Influencers & Accountability
The influencer- the coveted dream job of the 21st Century.
Taking photos, receiving free products, working from your phone, making commissions, moving into beautiful brand new builds with marble countertops- sounds like the dream, right?
When most people hear influencer that's what they think of. Now anybody can be an influencer and I will get to that in a bit, but right now I want to talk about the traditional social media influencer and some of the issues that we're running into with them.
What are the main issues?
a. Constant product pushing.
b. Dishonesty.
c. Lack of respect for their followers.
“I really want to help ya'll out and give you better skin, so here's my 10% off code.” *eye roll* If you really wanted to help us out, you'd have actually tried that product for more than a few days, if you even did at all and you wouldn't have been trying to sell us on a competitor's same product last week. Some influencers straight up lie about using products. Some infer that they have but actually haven't or haven't used it as long as they act like they have. Even if they started off honest and just sharing products they actually did love, for most, at some point it becomes about how many brand deals they can get and they don't care as long as they make a few bucks off of their ride-or-dies. There is one large influencer in particular who set herself up as “your big sister” and was so good at what she did that now she sells her hundreds of thousands of followers on a different product everyday and has many convinced that if they don't buy everything she put out there that they don't truly support her. It's seriously ridiculous and her house and purchases prove just how many people have fallen into her trap. The sad thing is, she used to be very honest and trustworthy but the money and the power got the best of her and even the personal stuff she used to talk about and her personality have changed tremendously. Just to get more brand deals. Which really doesn't just harm the followers, but it harms the small businesses who send them things because they don't actually get real attention or real reviews because a lot of these girls have the work they do down to a science to put in as little effort as possible.
Now I'm not saying this is EVERY influencer, I wouldn't make that statement, but you can look at a lot of them and see certain trends of how they're doing things and if you stick around a few weeks you'll start to see these issues become very clear.
Influencers need to be held accountable for the brands they're sharing, the ideas that they're promoting and the messages they're sending. They hold too much power for us to just keep on liking and following and trusting every word they say.
Let me get two things straight.
I don't believe in censorship. You should be able to say what you want to say without getting shut down.
People can change and evolve and just because someone does or says something doesn't mean that's who they are forever. We should give them the benefit of the doubt. Especially if they are actively taking steps to change.
So you may be wondering, how do we hold them accountable if you don't believe in censorship?
1. Stop giving them attention.
Stop following them, liking, saving and commenting on their posts. If you know that there's something off about them and they're not actually bringing any value and they're really just trying to make a buck off of you, stop supporting them. If you like some of what they put out but they're being dishonest with products, stop engaging on those posts. Brands do notice when engagement goes down and they won't support those influencers if they say that happening. You hold the power in how you interact with their content.
2. You can write into brands.
There is usually real people behind the social media accounts for big and especially small brands. If you see that an influencer just advertised for a competitor a few weeks back (usually brand deals are set up months in advance so they won't always see if they're being double crossed) reach out to the current brand they're advertising and say something! Or if you try that product and the influencer clearly did not use it or said it did something it didn't, let the brand know. They deserve to know how they're being represented and they don't always have time to see the stories and posts being made about their products and they can't see what is being said about their products in DM's.
3. Let the influencers you follow know how you feel.
Some genuinely will not care and will write you off or block you, but those who are in this for the right reasons will. If you're confused as to why an influencer is advertising so much or advertising competing products from month to month, reach out and say something. Even just saying, “Hey, your endorsements are getting confusing because they're contradicting each other, which one do you actually use and like?” can get them to stop and second guess how they're coming off to their audience.
4. Stop buying from them and supporting them.
Go with your gut on this one, but if an influencer is being dishonest, stop shopping their Like To Know It links. No it doesn't cost you any additional money and that is a great way to support the influencers who you truly do love and trust- I'm all about micro-influencers in that case, but use caution. You can go directly to the business and shop from them, especially small businesses who maybe can't afford to take the percentage cuts but do just to try and advertise. We can say all day long that things aren't going to change and we're always going to be caught in influencer culture, but if we push back as followers and consumers and demand that we get honest reviews and relationships, we can change things.
So what do we do instead?
How do we actually change the culture?
First I think it's important to realize that anybody truly can be an influencer. If you are showing up and sharing your life and impacting lives in a positive manner, you're influencing them. It truly does go beyond products and endorsements.
I believe that we need to strive for a more honest online community that focuses more on doing life with one another and less on how many skincare products we can try to sell someone on in a week.
Hear me out, I don't think influencers need to fully go away. I think it's a great marketing tactic and I think it's awesome that we are connecting with people online. But we need to see more honesty on the influencer's side, more real life and less product pushing.
Now obviously influencers aren't going anywhere that there isn't money. That's where Coil, Cinnamon, gFam and Mg.Social come in. Cut the advertisements, cut the amount of products they have to push but still make money off of their followers.
Influencers would be able to spend more time focusing on high quality content that benefits their followers.
Followers would be able to spend more time on the content that truly matters and it may just improve their mental health.
We could cut down on the amount of false advertising that leads to unmet expectations and the feeling that we are just being used.
We could cut down on comparing lifestyles based off of what products we do and do not have.
Just by using these new platforms and taking advantage of blockchain solutions, we could change the social media culture.
How amazing is that?
Some of you may be rolling your eyes and thinking that it's a far fetched dream. Maybe it is. But I think if we as a collective were dedicated to moving our audiences over to sustainable platforms that have integrity and are committed to getting their creators paid and allowing us our right to free speech, I think that could make a massive change. We have to start small but the more we speak out against the toxicity of the influencer culture and the more we demand to not be used anymore, the more we can actually make a change.
So what do you say?
Should we be holding influencers accountable?