Bloggers and Brands 3

[CookingUpAStormTonight]

New thread I hope.

The only reason MOD is getting flak for the number of ads is because she is being clear in terms of which ones are ads

Yes, this! Kudos to MOD for taking on board what's been said on here and I hope a lot of other Instagrammers follow suit (I doubt it though from some of the spiky replies from them on the cereal post).

I don't really think anyone truly begrudges the ads but they need to be interspersed with posts that aren't trying to flog something and the content ideally should outnumber the ads rather than the other way round.

What did Anna say?

I just can't cope with the fact that no one is allowed to question these people without the rest of them doing posts moaning about it.
But fairplay if you can get a toddler to eat museli then you deserve paying.

She was complaining on Twitter as well that some new ASA guidelines don’t make any sense (ie she doesn’t agree with them). I’d quite like to read them actually if anyone can find a link

OK fair enough, that blog post is

Thank you. I’d forgotten how fab Anna’s interpersonal skills were - thank goodness she was there to tell people how stupid they were - crisis averted!

Seriously though MOD handled dorsetgate really well imo she acknowledged that people have different opinions. I have to be honest she’s gone up in my opinion.

Seriously though MOD handled dorsetgate really well imo she acknowledged that people have different opinions. I have to be honest she’s gone up in my opinion.

Same. I'm not her biggest fan but I thought the post after Cerealgate was a very measured and fair response. Good on her.

Anna on the other hand...

Anna believe her own hype which is part of the problem. I noticed Beth Goodram went to her recent conference/event.

** unlikeable bloody autocorrect.

Cooking my absolute favourite is Terrible Tumbles. She's gorgeous and has a wry, self-deprecating sense of humour I love.

I don't think Anna Hart is unlikeable at all, personally.
I think she's pretty refreshing when you consider most of that 'world' is people like Tanya Burr and Zoella, grown women who act like 13 year olds to make money.

Anna is generally very relateable to me as a 30 year old woman. She's articulate and a lot more interesting than most. Yes she may be slightly patronising every now and then but I don't know anyone who isn't at times, myself included.

@rory, if she could get her point of view across like you’ve just done, I’d probably end up agreeing with you.

Thank you for your comments about #cerealgate (that actully makes me laugh) I can’t belive how it erupted but hoping now more bloggers will be better at transparency and if you’re going to treat your platform as a business and monitise from it you need to clearer with your audience. I have had my eyes opened at the shady lack on transparency that goes on and i want to be really clear with my audience when things have been gifted or when I’ve been paid to promote a brand. I do think the paid partnership tag is a great way of doing things as it’s much clearer than #ad #spon.
Unfortunately in this instance both Disney and Dorset were already agreed and both posting dates were only 2 days apart. This was out my control and I can understand why it was a bit over an overload for my followers.
On a side note personal comments about other bloggers personality is really unkind, as Anna posted on her stories critique someone’s work not who they are as a human. I think this is when these threads get out of hand and can potentially cause a lot of damage and hurt to individuals.

Hi Clemmie, I think you’ve summed it up nicely when you state your Insta is a business now and you’re making money from it and why not?

Good for you and everyone else doing it, I’d be capitalising on it too given the opportunity.

As long as you’re always as upfront as you are now no one can say otherwise, they can unfollow if it’s not their cup of tea.

I appreciate your comments Clemmie, but think about it from the flip side. When many of your IG fellow bloggers then story about the post and start to tell your commenters and followers that you're being picked on and we are being A holes, and then told be told that "we" are being naive, it's slaps in the face of high school mean girls, and you've got to expect that a forum space like this may have people who will respond to that.
Perhaps we need to have less of a girl gang mentality? There should be a better way to deal with it I think that resulting to insults from both sides.

Thanks for coming on again, Clemmie, I think your input has been great. It's no coincidence that you and Kat, who have both come on here to get your point across are both leading the way in terms of being more transparent and open with your followers and I admire you for both of those things.

IG isn't a forum for discussion, that I have learned. I haven't watched Anna's stories but my comments about her on here were intended as a critique of her work rather than her as a person (I don't know her, so I can't comment on how nice she is). Her messaging is getting lost in the way she expresses herself. It's hard to listen objectively to what she has to say when you are being told you are naive (or a "breastfeeing boudicca" as she referred to mumsnet users in the past). Asking questions about how the world of digital marketing works or expressing an opinion as a consumer isn't naive, and being belittled about how you feel about issues you care enough to comment about isn't the way to get your alternate point of view across and be taken seriously.

I'm actually not sure what Anna's 'product' on IG is. I think her business is social media consulting?

Unlike say Me&Orla, Anna doesn't dispense her social media wisdom on IG as far as I can recall. (I did as I was told, and unfollowed as I found her feed/stories fairly boring and a bit self indulgent.)

Thanks for contributing to this thread MOD. Yourself and DMBL40 are to be applauded for transparency now. I And your cereal ad. was at an opportune time really - don’t most of us come back from holidays determined to spend more quality time as a family, have a healthier lifestyle, etc.

Not sure why other bloggers refuse to do the same. It baffles me really - if you’ve been gifted something why not just be upfront, surely it benefits both the blogger and the brand?

What I struggle to understand is why a lot of you seem to get so personal about certain bloggers?! Surely if you don’t like them or their content, just unfollow. Life is far too short to waste it calling people you don’t even know.

Surely if you don’t like them or their content, just unfollow.

Yawn 🙄 I think this particular question may have been answered at some point on the thread.

In a similar vein, why bother reading or commenting on this thread if you don't like what's being discussed?

I completely understand the value of the discussion around people declaring if they’ve been gifted something or paid for something. The whole social media and indfluencer piece is still relatively new and the ASA are continually developing the guidelines for it. I just think it’s wrong to bring peoples personality in to it, and the name calling isn’t right, and has nothing to do with the valid points that originally started this debate.