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 was lost in Instagram last night and I assume the rules don't apply to TOWIE type people.

Sam and Billie seem to have on stories on after another of gifts they've been sent with no ad or gift #

Just thank you.

And surely when advertising their own brands they should be ad too?

I'm still also mild rage about Tanya Burr casually asking what bikini brands people liked a few days ago. Just be blatant love and ask people to send you free shit.

Or go to a shop.

And something else I meant to say on the general subject.

An influencers last week did a big second hand (hers) clothes sale online. Proceeds for charity. All lovely.

But some of the items in there she had done a paid post one a few months before raving about the item. Now if you loved it so much as you said. And not just posted because you were paid. Why are you selling it 2 months on?

That just makes me call bull shit on so many 'omg I love this product, I only do partnerships with people I genuinely love'

Yeah. Right.

I find beauty blogging a bit baffling to be be honest. With trying out so much different product how can you possibly tell whether any cream is making a discernible difference to your skin over another one? The only thing that I can see that they can objectively comment on is how nice it smells, the packaging, cost and how it feels on your skin when you first put it on.

With beauty blogging I personally don’t think followers will be as turned off to know the products have been gifted/sent as press samples. It’s a fairly obvious part of producing related content.

However, furnishing your house and kitting out a whole new wardrobe if you are writing a blog on maternal mental health or period poverty or whatever - just not relevant to the content.

Don’t know how I feel about interiors influencers in this respect. I just know I feel revolted that certain influencers have done whole houses or rooms up for free or substantial discount and not been transparent about it. Can’t put my finger on why I’m so uncomfortable with it (aside from the obvious of being lied to).

@MaryPoppinjay - isn't that the definition of opportunism?

Wouldyoulike yes obviously influencers can chose to make that distinction clear if they want. But as a consumer, I would like it to be really clear if something is an advertorial. If everything an influencer posts is just #ad, I think that becomes less rather than more clear.

I stopped following the interiors bloggers for that reason, Mary.

I got really sucked into the whole thing, this ‘community’ which seemed oh so friendly and inspiring, and tbf I’m sure most of the women are lovely and yes they did indeed ‘help me’ to do up my house.

I discovered all these unique interiors brands, small companies that seemed to pop up in all the houses of these large ‘influencers’, and of course I assumed that if these talented ladies endorsed and were prepared to buy these products, then they must be OK! So of course I started buying them too, putting them on my feed, tagging the businesses, thinking I was supporting them, and yeah, wanting to get into this community I guess 😳. I have quite eclectic, alternative taste and I thought I’d found my tribe.

It then dawned on me that something odd was going on... they were all copying each other! There was no authenticity it seemed. The larger accounts were always going off for these special lunches that large companies such as La Redoute we’re organising, and coming back waxing lyrical about these ‘amazing’ products that were going to break the internet. Wow, I thought... I would never shop at La Redoute but if * thinks it’s cool then it must be right? So I bought a product that was meant to be the new big thing once, and guess what - it was horrific quality! I won’t say what it was but it was in every interior bloggers house it seemed.

The scales then fell from my eyes... surely all this was fake? Set up? Surely these middle class women with amazing homes were being given a backhander to tout these companies?! But no transparency, no way of knowing for sure.

Finally I unfollowed the lot of them, and got on with designing my home in my own way. But yeah I look back at that time in my life and feel such a fool! And pushed off too that I have invested money in crap quality products, thinking they were good.

*pissed off.
Excuse grammar and typos... preview button wouldn’t work!

Good influencers are distinguishing between #ad (gift) and #ad (paid partnership) - although any #gifts from brand x used within the promotion (as background) for brand y should in theory also be disclosed.
I def get why it’s a problem universally using just #ad as a catch-all for everything and hoping consumers will stop noticing the #

@PeroniZuchini sorry this happened to you. You’ve really put down what I felt but couldn’t quite articulate.

The feeling of being part of something - finding your tribe as you say - is something they have used to their advantage to profit from. I’m sure good intentions were there in the first place and those with integrity wouldn’t have sold out their tribe to personally profit without making it clear that a post or recommendation was to their own financial advantage (remembering a gift is still a payment).

I still think there are good ones out there who have remained ‘authentic’ and truly independent - unfortunately amongst the bigger ones with more influence they are harder to find.

Good to see Fearne Cotton's followers calling her out for her ad for some food company. Going to be so interesting to see people's reactions to the fact that these influencers really are just salespeople after all.

So are Wearsmymoney glasses a gift? Even if they're not the sunglasses were. Should she #ad?

@wouldyoulikeabagwiththat ha I love my Grenson's but definitely didn't get sucked in by Bella Freud. Don't want people thinking I'm a year older than I am

I love them Grensons too

Wearsmymoney stated in her stories that she bought the glasses herself.

@SuperstarDJ I read that in reference to her cut and colour. Regardless she got the sunglasses free so an exchange in kind has been made that hasn't been declared. DMBL40 got her glasses there too.

The sunglasses were declared as a gift but not an ad. I'm completely confused. In my mind it's an ad as there is clearly a relationship where we're being encouraged to shop at Alexis Amor.

I don’t know if any of you follow Patricia Bright on YouTube or IG but she never declares ads and it’s so obvious that they are ads when every other YouTuber is promoting that brand

The whole ad/gift thing is becoming really confusing especially as there isn’t a consistent approach on Insta. Re: ad/gift - all I want to know is if a blogger was gifted it or paid for it with their own money. I’m not really bothered about the ad tag in that instance as the gift tag tells me all I need to know.

Insta is turning into a bit of a farce at the mo - mainly due to the petulance of the bloggers who don’t want to adhere to the guidelines and have become overinflated with their own ego/arrogance and are treating the followers who want transparency as a hindrance/nuisance. Once the Insta bubble bursts it will be the ones who have embraced this with professionalism and dignity that will be left remaining hopefully.

@wouldyoulikeabagwiththat comedy specs and Grensons 🤣 (occasionally they do vary their look with Golden Goose trainers!). I think we can safely assume its another oversight 🙄 not to declare the glasses an ad/gift. Either they think we're really dumb given the Alexis brand is being tagged by half the Insta universe or they just don't care for us and those tedious rules. The strange thing is they regard themselves as fashion influencers but they all look the same with their identikit looks (Kat and Erica at least have a strong sense of their own style but most are sheep).

I thought with the grensons that they were all sheepily parting with their own money for them but I’ve just seen that Style Mum has been gifted hers.

Another brand that’s devalued itself and gone down in my estimation (no offence at all to Style Mum - I just have no interest in parting with my money to brands that so readily give things away for free to bloggers. I stopped buying my jewellery from Chambers & Beau for example for this reason and I’d never in a million years buy a bag from Hill & Friends due to them gifting half of instagram.

I agree, as a consumer I am not sure why I should pay an inflated price so that a brand can send an obscene amount of gifts.

I no longer buy from Jo Malone or Charlotte Tilbury for this very reason and fashion wise would never buy from Hill & Friends, Wyse London, Me & Em etc. I could go on...

Interestingly, this week I have learnt Mulberry & Zara also gift!

It puts me off too. Makes it shabbier. Plus brands that gift free kitchens

And Orwell and Austen, Hush, Baukjen, Ridley, Lily & Lionel. But maybe not always the right marketing strategy - giving away £££ dresses to endless influencers (who wear them about 3 times and then move on to the next haul of freebies) and many of us swerving the brand for this very reason. I wasn't surprised Seven Boot Lane went bust with their astronomically priced boots (for a tiny unknown brand) and the sheer amount of free boots they gifted to their chosen few.