Bloggers and Brands 3

[CookingUpAStormTonight]

New thread I hope.

Thanks for starting a new thread. May I temporarily hijack to draw light to those with a large following and influence setting up a worthy cause? Sali Hughes and Jo Jones have launched Beauty Banks that helps women in refuge meet basic needs.

I know we all have unused products lingering with no use. I know there are influencers reading along who probably have a lot of unwanted gifts and have a following they can help spread the word to. There's also an Amazon wishlist you can buy directly from. All info in the link above.

Great id a from Sali - I love reading her column.

Re the poster on the last thread about the parody account to highlight an issue MP was interested in - it is feasible I guess!

Thanks for the new thread.

Seamless move onto a new thread

Thanks for making the new thread, I read through the previous two threads over the last couple of days - very revealing!

I used to follow a lot of UK based fitness and beauty bloggers. I stopped reading them when my twin DC were born because I barely had enough time to read a text let alone sit down and read blogs!
After a few years away from them, I recently had a look through some of my old favs who are still going today and I was struck by how unbelievably DULL they are. It is like they all had glossy makeovers and then had their personalities surgically removed.

I used to like bloggers at the more "ordinary" end of the spectrum, ones who wrote about their real life experiences (and who had real life opinions about things!). That kind of blogging doesn't seem to exist any more, it has has been replaced by a cycle of "I was invited to this event, it was great!" and "I was sent this product by the lovely people at xyz and it is great!".

Without even going into the rampant non-disclosure, the whole blogging culture feels so overwhelmingly fake and irrelevant. They are just serving up the same BS that someone in a PR dept wants to push to us.

I love the Beauty Bank idea though, I saw that they have an Amazon wish list so will buy something from there.

Thanks for the new thread.

Found the last thread really interesting.
Particularly “real” peoples experiences of products promoted (without #gifted) by IGers. The initials SWYC bag for one which many found appalling quality and when raised IGers totally disinterested and negative comments blocked/ deleted. Weirdly since the burst of interest in the summer have only seen 2 Instagrammers still using them....they now all love the Hermosa London bags.....

Another one was the Hush Jagger jacket .... was their favourite pick -freebie- a few months ago but even though it’s reduced by like a £100 in the sale none of them have mentioned this. Strange you think they’d be shouting out this bargain of their much loved piece of clothing to all their valued followers.

MotherPukka has just done a post on flexible working on her IG and references Mumsnet if anyone's interested, as we were talking about it on the last thread.

Dull is a good word. I guess that they have to keep up a daily presence so, inevitably, the content will suffer. They are very homogenous, almost scripted, in their offerings - possibly to satisfy the requirements of their sponsors. I think I will never enjoy the lack of interaction on Insta - all a bit mindless.

Can I just add that Caroline Hirons has a long standing Give and Make Up cause she has championed for years.

Great work from Sali, Caroline had women and children living in terrible circumstances on her radar a long time ago.

Thanks for the new thread!

Re the comment about MP on the previous one, I just want to spend a second standing up for her....

These threads have mainly been about transparent (or not) business practices and how brands and influencers/bloggers are evolving in their marketing activity.

In that vein, I feel like some of the posts about MP are a bit personal, I.e. not liking her content. Obviously all valid opinions, but I think they're more subjective ones about who we each like as bloggers, rather than the main point about their interactions with brands.

In the original Instamums thread, Anna (MP) was one of the first and few to come on MN and face some criticism head-on and talk to us about or views. I have a lot of respect for her doing that, and I definitely think she's one of the better ones out there.

Can anyone link the initial threads pretty please?

PLacemarking so I can follow - I feel weirdly proud to have started a conversation on its 3rd thread 😀

I'm so pleased somebody said this about MP. This thread is to share thoughts on bloggers commercial activity not their personal life choices.

If we're going to be bitchy then don't get angry when bloggers mentioned slag us off. we're not really helping ourselves be taken seriously.

I agree that this thread should steer clear of irrelevant personal comments, and I think on the whole it has. With certain bloggers though the “brand” is something they have created themselves - and the Pukka brand is one of them (DLAM I would give an example of another) so I think discussion about that brand is valid. The commercial aspects are blurred with their personal lives so inevitably there will be some overlap. To be fair to MP (and I have repeatedly been supportive of her over these threads) she didn’t slag us off on her post (I think she’s too classy for that) but she did address the question raised about her motivations for the campaign. Because of the way she handled her response, her post comments were largely focused on the campaign and not f*ck the hater comments. Another example of how she gets it right where others don’t.

Also, Anna/MP I came up with a thought last night after reading some of the comments on your post and some of the comments on here too. I think you should be campaigning for a change to the law - the current flexible working request system isn’t working for everyone so I think the emphasis needs to be changed so that requests for flexible working must always be accepted unless proof is supplied by the employer that it can’t work. The proof must be based on facts and not hypotheticals. If there is any uncertainty/lack of fact based evidence it goes to a 6 month probationary period during to give the employee the chance to prove they can make it work (You can credit me when your new law gets passed and your flashmobs get into the history books 😜)

Great posts itsbeen

I actually really like MP, but I agree that questioning some elements of her 'brand' and campaign are valid. Overall though, I think she's doing a fantastic job and I like her as a person.

Agree she's also been very professional in how she handles criticism, unlike others I could mention.

Anyone seen the discussion of WIT's bra size on the latest icons insta post? Comments include such gems as "I fear you may have upset the breastfeeding militia" and "what happened to women supporting women?"

Yes Blair I saw that. Seemed crazy to me. I also suspect she’s got the size wrong but that aside, why should women support women regardless?? I just don’t get that as a concept although of course I agree women shouldn’t be catty to each other. And breastfeeding militia? I couldn’t even work that one out

Oh, the irony of women supporting women and the subject of bras

In that extent, wrt MP, I agree, as I continually have on these threads, that the person/personal criticism isn't all that conducive to the discussion but it shouldn't exempt someone from criticism as a whole where it concerns conduct and personal brand. Inevitably it overlaps as they themselves operate on the blurred boundary between business and the personal.

I don't know her brand of flexible working she's proposing, I'd really have to look into it, but as someone residing in a country where it's pretty much normal and I'm personally not of the opinion, it's all that great for women. The reality seems to be that women are constantly working and 'available' at all hours with no real personal boundaries and the same expectations aren't asked of men. So the automatic assumption that what she is proposing is great for women and therefore automatically needs to be lent my support by default of sex shouldn't exempt the proposal from scrutiny in that regard.

Encouraging to hear she takes on criticism as such and doesn't fall into the temper tantrums seen elsewhere. Though it does seem to confirm my previously voiced suspicions that the instamum persona is utilised to champion a cause with purpose, rather than the other way around, which I don't mind, it's smart and if it gets her cause on the map, more power to her.

I just unfollowed Ruth Crilly. I honestly do like her as a person and followed her fir a long time but I feel she's a fair example of someone who has gotten the balance wrong with sponsored content.

Now to give her her due she discloses it perfectly. However it is starting to feel like a magazine/advertising agency and I stopped finding it an inclusive or relatable page to follow.

A thought: maybe that's why some prefer not to disclose? They may lose followers when it becomes apparent how commercial their account is?

I imagine if DLAM disclosed everything it would be startling and may put people off. Or may not, who knows.

I think that's exactly why some of these bloggers and influencers don't disclose gifts elspeth

Thanks for new thread.

Placemarking and also wanted to chime in re MP; she has always engaged on MN in a really decent way.