Can we chat about fashion Instagrammers/influencers..

[Cherrypie32]

..because I don’t have anyone in real life to carp about it to. So, I follow a few, am addicted to the stories/feeds of some but don’t always know why. The ‘high end’ ones, The Frugality, Dress Like A Mum, Emma Hill etc pop up but quite designer and high end for me. I like the ramblings of Does My Bum but I’m nothing like her body shape so don’t wear her clothes. There are a few more ‘high street’ ones I follow, Steal My Style, What Kathy Did, Forty not Frumpy and more but they tend to be repetitive. Is this because they are so heavily sponsored to flog something? At the moment they are all banging on bout All Saints leather bikers and maxi skirts. And they all copy each other so there’s not much new to look at. There are a few I follow with nowhere near the amount of followers that seem more creative and have different body shapes so I presume that they have more liberty to do this as aren’t under afflilate deals.
I don’t need advice to ‘unfollow’, I enjoy looking at it all, just interested in how it all works really.

ewwww, these shoes are all hideous

I’m really not that keen on any of them, but I’m sure there’s lots of constraints on making affordable designs for the mass market. I’m sure that’s what the “real” designers who work with e.g. Debenhams always say that is one of the challenges they relish...

Glad it wasn't just me who thought DLAM M&S shoes were hideous everyone else was posting on how much they loved them on Instagram

So 40plus did a story earlier mentioning the whole #ad and transparency thing and said she doesn’t get paid for promoting say H&M, TopShop etc that she’s always talking about (and she’s obvs not lying) but surely she doesn’t spend hours storying and posting for love? I thought they got paid for the swipe up stuff. Also ‘gift’ seems a grey area. Surely it’s an ad really?

The swipe up is an affiliate link so they get paid from that. It should be marked #AF.

Are these new, updated regulations or are they just back in the news because of the stories in the news this week? It is interesting that these salespeople always tackle these contentious issues on their stories - none of them ever want to commit in permanent form. I remember the flurry of defensive stories last year as they all rushed off on their cruise ships and freebie holidays. Just own it girls - you're flogging this crap, do it with pride!

SMS40 has posted this morning about the new ad rules... I think she's fairly honest about all the gifts she receives but disingenuous to say that gifts are not necessarily an advert (cause she wears the item "all the time"). Well, if you're talking about the great freebie you've received then surely that is an advert?

But to be sure, Instagrammers get paid if you swipe those swipey links to retailers on their stories, don't they?

I don’t get it! Probably they don’t really either and at the end of the day it’s only some clothes we have the choice of buying or not buying. I watched the Fyre Festival doc at the weekend, that puts into perspective the power of true ‘influencers’

Didn’t know about the shoe collab but just looked at the pictures. The only ones I would wear are the ED ones as they look like a Marni rip off & I like that style however I don’t shop in M&S (apart from food & underwear) so not aimed at me. It will be interesting to see how it works though.

I saw about the piece about influencers on the BBC yesterday & having to be clearly. A young girl mentioned it on Question Time yesterday when discussing mental health. Tbh I think the younger generation are pretty savvy that it’s just a new form of advertising.

I like Kats ones and the brown lobster flat sandals. They'll sell. Though also thoroughly confused about the lobster. Danielle Varniers are ruined by PVC. Nobody's feet benefit from the "vac packed raw chicken" look. Shame, as they would sell like hotcakes if it was just a simple strap across the foot.

I saw 40plus this morning and she seemed to be saying you have to put #ad for everything now? For gifts, for affiliate links etc? So #ad has to replace #gift and #aff?

Let's see how long someone makes it as tiny as possible and camoflague it in white font! Instead of Where's Wally it'll be Where's #ad!

They are running businesses. As someone who also runs a business - unfortunately one that involves working in the cold and on my feet as opposed to in front of my bedroom mirror unfortunately - Good luck to them I say! I like to see folks giving things a go and taking opportunities that present themselves. This might be their one bit of independence and me time so as long as everyone is abiding by whatever these #ad rules are doesn't bother me.

