Hashtag Ad.
Two words that seem to have the power to divide the whole of Instagram.
I’ve been having a bit of a crisis of conscious over the whole thing recently, on one hand I don’t want to push away the very people who have given me this platform – my followers, but on the other hand I spend a lot of time creating content and writing and occasionally a few quid for it would be nice.
The divide is very clear, the people loudly and proudly supporting ‘influencer marketing’ (ick) are the people already working in the field, or hoping to. It’s other bloggers who offer the first likes on a post labelled ‘ad’, it’s them who comment, who congratulate you on getting such a great partnership. The problem with it being a bloggers-supporting-bloggers circle is that likes and comments don’t result in actual sales for the brands. And if more and more people keep getting turned off products that are advertised through social media soon influencer marketing will stop being the success it is and brands will move on to something else. For the time being, they don’t seem to be turned off by it, but I’m not sure that will last. I have never really been on one of these inner circles of other bloggers, I know a lot of other bloggers and love them dearly, but I’m not part of A Group (as in life I guess). This means my engagement doesn’t always look great at first glance, which leads to not getting invited to the awesome trips or getting the best opportunities for promotions. Which makes it so much harder to climb your way through the mess of influencer marketing. It’s a funny catch 22, the bloggers with the best friends get the best opportunities (most of the time, not always, I can think of a number of incredible bloggers who have made their way without a foot up from anybody).
The response from the non-blogging (had no idea what word to use here… ‘normal’, ‘muggles’, ‘only-slightly-narcissistic’?!) followers is very different, no matter how much the photo is genuine or the caption truly from the heart as soon as the non-bloggers see ‘ad’ they don’t give it a like. You have to be blind to not have seen the vocal criticism of the growth (or epidemic) of influencer marketing too, every time anybody speaks about the feel of Instagram changing the overwhelming opinion from those who aren’t bloggers is that it’s because of too many ads, and it doesn’t feel like you can genuinely trust an influencers recommendation anymore. Which I completely understand and empathise with.
I haven’t faced any personal criticism (to my face) for any campaigns I’ve worked on, and I do like to think it’s because I think long and hard about which to accept, how to ensure they fit within my timeline, and when to post. This does make it fucking hard work if I’m honest, each paid promotion I do will take me several hours to complete, because I am so conscious of the shit you get if you get it wrong, staging and taking photos, writing captions, recording Stories, organising competitions, writing reviews… This also means I can’t help but feel insulted when a PR company approaches me about doing a blog post, an Instagram post, and a story in exchange for a product worth £10. My time is as important as anybody else’s, nobody should be accepting that kind of payment for that amount of work.
Something I find very interesting within the ‘influencer’ communities is that the bulk of the criticism lies within the ‘mummy bloggers’. Fashion, beauty, lifestyle, travel – these are all topics that are earning influencers within them a lot of money, yet they face not even half the amount of criticism as mums within the industry do. They shout about being worth being paid more, they talk openly about earning money, they buy houses and cars and holidays with what they earn – and they are celebrated for it. Yet there’s a strange change of tone as soon as that influencer is a mum. Mums shouldn’t be earning money from Instagram, they shouldn’t be going on a free holiday, they shouldn’t be reaching a point where they can quit their job, hire a nanny, and buy a bigger house. The mum bloggers are expected to stay grounded (although not too grounded – you can’t show you’ve made money but you also can’t pretend you haven’t. It’s complicated.).
I have pulled right back on doing any kind of paid work recently, because it takes up so much of my time and is genuinely causing me so much stress. It was making me between £100 and £500 a month for the past few months, so it’s giving me a big hit on my bank balance. But the stress it causes trying desperately not to piss of the followers who have put me here and I appreciate beyond measure is killing me. On top of a Real Job, two kids (one not in childcare), a house, a book to write, and just breathing occasionally – it’s just too much. Creating the content is one stress, the worry that any minute I’ll face a barrage of hate is one stress too far.
I’m not saying no more at all. But I have gone from picky to really fucking picky. Any brand I ever worked with before you know I liked and everything I said was genuine, now it will be brands or products I really like. Like, really, really like. (Or they’re offering me over £4000, there’s not a lot I wouldn’t do for £4000.)
I don’t really know what the point of me writing this is. Sometimes letting the words come out of my fingers helps me straighten my brain. I’m sorry you lot are subjected to having to deal with it. Clearly my own mind is all over the place when it comes to influencer marketing. I think it’s great and I am so proud of the people I know whenever they get a great collaboration (and find some of the crap they have to put up with at times disgusting), so long as everything is clearly marked as an ad or a gift I have no problem with it. But I do also understand that for the average mum struggling to pay for all the kids to go to the after school clubs they want seeing a family paid to go to Disneyland can stir up a lot of emotion.
