Bloggers and brands 2.

[Merriboo]

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

I had a feeling she was moving in a more commercial direction when she changed her name to be like this >
B L O G G E R N A M E
in her bio 😂

That’s the one its. On the back of your post, I have just read her latest blog post. She has started working with Chewton Glen and an interiors company, as well as Cox and Cox. It definitely seems like she is becoming a “brand”.

I don’t really know why it bothers me. We all need to make money.

I agree with you about Kat. She now clearly labels gifts, ads etc, which is all I particularly cared about.

I see Motherofdaughters has an Instagram clip saying that she’s been alerted to more posts about her here which have been deleted. Did I miss anything, have there been deleted posts ????

No I don't think so. I think she is getting a bit better about being honest about accepting gifts/cars/holidays etc

I kind of a wonder where she stands with her code of conduct and the Perfect Prep formula maker she endorsed. Even though at the time it was known to not prep formula correctly or safely. bloody dodgy ground.

What makes me smile is that they obviously all (understandably) watch each other’s Stories and start to accidentally copy each other’s over the top ‘my mad life’, or quiet ‘intimate confessional’ Stories facial expressions and mannerisms

One of the interiors bloggers I follow did a blog post saying she was working with some ‘exciting’brands including Chewton Glen in January. Looks like she had a freebie cookery lesson but she went down the “Thank you for having me” route of disclosure and tagged it #daywithhubby as he had obviously tagged along for the day

Yeah that was totally a non disclosed collaboration, obviously Chewton Glen blocked off a quiet week in January to devote to social media promotion and invite a bunch of bloggers in. Such bad form from her, there's just absolutely no excuse. They're smart and savvy and they know what they're doing. It still just utterly baffles me why they're not upfront about things.

MOD is talking about the Insta mums thread that was revived the other day, not this one.

She was one of the worst for not saying whether it's a gift or ad but and also (sometimes almost embarrassingly) trying to blag free stuff. However, tbf to her she has changed the way she does things probably since that thread appeared even though she didn't acknowledge it at the time (again, I think that was probably the best course of action for her at the time). I'm still not keen on her for how she set all her followers onto another IGer and basically hounded them off Instagram but I unfollowed her because of that anyway.

I've read both this thread (and the original) with interest...and have unfollowed a lot of people as a result. I think it's the lack of disclosure that makes me feel uncomfortable. I do think that it's going to be harder to do this as when some do disclose, it makes it more obvious that others are not. I think I just find it hard now to judge if someone genuinely likes something (and is therefore recommending it) or if it's just because they've been gifted something.

I've been trying to work out why it bothers me so much as well. I think its a combination of things but mainly its the duplicitous nature of selling this way. The bloggers should just be proud of the fact that their IG following has opened up these work opportunities, their followers will be happy for them because they are loyal and already like them.

I follow plenty of brands (and often ones featured on bloggers pages) but the relationship with them is more upfront - I know where I stand with it. I really don't mind when bloggers say "X approached me to work with them on this project". You know that its a work/marketing activity and the pictures are related to that work. They show every other aspect of their life so why would it be any different to show their work in a work context rather than pretend its just day #dayoutwithhubby. Why not say, "Chewton Glen invited me to a cookery day so I could show you what its like there and how fantastic the cookery workshops are"? FINE. (would feel awful now if it actually was a Christmas present from hubby, but that's the point - its not clear).

Reading IG it's easy to sometimes think its just you that doesn't like it but when the ad posts are interspersed with regular posts you can see the likes go down by hundreds (thousands on the big accounts) so it does look pretty obvious that people in general are turned off by ads in the IG content.

I admire more the bloggers that do other things with the platform that IG has given them - the ones that go on to do interiors workshops, set up their own online shops, do styling workshops, even write books (as long as they wrote it themselves), rather than the ones that flog stuff on their page without telling you that's what they are doing. I also think it's the latter type that are being taken for a ride by the brands (the bigger brands anyway)

Kat’s New found openness regarding paid for assignments and gifts is to be welcomed.

She’s her work cut out for her with her monthly project with M&S. She’s this month’s offerings on her blog now and really, there’s nothing she can do to make the clothes less frumpy. I really wonder is she not cringing inside with having to wear and promote them.

Chewton Glen are really going for it with influencers. I've had vouchers for one night in a treehouse / a half price stay but at upwards of £600/ night (£1k for a treehouse), it's a tiny audience they're aiming at and it's probably more the instagramers with their rich husbands than their followers they're aiming at

I'm going to have to disagree with you there DillyDilly, I actually would wear quite a lot of stuff on that blog post as I have quite a "boring" job and I think that sort of M&S stuff is the stuff that I would buy rather than the sequin rainbow tops and green shiny sock boots. She's quite honest as well (I only skim read it) in how some of it fitted and whether she would wear it herself. My only gripe is the font size of the disclosure. It's a bit reluctant isn't it?

So true about the Trinny-a-likes. So much gurning, gesturing and staccato wisdom. There is only one Trinny #acceptnopaleimitation

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I don't follow any of the bloggers mentioned; I don't generally follow fashion/lifestyle ones. With the exception of AMR, whom I find funny but don't buy as a result of; CH whom I'm wary of but find strangely watchable,
but no longer buy as a result of but do sometimes google what she's said about things I'm considering. I follow The Anna Edit even though I'm old enough to be her mum - would never buy anything she recommends and don't even like her style so not sure what that's about, and Teinny but I rarely read her stuff/watch her vids.