I agree @insecure123 they are running businesses and good luck to them. But, they have to be honest about the fact that they are running a business, abide by the regulations and declare the facts. (I also have a very low opinion of the ones who use their children so shamelessly to build their sales pitch.)

Another of the influencers was ranting about the problem with haven’t to say gifts are adverts when it’s just simply a gift and she uses it because she likes it...so it’s not an ad!
Oh except the company sent it to you to advertise, therefore it’s an ad.... - really not tricky at all.
There are 100’s of fawning posts underneath saying how unfair it is that she has to mark it #ad when she is kindly telling folks how fan this product is, all out of outer kindness to the followers!!!!!

Having not haven’t!

If you swipe up on the AF link and buy from the website they make commission, I just go on my private browser and buy it f I really like something (which is not very often)
The only thing that bugs me is when they’ve been given something and marked it as gifted then a few months down the line they want to sell it via their instagram page - that to me is wrong.

That's so disengenuous. Who is it, finks?

For example 40plus got a very nice sweatshirt today in the post from a company. That's gonna generate loads of sales for the company - it is admittedly a nice item. I'd buy it myself if I could be arsed. She's thrilled with it and will wear it lots and every time she does there'll be more sales.

So it absolutely should be an #ad, of course it should!

How thick do you have to be to not understand that? Or how obstinate do you have to be to deny that?

I think they seem to be really confused about their role in it all, most of them probably do only accept things they love and would wear etc but they need to think about what's in it for the company sending it to them. I feel a bit sorry for them if they can't understand that they are a cog in the process, and are blinded to that 'because I love it'

I can't get my head round how some of them don't seem to be able to grasp that sharing and talking about a free gift they've been sent is still an ad. They seem to have their mind made up that it can't possibly be an ad because they aren't being paid [in cash] to promote it. But they are promoting it....so it's an ad! Plus, once they've added in their affiliate link, they most likely will receive cash from talking about.

@ElspethFlashman It's a London based one, who lives in social housing but spends the summers in France. ( Don't want to name them because it directs traffic to them!)

Poor dear was ever so baffled, it was in her stories though so the evidence will now be gone!!!

Please name her, I can never work that one out whenever the social housing is mentioned!

The issue with using the loophole ‘gift’ instead of ‘ad’ is obviously so it looks like the influencer will only enthuse about items they love which isn’t necessarily the case. I know one small influencer who receives a lot of food products and frequently uses her children to photograph eating the food products while captioning the photographs with phrases like ‘they want to eat it every day’. ‘They say it tastes like strawberries’ m.... Her children are very fussy esters. They don’t eat the products AT ALL. I’m certain the same applies to fashion ‘gifts’. If they receive a few ‘gifts’ of course they will put on some they don’t like at all just to keep the gifts coming. Obviously if a certain store stocks only clothes they detest they won’t necessarily blog about them but from what I have seen from the person I know, she will wear the clothes to make a story, take a few (stock) photos that she can use at a later time to fulfil the needs of the store and then try to eBay the items They can’t be believed and for me that defeats the purpose of them.

I'm very very happy about the "new" rules (which actually aren't new at all, it is a clarification of the existing laws which have been debated many times on the instagram threads on MN). It was odd that when the M&S shoe adverts dropped, which happened simultaneously, that there was such a diverse range of disclosure. Some correctly showed it as a paid partnership and an AD, some hid the hashtag at the end, some marked it as a hashtag collaboration . I have quite enjoyed seeing some of them losing their shit over the "new rules", very amusing.

The challenge is these are just UK laws. Instagram is a global platform for global brands and users. I'm really not sure how it can be enforced?

If you are a blogger running your business in the UK you have to abide by UK consumer law - most of the UK based bloggers will be UK registered companies. I don't think becoming an offshore non dom in an attempt to circumvent UK law would be a viable option for most of the mummy bloggers . Seems a bit extreme to avoid putting AD on your grid posts too...

I follow a blogger who now says she has a multi million business but there's no record of her in companies house (using her name or her business name)!!