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.

Bloominglovely can they mark it as gift or ad? I thought it was just ad?

Small businesses will suffer because the followers were more likely to buy something that's not marked as gift? I suppose, it's the one thing that makes sense.

I wouldn't be a happy bunny if I were a follower and were treated like this.

She would send them an item for free & then the influencer would photograph them perhaps months later.

They can still do that, they just have to mark them as gift.

Oh ok, I think the ones she used to work with did use gift anyway.

I hope they have to mark it as an ad. The whole purpose of being given a ‘gift’ imon Ista is to advertise it.

But I cannot see why things will be any different for small businesses than they are now. They have always had to compete with bigger businesses like M&S. Unless they limit the amount of content and time the influencers can use, they can double their content if they want to. But they have to let their followers know their content is all advertising. Istagram influencers will be the equivalent of QVC (which many of them are already). Hopefully the bigger influencers will disappear and the smaller ones will revert to styling and changing rom try ons.

A good friend of mine also has a small brand she has built up partly from using Insta influencers. We were chatting about it and she’s worried as she thinks Influencers will exclusively support larger brands who pay or their ‘mates’ brands who they’ll support for free. She already said she finds it hard to break through the cliques so maybe this will just make it harder...

Small businesses will suffer because the followers were more likely to buy something that's not marked as gift? I suppose, it's the one thing that makes sense.

I wouldn't be a happy bunny if I were a follower and were treated like this.

I’m not so adverse to a declared gift from an independent as I would assume perhaps naively the blogger actually likes otherwise they wouldn’t want it. It’s the paid for stuff that I don’t like as half of it is off brand or not genuine & clearly motivated by the money.

Istagram influencers will be the equivalent of QVC (which many of them are already) I think your right & complete turn off.

Also the algorithm changes makes it much harder for small brands to get noticed & less known/smaller instas.

Last time I went on insta (2018) my feed had so many random adverts from big brands.

But Mary they are not restricted by time or content. The influencers are grabby. They will not refuse gifted items from independents. They will advertise everything and anything. That is the issue with them. They are disingenuous.

I'm more likely to buy something if I thought the influencer paid for it.

I'm more likely to buy something if I thought the influencer paid for it.

Well yes, that would be the no 1 recommendation.

What do people feel about declared affiliate links? I’m unsure, I instinctively don’t like them.

Are there any fashion and interior people out there that have good style and buy their own stuff (probably...)?. I genuinely enjoy following fashion and interior accounts and am now after the cull just really low on authentic and inspirational accounts to follow...

@Bloominglovely undoubtedly in the past but do you think the grabby attitude is now visible so to protect their revenue stream (by not turning off followers and sending them to unfollow) they will be a bit more selective about what they take?

I’m sure there are but I assume if they buy all of their own stuff they either work so have less time for content or have money from other sources.

And it’s much easier for the ones who have already made it to be “authentic” now but the demographic of those are so samey.

I think this is good news for the small brands, even though they may not think it is right now, because the increased transparency means increased prominence of the product on the feeds. Savvy brands may need to be more discerning about who they send gifts to - the conversion rate from sending a gift to a blogger with a smaller, but engaged following which fits your niche must be higher than a blogger with 120K followers who gets 300 likes a photo and who just accepts gift after gift as way of filling their daily grid posts with new content alongside their paid work with big brands.

If I was a blogger I would be asking the big brands not to give me gift cards as my monthly allowance but to pay me in cash instead, send me the clothes I select and then I will send them back when I am done with photographing them for my feed. This is how press samples always used to work, surely? Bloggers got greedy by expecting to keep everything they were sent. They may think differently now they realise they have to pay tax on all the freebies.

Some big retailers don’t even pay attention to conversation rates, the company I used to work for was told that there are 2 types of influencers, ones that feature a product which translates into sales & the others who don’t generate sales but put the brand in your mind, seemed a bit of a reach!

I know from my friend that some people she has gifted to has had barely any traction but others have been a huge success. She couldn’t work it if it’s fake followers, adoring fans or just that her product meshed well with that influencers style.

I don’t mind affiliate links tbh, if they are in a blog post and are used to illustrate something.
I feel like paying for their time/research as opposed to them profiting from being sent random bits and pieces.

@fancynancyclancy I like Wears My Money for clothing as she has a proper job and limited gifted items (don’t mind a smattering... just not 95%!). She also writes the only fashion blog I actually check regularly and does really good what to wear features. More like this would be great.

I will check her out, thanks Mary I’m in dire need of inspiration, hate all the 90s shit at the moment except trainers of course.

I feel like paying for their time/research You’re right that they should be compensated for their time & effort I think I’ve just seen so much lazy contact & random af links that it’s put me off.

I don't swipe affiliate links usually, particularly if they are 'oh looks at this selection of stuff I like from x shop' because it's just fishing for cash.

I NEVER swipe them when it's someone wearing something and they don't even say where it's from, just 'swipe up for link to the jumper' I really don't like that, it turns me off.

@PleaseDoNotBend but for the large brands cash is 100% of value whereas a £100 retails gift voucher probably only costs them £20 in cost price of product.

Many bloggers sell on unworn or barely worn gifts then pocket the cash. Only a few donate the proceeds to good causes

Also, I don't believe the "new" guidance actually insists on AD for gifts - I think this is Chinese whispers (unless anyone can point me to where this is stated). In substance, yes, if you feature a gift on your feed I believe it is an advert, but the ASA guidance only requires AD if the brand pays in cash or product AND there is some control (check out their twitter feed where this has been confirmed).

CMA only states that the business relationship must be transparent - they don't dictate what hashtags are used. This is what they say (and then they go on to say what is not acceptable, including burying your hashtag and using #sp or #collab)

"The law is not prescriptive about how you declare relationships with brands, especially as social media continues to change and evolve. However, if you have received or been promised any form of payment or other incentive, this should be clearly stated in a way which is: transparent, easy to understand, unambiguous, timely and prominent, apparent without the need for people to click for more information, no matter what type of device they’re using to view the post. This means that the disclosure should be made upfront."

I don't even think a lot of the influencers posting about this have read the guidance, they are just going on hearsay from other bloggers.

As someone said upthread, I think influencers are making their disclosures appear deliberately OTT and clunky. It reminds me of the EU bendy bananas saga.

Here's the guidance if you haven't read it >

www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-media-endorsements-guide-for-influencers/social-media-endorsements-being-transparent-with-your-followers