Instagrammers and Influencers

[scotx]

New thread to follow on from this one

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/3462129-Can-we-chat-about-fashion-Instagrammers-influencers?msgid=84590932

I didn’t realise until this evening that Mulberry gifts their bags. Insta is enlightening at the moment

Here's who I've seen not declare things this week -

The fashion bug blog
Hannah Strafford Taylor
Mum life styled
Nikki makeup

Scrolling through Lilypebbles feed. Does she ever engage with her followers or answer any comments at all? It seems so contemptuous. It is really just a one-way conversation.

Was Anna Hart also the owner of One Roof Social fame who wrote an article telling influencers they didn’t need to pay HMRC any tax on gifts?

Have to say I'm totally sick of how much stuff they all get given it's obscene! I've unfollowed loads of ppl recently because I'm so sick of having products rammed down my throat and most of which I couldn't afford, I find it depressing!

From the One Roof Social piece written in July 2018:

“If no prior agreement of content has been discussed (i.e.: an Influencer is sent an item without expecting it) it falls into #gifted (or wording to that effect) instead of #ad / #spon. This will not have to be declared as income because there is no obligation to produce or deliver content. So the gifts you receive in your PO Box aren’t going to come under scrutiny and you’re free to talk about them as you wish, tax-free.”

She doesn't do a lot of engaging, @DarkDarkNight. You'd think with 50 comments from 400k followers it would be relatively easy to respond to questions.

She put up on her stories that her bathroom was featured in Stella (Telegraph) Magazine and in teenie weenie writing she added that it was a "PR discount" from the brand, Ripples (whose prices always make me gasp when I see them featured in interiors magazines)

HMRC and Anna Hart don’t see eye to eye on gifts then! I’d be very, very cautious about following her advice.

I think it's pretty obvious from the Little Spree blog that very little lands in their PO Box and ends up on the feeds without a fair amount of discussion going on beforehand in the background. Didn't Lisa Dawson once say there is no thing as a gift, it is all collaboration with brands? Wise words.

Holidays don't just land in PO Boxes. Sofas don't. New bathrooms and kitchens, Mulberry handbags, monthly gifting allowances, dining room sets and rugs don't either.

I work for a company who had product featured by one of the big influencers/ it had been purchased so totally up to them-
But the uplift in sales was really clear, and now we’d LOVE to feature again- so I can see why they all get sent so much on off chance!!

That’s what I thought wouldyoulikeabagwiththat. I follow Sali Hughes and I’m used to her answering questions and thanking people. To just post and not engage at all is so rude. I didn’t even notice how many followers - a suspiciously low levels of engagement.

I watched a lesser known video of a you tuber cleaning her house the other day and she used an oxo spray mop. Hmm I thought I'll get one of those, her house looks clean and that
looks easy to use BUT am I being secretly "sold" this mop?!

Totallyscrumptious omg what a twat Mario Falcone is!

Tbh I didn't know who he was - still not sure but he looks like he should spend less time swearing at women on Insta and more time doing some cardio going by him in his tight black jeans.

I shall keep an eye out for him now. Nasty piece of work.

So rvk_loves current free hotel stay in association with a travel company (in exchange for a blog post) is a "gifted press stay"

Ha! Anna Hart coming up with her own version of the truth on her stories and a load of instamums saying ‘the expert has spoken’. They are laughable. Anna sitting there acting as if she is explaining something as important as neurosurgery!

Wow, hopeishere, that’s pretty bitchy. Not sure what that has to do with the issue of transparency and disclosure.

I saw PHL’s fancy ski holiday is a freebie too but only saw #ad on one very brief story.

The thread is about influencers not just disclosure.

For those influencers that are resisting tagging gifted content as AD...whilst I can see that there may be ambiguity in the guidelines...personally I dont think there is really but you could put a slant on it...it begs the question why are they so resistant?? Why do they not want to tag items which are gifted as an AD...so they can keep mis-leading their foĺlowers into thinking that these items were bought using their hard earned cash? IMO these are the ones I have the biggest issue with ...if you get given stuff and you post about it why not just own it and say that?

I have been thinking about this a lot recently. How do we live in a society where this is actually job?! If one of my girls ever says they want to be an influencer then they will be immediately signed up for free work experience in factories and farms.

Insta is a hugely 'female' space and this is the best we can come up with? Body positivity, pink sofas and fucking leopard print. Even mother pukka is feminist lite as her flexi working manifesto is flimsy and only works for a very small number of industries.

One of the reasons has to be that their very livelihood depends on it @RoseHarper.

So they can continue to feed us the lie that we are getting a peek into their ‘normal life’ reality. They rely on the ‘reality’ of their content to engage followers. Engaged followers equals brand endorsement (goods, services, cash) and book deals.

Posts marked AD get much lower engagement (which is why we see they begging to ‘check out the grid’ post on stories). If it’s all or largely marked AD correctly as per CMA guidelines, with low engagement they can’t sell themselves as efficiently to brands and pr companies.

Why don’t they just not share any gifts then? Why not just keep the gifts, enjoy them personally and not share on social media?

Or is it that sharing ‘gifts’ brings more free stuff, allows them to demonstrate that when they share a product sales increase? Or course it is. So it’s advertising

Does it effect engagement? I haven’t looked much at this, I’ve seen a few posts from followers saying I don’t care you go etc (bleurgh) but good if so.

Presumably the wow success type posts are from a lot of followers who want in on the act.