audacity of the email. The response is just brilliant. Especially the p.s. at the end!

Ah, thanks chloe

I know it's the confidence of youth and all that but how self important do you have to be to tell someone that you worked with Universal Studios and it worked out amazing for them

It's a classic case of what happens to a blogger when they are forced to temporarily step outside the echo chamber that is Instagram

This ^^ a thousand times over. I honestly think that people are getting to wise to these bullshit promotions run by 'influencers' and it's only going to get worse for them when they have to clearly display that it's an ad.

she's only 22.

^ This will impact it too, surely. I'm technically a millennial but really struggle to identify as such. I still remember paying for things like music, magazines, books, lived through very uncertain global financial times, etc. whereas those younger than me that is a completely foreign concept. Their attitude to money and what should be free and available to them at all times can sometimes baffle me, they don't always seem to always understand what makes up 'cost'.

I can't see the @bullshitcallerouter account as it's marked private. Can someone screenshot some interesting bits?

Just request to follow, I’m sure she’ll approve you bo

I'm not on Instagram, don't really want to sign up and I doubt she'd approve a newly created account with no following anyhow. I shall live vicariously through here though really curious about hotels letters.

@botemp It's quite a hard account to screenshot as s/he uses multiple photos with lots of text per post, but I've grabbed a couple from the aforementioned 'exposure' debacle:

The vlog reaction from Elle Darby is on her you tube channel. You don't need to watch all 15+ minutes of it to get the general tone

Thing is though, this kind of approach must have worked for her before (and plenty of other bloggers too).

But imagine going through life thinking the world owes you a living. Entitlement at its finest.

Wow! Just had a quick look at her Instagram. It looks like a parody of a millennial ‘influencer’. Off point but I absolutely detest that term.

what have I just watched? Only made it 10 minutes in until I couldn't take it anymore. I despair, and apparently, we all go really bitter once we turn 30 #bitterbulliesareruiningmylife #wahwahwah

Thanks for the screenshots, can't see Courtney's though. Which hotel is it btw? Am very tempted to stay there if I ever find myself in Dublin

If you search for this person on Twitter it will take all of five seconds to find the Facebook page of the hotel she approached. It would seem her biggest mistake was not doing her research and discovering said hotel has a bigger social media following than her, made from a reputation for publicly posting their responses to negative reviews. Oops.

I don’t know. Like I wrote on the bullshitcallerouter, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Found it (and the original email), was confused as I thought it was a cafe (that even my Social Media averse self 'knows' from previous incidents) but I see now they have a hotel too.

The comments on FB are interesting, lots of people going on about how the correspondence is private between businesses and how dare they. Ehm, since when do businesses sign off with a smiley instead of those annoying disclaimers that all communications are confidential and not to be shared with third parties? (Although someone with actual legal knowledge may point out that may not be legally binding but fucking more professional than a smiley )

Oh god, just watched her video - or as much as I could stomach anyway 🙈. I don’t see a problem with influencers proactively contacting brands to talk about how they can “collaborate”. She talks (at length) about how she’s trying to run her own business, but her approach to the hotel was so unprofessional no wonder they sent her away with a flea in her ear. Like @megan says above, no research (just it looked like one of the best hotels, duh), no explanation of what she would offer the hotel in return and how it would benefit them, or how her profile would be a good fit for the hotel. Basically an immature, entitled, gimme gimme email that gives influencers a bad name and deserves the ridicule it has got. We all make mistakes when we start out in our careers, I feel a bit sorry for her that hers is so public but on the flip side I bet her hits to her vlog will go through the roof so I’m sure it will be a positive outcome for her in the end even if a tough way to learn a lesson.

An(other) article about the Irish blogging landscape and the recent fuss
www.independent.ie/style/fashion/style-talk/explainer-the-influencer-editing-debacle-why-is-everyone-is-still-talking-about-it-and-what-the-regulations-are-36493909.html

I do think some of them believe the hype they’ve created about themselves, yet forget there are many people who don’t actually know who / what a blogger / influencer is. Case in point tonight, watching a reality show with DH, and one of the people appearing was asked what he does for a job. “Blogger and stylist”. DH is five years younger and very firmly a citizen of Millennial World “What’s a bog ah??” followed by “They pay people for that shit? You should do it!” I’ve done some marketing papers and good on them for investing their time, skills etc, but unless it’s clearly marketing, tell us.

I’ve seen some of the White Moose’s marketing before including shaming customers, so Elle walked into that one. Also, before and after Valentines are busy anyway, and I’m sure I read that Dublin hotel prices are amongst the highest in Europe due to room shortages, so even hotels that are arseholes to their customers get repeat business.