Bloggers and brands 2.

[Merriboo]

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

I've never seen a Story, I think you have to be logged in or something. Don't think I've missed much, from the sound of it.

Nah to DMBL's stories.......so over-egged and so much flailing and gurning. SPEAK PROPERLY! I manage to work and get my dc to school without all this car time drama. Just not relevant to this working mother.

I just like the fact she is enthusiastic about things, very sarcastic, and doesn't try to come across as perfect - I can relate very much to scrambling around looking for school ties in the morning. I'd rather that than a monotone 5 minute monologue about the contents of their bag zzzzzzz.

..... aaargghh, didn't mean to sound harsh, but I am bored of "constructs" of what insta mothers are. Sooooo far removed from my reality.

At least they’re not all ‘storying’ their walking feet at the moment . I was waiting to see one of Sean the Sheep’s hooves clipping along the pavement next.

Sorry DMBL- I think my comments strayed into the personal last night and I have reported them.

On a slight tangent , but does anybody follow Deborah Brett? She's now on what looks like her fourth holiday this year having just flown in from her Ibiza house. How on earth does she afford this lifestyle. I googled her husband and he seems to be a very minor film director. And I don't think she works apart from for the wardrobe icons girls!!

No idea what she does, but her house was in Living Etc, I think, or a similar mag recently and it's beautiful.

I see that DLAM is in Morocco for half term. Travel company tagged in the picture but no mention of ad or paid partnership...but then of course she may well have paid for it all out of her own pocket.

Some serious beef going on today between KC and SJP of SATC fame.

DLAM isnt great as putting #ad or #gift on her insta posts (unless I am missing them)

DLAM doesn't ever post anything that isn't an ad/gift or sponsored post, as far as I can tell.

Just popped on to say my copy of "How to break up with your phone" arrived yesterday and I'm flying through it.

One quote appealed to me in the context of this thread, and some of the retorts that IG bloggers frequently throw out.

In the context of FB, a guy who founded a start up called 'Dopamine Lab' (which designs features which keeps users hooked to their apps) said "You don't pay for Facebook. Advertisers pay for Facebook. You get to use it for free because your eyeballs are what's being sold there."

to whoever linked to this book. I may start sending copies out

I think Deborah Brett must have serious family money behind her - I've followed her for ages from when she was doing her Mini's Fashion File blog and she's always lived a very privileged life. I really like her - that is just her life and she really owns it IMO and isn't afraid to do her own thing.

I like Deborah B too! It's a glimpse into a life I could never have! Her Ibiza house is stunning.

I read a prescient passage in Alex Shulman's Vogue Dairies last night which made me think of this thread.

She says that when a staff member wants to keep an item they've been gifted they have to donate a reasonable, not nominal, amount to charity in exchange. Gifted items that aren't claimed are sold and the proceeds given to charity.

Maybe some 'influencers', how I hate that term, could follow that example, it would get a lot of readers back inside IMO. I have been reading blogs, insta, etc for years, and now trust no one to be transparent, even the people I genuinely like.

In my line of work you're not allowed to keep any gifted item for yourself. Even a box of chocs has to be declared to HR.

'Influencers' has actually grown on me. It tells you exactly what they are.

I work in Pharma. We can keep low value gifts. So pens, post its, notebooks etc can be kept. A tiny box of chocolate would be OK but bigger items need to be raffled. Anything over I think £50 we have to refuse.

Ah that was me Ithas, was it a good read? I'm waiting on the ebook price to drop a bit (hate paying more for a kindle version than the physical book), don't expect it's the type of book I'd want a physical copy of. Did see an article (but not in English) with useful apps in that vein:

Offtime (android/iphone), -I have this and find it quite useful-, you can select which apps you can't access for a certain time period. I like it for the evening as too much phone use isn't always the best for my quality of sleep and leaving work emails until morning is just sensible.

Forest (android/iphone) this has a game incentive that allows you to grow a tree on your phone (takes 30mins), if you engage with your phone in that growing period you kill the tree

Cold Turkey (android/mac os/windows) allows you to block specific websites for a period of time, they also have a writer version that won't allow you to access anything else until you've finished writing a set word amount (obvs there's an overwriting command).

Moment (android/iphone) is a tracker that monitors your every move on the phone and helps limit it. Also has a 'family mode' that allows you to monitor children's use (on their phone).

Flo, have you been looking at the Urban Dictionary definition by any chance :

Influencer

A makeup, hairstyle, or fashion blogger who is instafamous only on Instagram or buys "followers" and "likes" and gets free products from companies who fall in their trap of fake fame.

Jeff: "So, what do you do for a living?"

Becky: "Im an influencer, I have 200k followers."

#influencer#instafamous#fake#instagram#likes#slay#squad

by Nat tuh lee May 19, 2017

No I haven't but nice to know I'm up to speed with urbanspeak.

I do like 'instafamous'.

I think it's quite rare for a new word - in this case 'influencer' - to actually clarify what's really going on. It's normally the other way round.

bo while you're here, can you just remind me what that magasine was called - the one that was talking about authenticity? I still haven't got round to ordering and I can't remember which thread it was on. Sorry to be lazy.

botemp I think it was you, thank you. It’s a lovely little hardback book and one I think I may get my highlighter out on so a physical copy has been worth it. I’m just past the “oh sh*t I have a problem. Oh that’s why I have a problem” bit and about to embark on the recovery plan 😫. It’s well worth it to understand the damage that social media and mobile devices are doing to our brains and how we process and retain information.

Vestoj, Flo.

vestoj.com/buy/

Have attached a preview of the editor's letter. No wide legged trousers though in this one, that's the Gentlewoman (which does contain ads and is a fair bit cheaper in the UK but it doesn't influence their editorial, or so they claim).

Yes, that's what sparked my interest in the book. It sets out to show how this type of interaction is different and processed differently by our brains and therefore impacts us differently and why the damage is probably more pervasive. I think there are be some neurological studies referenced as well IIRC, so it's not just based on sociological observation.

That's it! I remember now.

Ouff, principles or wide legged trousers? What a choice.... Thank you