I’m having to spend some time working out who and what I want to be in this online world, I never anticipated getting to a point where people would want to pay me actual money to talk about their products. I started this blog to write and to share, unfortunately along the way I think I lost the writing a little bit. I ran out of time to do the thing I came here to do! I feel like I’ve lost myself in all the excitement a bit.
I’ve already told a number of PRs I’ve worked with before I’m cutting down massively on the amount of promotions I’ll be working on. I want to spend some more time here, where it all started, doing the thing I love most in the world.
The money and freebies are lovely, needed, and so appreciated, but getting back to me and doing the thing I really want to do – that’ll take me further in the long run.
(Cover image photography by Joanna Nicole Photography)
April 24, 2018 at 10:28 am
For a nonsensical rant that’s actually pretty sensible!
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April 24, 2018 at 11:06 am
This sounds so hard and complicated my love; there’s literally no easy answer. But I think it’s great that you’ve written about it and I know that it can’t be easy turning stuff down xxx
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April 24, 2018 at 11:08 am
This is so useful. New to the blogging world, but totally here to write (because THAT is my love, passion, talent and true purpose) I get a little fed up when people ask “so when will you make money from the blog?” – I don’t want to feel the type of pressure you talk about here, and agree that you should only promote things which you really, really like! Not just any old tosh to pay the bills. I cringe when people I previously admired sell out to ad’s, and I never want to be one of those guys!
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April 24, 2018 at 1:12 pm
OML YES I totally relate,this sponsorship and promotion thing has turned Instagram over!I also think people have a better opportunity to create their personal brand though,don’t you think?I love how hones this blog is,totally following.Keep blogging<3
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April 25, 2018 at 2:03 am
I am so interested in this subject and applaud you for being so open with your thoughts
1) i believe influencers / #advertisers who are mums are under valued and should not feel ashamed / guilty / made ti feel bad about putting a price in their very precious time, skills and talent
2) its interesting to see you want to ‘get back to you’ and where you started. I am only starting out blogging / sharing / connecting and feel a bit lost as to what i’m doing with my squares but know i have some skills somewhere to work with people
Keep doing what you’re doing so well 👊💗
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April 26, 2018 at 10:46 am
Its actually interesting to have the fourth wall broken on influencer ads and hear what its like from your end without you pretending it isnt there or you dont take part. I empathise with you just wanting to make some money and being ethical about it.
From my personal perspective, the reason I rarely engage in influencer ads is a) because like you said, not sure if it’s genuine and b) I am so so so shit sick of being reached at every level of my internet/social media life by fucking ads.
I am one of those big big geeks who was online when being online meant you were a loser who had no life. Now online is everyone. Back when it wasn’t the norm to be online, it was a safe haven from most advertising (not all, it definitely existed back then), and we were left to do our geeky thing. Now that the internet has gone so massively mainstream, the ads never fucking cease. EVERYTHING I do online is interrupted by ads. I intentionally cut out TV, magazines, newspapers and radios when I was 19 (16 years ago) because I hate being sold shit 24/7 and now if I want to do anything online, tough shit, WATCH THIS AD.
So for me its ad burn out. There’s an exception which is I am a hand spun yarn spinner and a bunch of ppl I follow in that realm do affiliate with their fav brands, but MOST of them you know loved the product before they were approached because you do not use tools you hate to do the tedious work we love, unless you really like it. But even then I am wary and if someone doesn’t cop to being an affiliate right away, I am put off trusting what they say.
The work around for this, which I have actually loved, is Patreon because it means I can directly support content makers I don’t want to live without, without being innundated by Ads. But I am not sure that is viable for everyone and it has meant its kind of an in club for creators followers and excludes those who can’t afford it.
I will say, you being this up front about the entire thing means I have much more empathy and wont just unfollow when I realise you’re doing affiliate work for several companies. I won’t feel like I am being harvested as a follower just to make you money while you bullshit us.
Keeping it real and genuine like this could be the answer you’re looking for ❤
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April 27, 2018 at 10:59 am
I definitely couldn’t set up a Patreon or the likes, it makes me feel really uncomfortable asking followers for funding like that. For me a brand I already use (or fall in love with after an introduction) offering me a couple of £100 is a very different thing. It’s a mine field and I don’t think I have the strength to carry on with it really…
Massively appreciate your thoughts on it x
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May 23, 2018 at 6:37 pm
Yeah and the big pitfall to patreon is feeling like you have to cater to the demands of sponsors and this sense of entitlement they can have because they are your patrons. It’s definitely got it’s own pitfalls too. Interested in seeing where you go with it all as a blogger. ❤
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April 26, 2018 at 10:47 am
Oh and PS, I think Mum bloggers are being ripped off by ad companies for the amount of grunt work they do for the ads and that ALSO pisses me right off.
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April 27, 2018 at 10:56 am
Completely agree! There’s no set amount and it’s a nightmare to navigate. ‘We have no budget’ is an email I’ve stopped responding to.
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