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

Yes, I am an Esther Coren fan too, though less so her husband. She is a genuinely funny, clever writer and is another one who actually promotes conversation, not just fangirl adulation.

Bit off topic but did anyone see the weird story about Giles Coren’s alt account on Twitter last year?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.indy100.com/article/giles-coren-twitter-alternative-account-pavel-pilnik-jonathan-nunn-wife-antisemitism-8703366%3famp

Yes, I saw that and didn't really know what to make of it. Funny how some people just shrug off these kind of things.

..... also incredulous that some people are touting their children as advertising A boards in pursuit of revenue even as questions are being asked about online child safety. No way I would offer up my twins for a quick buck.....

I guess the really successful bloggers will just ignore/sell the products they don’t like, whereas the less established ones will promote them anyway. I mean, if someone sent me a freebie, I’d probably learn to love it.

This is how cynical i am. Yesterday Erica davies put up a long post about how hard insta can be, how life isn't perfect etc. It was accompanied by a picture of her looking ... Well, pretty perfect in a pretty perfect room. With a lovely new gifted mirror! She got hundreds of supportive message in return. The thing is it just feels so contrived. I really like ED and sure, all jobs have stresses and strains. I get that. But posts like that just seem to me now like another way to boost engagement and maintain relatability and followers are being played. Is that really cynical? You can tell me!

Actually thinking about it more ED quite often puts up these messages. And the frugality does too, about staying authentic etc. Both of whom i do really like. But it just seems so odd to be complaining in this way about the thing that presumably pays so well. I mean really, and as i keep saying, if the insta pressure is too great there are other jobs!? In some ways it just really does feel cynical of them with respect to followers as i'm fairly sure these sort of posts generate the highest response which i guess does help with engagement stats?

Well one point in the linked article was how one of the new tactics was a humble "I'm just like you" caption which tries to neutralise the blatant commercial aspect.

"I've had SUCH a crap day! Isn't being a mum hard? Little Hero is teething and I'm SO tired. Haggard.Com! Anyone else? Thank goodness for my new super comfy sweatshirt from my good friends at #scampanddude. Yay for small businesses! #womensupportingwomen"

BTW please please please do yourself a favour and follow the parody account @themodernmomvlog. An Irish girl called Sarah Burke. She's pretending to be an Instamum. All the clichés are there. Omg I was crying.

A much smaller influencer I follow (because she's local) posted in the last stages of pregnancy about "being lucky enough to have been sent" a package which included nipple creams, a breastfeeding pillow and a pump from Lansinoh. The post was accompanied by lots of pro-breastfeeding hashtags within which was tucked #ad. A photo on the day of baby's birth followed a couple of weeks later? Yep, you guessed it, baby's first feed was from one of those sterilised readymade formula bottles. Feeding is a personal choice, of course, but advertising a product the influencer has no intention of using couldn't be less authentic.

Pommes - if there was any suggestion that she was advertising the formula then Baby Milk Action would be interested in that. It’s explicitly against the law to advertise infant milk.

Oh ooglyboo - I am on the cynical step with you. These posts always seem very calculated to me and clearly an attempt to distract from the commercialism by attempting to be relatable. ED and Frugality both use this theme repeatedly - I think it is some kind of pre-emptive, defensive strategy about how much they are gifted etc.

And then they get eleventybillion messages saying how amazing and authentic they are. I DO like ED's content. (Sorry ED if you are reading this, it is intended as lighthearted). Maybe i am just jealous that i can't write to my clients every so often to say i am feeling a bit wobbly about it all (i often am) and have them write back saying i'm totally amazing. Or ... Maybe ... Can i?

Go on, give it a try - and please report back!
I also like ED, when she does what she does well, but am hugely turned off by InstaAngst which seems to be a requirement of the job these days.

InstaAngst 😁

@Ooglyboo@ and @ComebackPeter@ I don't think you're being cynical, you're probably correct. It could be part of a marketing strategy, one of the tactics to engage with readers. If it's genuine, then fair enough, but it does make you wonder if it is a deliberate strategy to get readers/viewers onside and draw them in before the next ad!

So ... so, it turns out that ED's homeware collection is launching this Friday. Is it a coincidence that she posted a sad insta-angst post just beforehand and got masses of engagement? Maybe it is. Maybe she is genuinely feeling angsty because she's got a big week and I am reading too much into this. Genuinely I am not writing this to be down on ED or anyone else really. I just find it fascinating to try to understand what's going on behind the scenes - essentially I am happy to play along up to a point but I like knowing when and how I am being played. It's funny because I think we have a fairly good idea of the tactics and psychology behind a lot of established advertising techniques. This is though quite new. That's why I found that Times piece so interesting as it did shed some light.

I like ED but have also noticed she does this a lot and I wonder why? Work is often hard going for most people but we just all get on with it. I suppose my job doesn't entail a social media profile and a nasty comment/DM must be hurtful but that is the world in which they operate. And it has enabled them to carve out a very lucrative and flexible freelancing type job with many more perks than most jobs. Trips abroad for photoshoots, nights away, dinners, discounted holidays and endless gifts etc. It feels a little odd for it to be dramatically stated that Instagram is a space where you can share what YOU love. I think most people know that because that is the point of Instagram. It feels a bit hypocritical and quite patronising being lectured to by people with carefully curated feeds. So yes it feels like they're trying to take a swipe at anyone who thinks differently and generate a ton of sympathy. Others do this in different ways like using their children. It just feels wrong.

Yes. Is it the same as me having a moan with my colleagues about aspects of my job even though essentially I quite like it and wouldn't want to do anything else? Maybe. Not sure though. Interestingly one who never does insta-angst (or not that I've seen) is DMBL40. She does occasionally post about the challenges her son faces but even I am not cynical enough to think she does that to boost engagement. I suppose she does the 'life's a bit chaotic/i'm a crap mum' thing but she manages to build that in to her feed in what feels like quite a natural way. She doesn't on the other hand complain about her life being on show and needing time off from insta presumably because she has accepted that is the downside of an otherwise quite sweet deal. Hmmm. Interesting.

The Times article highlighted the need to be seen as relatable and authentic and I think that this InstaAngst (have I coined a new word?!) is a fairly conscious attempt to be seen as "one of us", a mere mortal, in the hopes we won't notice their businesses expanding. The one thing they make clear is that it is their space, it is not a place to hold a conversation, to have a (constructive) disagreement - fangirl only. Such a shame and, ultimately, I think it will do them no favours as followers become more and more savvy to their techniques.

Interesting points. I guess if they just go offline they get lots of messages asking where they are / what's up.

I follow a local blogger and the whole thing - well instastories at least - seems to cause her so much angst. She's lovely but is caught in the is it a hobby / is it a hobby with benefits and freebies / is it a job dilemma.

On a side note I see all the biggies are getting to "perform" at Camp Bestival.

On a side note I see all the biggies are getting to "perform" at Camp Bestival

One to avoid, then.

Indeed!

But... there's obviously a market there or why would the organisers bother inviting them?

Off topic but why don't billie and Sam have to put #ad when showing clothes from their shop and baby clothes from their line

MintyT - I have wondered about that too. And I also wonder why someone who has been gifted a haircut doesn't have to say so on her squares, and only discloses it on the conveniently short - lived stories. It all contributes to the deception that they are continuing to practice.