I tend to follow more fitness people. A couple of "professionals" such as The Body Coach (have never done his plans but have done with You Tube free workouts) and a couple of others. One in the US whom I've met twice. Bought an mindset program for about £30 from her 4 years ago and it changed my life so was money worth spent. Also am Australian one, whose workout app I bought for £9.99; was also a member of her FB community for a couple of years and that also changed my life. I only follow around 60 people on IG. Most of them are regular fitness people like me whom I've stumbled upon and who inspire me because they've got super fit or have a fab attitude or whatever. Likewise I don't know most of my followers and like to think they've found me for the same reasons. I'm v careful about what I post on IG as my account is open. Never post about the kids or where I live for example.

I don't follow any of these perfect fitness model/clean eating types. I'm all about mindset development and ideas for workouts at home using weights/HIIT and running.

For me IG has been a force for good. Having said that I work for a start up in the health and fitness space (supplements/trying to break into lifestyle content) and our Social Media approach is leaving me a little uneasy; it's not hugely unethical but I definitely feel I'm seeing "behind the curtain".

Oh phone. Sorry for typos. That should read "Trinny" and it was an online/via email mindset program I bought. I always find it amusing that the two women who helped me fix my relationship with food and exercise live in different t continents. In North Carolina and Melbourne. Never would have found them without SM.

Out of interest pupsiecola is Kayla one of the fitness IGers you're talking about? I'm debating whether to buy the app to jumpstart getting fit again.

Thanks to the poster who linked the two Irish articles (am too lazy to go back and namecheck!), they made interesting reading.

I don't have an issue with IGers making a living from what they do. I think it's a dream for many to do a job that they love, working for themselves from home. Hats off to them if they've found a way to make it work. Just because it isn't a traditional job, it's work nonetheless if they've found a way to generate money. I do think that with time the wheat will separate from the chaff though. Those who approach it all in an intelligent, businesslike manner and respond to what the market is saying will have longevity. Those just looking to blag as much as they can get in return for a few ropey Instastories will eventually disappear. For those with professional websites or regularly making videos I expect there is a huge amount of tideous work going on behind the scenes, editing videos and so on. For full time bloggers / influencers, I can imagine it's hard treading the right line between making money and staying true to yourself. As the industry is self regulating at the moment it's obvious they'll look to make as much money as they can.

Hi Chloe. No it's the thehiitmum. Her app is PTinmyPocket. She's Scottish, but lives in Oz. She has some bricks and mortar studios too. I admire her work ethic and message; she's very down to earth and I like her approach.

I guess the fitness people I follow are only promoting themselves so it's much less muddy waters. Chloe Maddeley is another good one.

Not sure if anyone's come across this article being shared this week but it's really interesting - www.racked.com/2017/11/13/16630744/fashion-beauty-editor-free-products
Not exactly the same, granted, as it's a magazine showing how much they get sent in terms of samples & not a blogger, but it gives you an idea of just how much might be 'gifted'. I'd love to see a blogger do a similar breakdown of how much is sent & how much is featured!

Thanks for that link shinygoldstars, there are a couple of really interesting articles about IG on that site and reading their Swag Project link, I found it interesting that they have been grappling with ethics policies and disclosures as gifting practices of brands and PR companies have massively increased. All their feature pages say upfront about their affiliate links and the fact that some products are sent to them for free and links to their ethics policy. They look a few steps ahead of the bloggers on IG at the moment, but I think everyone will have to catch up eventually.

I've read a few articles of interest on racked now, in large part due to the issues raised in your post above ithasbeen.

Racked is good on the subject, their articles on Glossier are quite interesting, especially this one that demonstrates how 'normal' it is for brands to exploit small and inexperienced bloggers:

Inside Glossier’s Unmarketing

Especially of interest since they've recently moved into the UK market with 'representatives', their marketing strategy is interesting but also has a sniff of MLM about it. I've already seen the impact on the S&B boards with people gleefully pushing their personal referral codes to earn them credit towards their next purchase (though MNHQ can't seem to make their mind up whether it's spam or not whenever I've reported). It's a continually incentivised cycle and whilst I'm under the impression that some of their products are actually good, I'm finding this bottom-up influence 'friend-to-friend' strategy a rather disturbing development.

Interesting thread. I followed AMR until she began using her children to flog stuff.

I was really pleased to read that a 16 to boy successfully sued his mum to stop her posting images of him on FB or incur a 10,000 euro fine. All old images were removed.

Bloggers using children is a big no for me. I expect a lot of these children will grow up angry and sue. My sons would be horrified if I put their lives online to make money or for any reason. It's so disrespectful.

Omnis wow, that's interesting about the 16yr old.

I admit the photos of these bloggers kids really make me uneasy. It's like they're using them as some sort of accessory (even though I know how much they'd strenuously deny this )

And I always have a sneaking admiration for the celebs who manages to keep their kids out of the spotlight until they're old enough to decide for themselves, even if I don't particularly like the celebrity. If they can manage it, I'm sure some of these igers/bloggers could.

Courtney, Yes, exactly. The operative word being 'using'

Imagine how many times the son would have asked his mum to stop before going to seek legal advice. At 16!

AMR stands out to me because her husband refuses to have a picture of himself online, ever. This only adds to the weirdness of her over exposing her children.

Teenagers have enough to deal with already without everyone accessing their life history online. I do think bloggers who do this are on for a shock down the Iine.