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.

I've been reading with interest as I have a small interiors Instagram account that I started a few months ago (pics of my house renovation) and has surprisingly garnered quite a lot of followers, so much so that I've been contacted by a couple of brands. I guess it's very different now than when a lot of these bloggers started - not in the rules but in awareness. I haven't accepted anything as I'm doing it for fun and just like photography and interiors. But if I did it's quite simple - explain it's a collaboration with a company and it's free, and declare it as a gift for tax purposes. That may still be more cost effective then buying something yourself that you would have bought anyway. I don't object to instagram as an advertising platform as long as it's clear that's what's happening, but the model definitely benefits the brands not the influencers if accounted for properly!

I think the HMRC side will be more worrying to the big bloggers than the ad side if they havent been declaring them......

I'm back after an hour scrolling through IG and I am so deflated at just how many items, clothes, furniture, prints, candles, flowers, shoes, paint and even food were just freebies all along.

And now I'm thinking what of the items that were provided as gifts, were then featured in just one or two images and then disappeared? Are influencers making a tidy profit selling these gifts on through eBay or Vinted

@bananamonkey it’s insulting to nurses and teachers and all other people doing an actual days work to say taking a picture of yourself in clothes by a wall is hard work. Yes, some heavily staged shots may be more onerous but really... hard work?

She did visit Devol first though (one of the only vlogs I have seen, as also thinking of a new kitchen).

I wonder if the problem with Devol is that they are not prepared to offer huge discounts for coverage on Instagram. Or at least maybe only to a certain demographic. Interesting.

A friend of mine owns a small brand and as we were discussing this thread today she said they often get influencers DMing them saying they would like to buy one of their products. They used to say “why, thanks for thinking of us - please let us gift it to you”. After a while they realised they were being used so stopped and started saying “why, thanks for thinking of us - here’s the link to our website, hope you enjoy your purchase”. Guess how many then went ahead and bought.... zero! Not a single one used their own money to support a small brand. Grubby.

Who's the person with the kitchen?!

I’m actually confused as to why as a fellow user of IG who mainly posts “unpaid” posts (I have a small following and occasionally work with brands, all declared) I should feel any sympathy for influencers having to do unpaid work.

Sorry, that should really have said why should I have any sympathy for any other user of IG who has to post unpaid posts. Unpaid posts are the norm. Don’t like it, then maybe it is not the line of “work” for you

Oh the irony of the Finlay thought of the day.

So many of them are actually brainless.

@LaPampa Yes this! The tumbleweed on Insta since the (not really) new rules came in has been amazing! Is there nothing they can post that isn't gifted?! Obviously there is but they don't want to as it won't fit their carefully curated feed of their perfect gifted life.

@ Templehead I noticed today that an awful lot of my IG is now motivational quotes or photos of peonies.

Noticed that DMBL40 has posted outfits with no or little #gifts in. Always ahead of the curve in terms of listening to what her followers are saying. Some of her links in stories also gave the option of a swipe up with or without aff link. She’s a bright cookie that one and respect her for it.

@popcorninapot well done you. That’s what Insta used to be - would love to see it go back to that.

But she's (DMBL40) not marking her affiliate links as AD which she's supposed to.

@theharlotletter back to the old days then!
I hadn't come across Finlay Fox before until she got mentioned up thread and went to have a nose. The range of gifted stuff in just one day's stories was staggering! Weirdly the gifted wrapping paper annoyed me far more than the big box of clothes.

Ohh, could have followed someone like Finlay Fox - quite similar size, height and taste -....... but, my husband had to divulge everything, absolutely everything when he was self employed. Total pita but we understood why it had to be done. Have none of them, really none of them grasped the situation and the sentiments expressed so clearly in the Sky opinion piece.
Once again, for clarity......
"When they post, people watch, follow, like, share, copy, buy.

They are miracles of modern marketing.

They have smartly monetised their identities and promote products based on their personal connection to whatever is being sold."

Yes I see what you mean scotx.

I guess anything that's incentivized should be #ad? So it should be #ad(affiliate link)? I have to say though, there wasn't a single frame in her stories that wasn't clear as crystal. "Swipe up for non-affiliate link" "Swipe up for link to blog post which does include affiliate links". It's damn close to being exemplary, really. Just 3 extra characters, Kat!

I guess anything that's incentivized should be #ad?

Yes. I think the affiliate links are pretty clear cut. They're influencing people to purchase a product which they're recommending or endorsing and if we purchase it, they make a commission. If that's not advertising I don't know what is!

Ok. So now confused. According to One Roof Social (big influencers agency) gifts without contracted deliverables do not need to be declared to HMRC:

www.oneroofsocial.com/single-post/2018/07/16/Influencers-and-the-Tax-Man

This seems to be contradictory to the information provided by CMA in that “any form of reward, including money, gifts of services or products or the loan of a product, is ‘payment’ - whether you originally asked for it or got it sent out of the blue (e.g. freebies)”.

Imagine if the agencies were doling out dud advice. No excuses for the ad dodgers but really I do feel for them if they’ve been screwed over by bad advice from their agencies with regard to their tax position.

But isn't that old guidelines?

@uhohmummy Genuine question - what are the decent brands that DON’T use influencers in this way? I don’t see Zara being worn much on these influencers
Inditex - Zara’s owner - don’t do affiliate or influencer marketing. They tried it for Bershka and Pull&Bear briefly but quickly knocked it on its head. I’ve literally just submitted a dissertation on Inditex... which has made very depressed as I can’t fit their clothing.

@ornamentaldiamond thanks for that, just added ThisE17Life to my instafeed

Anything that involves a form of compensation- freebies, vouchers, exchange in kind, commissions or outright payment - must include #ad prominently... and not buried in a long list of other hashtags or in tiny text inside the image.

I think that blog post from One Roof Social is out of date now, given that it's now quite clear that gifted products are considered "payment in kind" if mentioned / tagged / promoted.

The original guidance was published in Sep 2018 and the quick guide which is the one which has set the cat amongst the pigeons is Jan 2019 (but just reiterated the previous and spells it out more clearly for those that need it in B&W).
The One Roof Social article is dated July 2018 so does come before the original CMA guidance but significantly after the ICPEN guidelines of June 2016. Depends which body HMRC decides to use when applying tax - it’s not clear

Have never heard of Finlay Fox before. Had a quick watch of her stories - for someone who has less than 20k followers the amount of free stuff - and the type of free stuff - she receives is jaw dropping. Free wrapping paper?!

One Roof Social is run by fashion blogger Anna Hart (who did the insta story on a black background that was copied by Finlay Fox and posted upthread).