At what point is someone classified as an influencer? Since December 13, 2021, I’ve been reviewing products on Instagram. A few months later I started using affiliate links that generated income and in June of this year I started to accept gifting. I never think or claim this as a job, though the IRS might tell me too. I do the things influencers do (except paid posts!), but if I don’t make a living from it or claim it as my occupation, does that allow me to exclude myself from the “influencer” stereotype? All that to say, my thoughts on what I’ve observed and experienced behind the scenes of influencing are probably completely unwarranted and I give permission to any real “influencer” to roll their eyes HARD at this entire post. But here are all my thoughts and your questions about “influencing.”
Most things go viral by design, not by chance.
While you and I might complain about over-saturation of products, brands count on it. Virality is a business strategy and I’ve noticed this strategy plays out in two ways, sometimes simultaneously. The first being through gifting. Brands gift their products to a wide variety of account sizes and demographics hoping (or requiring via a contract) that these accounts will feature the products around the same time. The more eyes on their product the higher chance of revenue. The second way I’ve seen things go viral is through increased commission rates. Affiliates platforms do not determine the commission rates, the brands do, and they can change at any moment. When a new product has dropped or is about to drop I’ve noticed brands will increase their rates in the hopes that influencers will see this huge increase in commission and be compelled to share. When the gifting and the commission rate increase happen at the same time, it's the perfect storm for virality.
I understand a good business strategy and I don’t fault any company for these practices. As a consumer, the only behavior change I’ve noticed is I’m more aware of my initial level of desire for a product. Do I want the product because it’s everywhere or do I want it because the accounts I trust and love are endorsing it? We are in full control of who we follow and allow to influence us. Choose those people wisely!
People, influencers and consumers, are not picky enough!
I had a recent conversation with friends about this and it’s something I feel very strongly about. We are too quick to praise a product. “Obsessed” and “holy grail” are thrown around so liberally, it’s trained us not to be as picky with our purchases. Skincare is the best example of this. You see an influencer sharing a brand that you’ve never seen them use before, but somehow it’s their “holy grail,” only to see them sharing another product that promises similar results the very next week. Or you see someone complain about a skincare concern (dryness, texture, etc) after they were praising a brand or product that is supposed to address said concern a month ago. Outside of IG, this second scenario is what I witness most with friends and family. A friend will say they loved “x” product, but then months later they are still complaining about the same problem. What I think happened is we’ve become trained to believe any product that doesn’t cause a reaction of some kind is a “good” product. We’ve seen positive reviews about so many products and only see something negative when a product has caused an irritation or breakout. A “good” product should DO SOMETHING. If it doesn’t, we shouldn’t be praising it. Repurchases, to me, are the best evidence of a good product worth praising. When I see an blogger/influencer showing a repurchase, it immediately increases my trust in her.
If you’ve followed my account for long, I hope it's clear that I’m picky and that’s why a good majority of my reviews end up being both positive and negative. In my three years of reviewing, I’ve come to find that a lot of products are just okay. And guess what? That is okay!!! My goal with every review is that I’ve given a well rounded opinion of a product’s pros and cons and have enabled the reader to make a more educated purchase. Whether you share online or just in real life with friends and family, BE PICKY!! Don’t just give your seal of approval on anything.
The amount of people who don’t disclose gifted items is shocking.
This revelation is brand new to me since I just started accepting gifting in the past three months. Influencing has so many grey areas because it’s an industry that is nearly impossible to regulate well. According to the FTC, if you are gifted an item and you share it, you are required to disclose that it’s gifted regardless of if the brand has asked you to speak about the product or not. You can read the FTC’s “Disclosures 101” here. While this might seem obvious, you’d be surprised and how many people don’t know about this “rule.” There are so many influencers today that it would require an unimaginable amount of people to make sure that every influencer is playing by the rules at all times. When I see an account I follow not disclosing a gifted item, I notice it, but it hasn't changed the way I see that person. Nobody is perfect and the rules aren’t well known enough even within the industry. I’m sure I’ll slip up once or twice in the future and I’d hope other “influencers” wouldn’t see me in a bad light either.
Engagement on the weekend is three times higher than the weekday.
When I started my account, I vowed to myself that I would not complain about the algorithm, but I’m going to use this one time to complain about the algorithm (lol). Regardless of if you run a business on IG or you only post vacation and holiday photos on a private account, we all know the Instagram of today is very different than how it began. Instagram is no longer an organic place of growth and while it looks “easy” to grow a following from the outside, I’ve come to learn that it is very much the opposite. Trying to grow on Instagram is like gambling in Vegas, the house always wins. I’m a young millennial, but I might as well be a boomer when it comes to my aptitude on video content. Because I don’t make viral reels (I honestly would if I knew how, but the second I open the Reels page I get so overwhelmed I immediately close out of the app 😅), stories are the only place where I can get the most eyes on my account and I’ve noticed that on the weekends I get three times the amount of views. Much to my chagrin, I hate posting on the weekend and I know my following on Instagram will always be stunted. Like Paris Geller with guidance from Terrance her life coach, I’ve accepted it.
If you’re trying to grow on Instagram you can take this weekend “tip” and run with it, but overall my advice to you is to NOT pay attention to the numbers. It will only frustrate you and suck the joy out of your endeavor.
Your Questions About Influencing
How much do you make off an affiliate link sale?
There are a handful of affiliate platforms. LTK, ShopMy, Collective Voice, to name a few. Each affiliate platform has their own contract with a brand which means that each platform might have a different commission rate than another. The rates are determined by the brand (from what I can tell) and can change. Depending on the affiliate platform and the website, I’ve seen commission rates from 1-30%, with the average being in the 6-15% range. This variability is why influencers who do this for a living rely mostly on paid/sponsored posts. Affiliate links can generate a lot of money, but because it’s not a guaranteed rate, it’s a hard thing to bet on to pay your bills.
How long does it take to get paid on affiliate links?
Most affiliate platforms do not “close” a sale until after a long return window. The return windows on most platforms is between 90-100+ days. For example, the money made from linking to the Nordstrom Anniversary sale won’t actually hit influencer’s bank accounts until the end of the year. Affiliate linking seems lucrative, but it takes a lot of links and a LOT of engagement to turn them into big money. This is why I’ve joked on stories that I could never live off the money I make on my account.
Is ShopMy going to be the new LTK?
LTK is the pioneer of affiliate marketing and will not be going anywhere. ShopMy is the new kid on the block and is forcing LTK to be better! I personally prefer ShopMy over LTK and you’ll notice I’m not very active on LTK anymore except for the occasional link. What makes ShopMy so much more attractive to me as a creator and a consumer is the interface. I love that I don’t have to tell my audience to download an app and I love the customization of the ShopMy website pages. Being website based makes it easier to actually complete a sale as a consumer and I appreciate that so much. On the creator side, I like ShopMy’s analytics more and the ease of linking anything! ShopMy allows creators to link affiliate items and non affiliate items which is great for posts with an outfit or a group of products because I can actually include all the products listed, whereas LTK’s app can only link items within their affiliate program. When it comes to choosing which platform to generate a link from, I assume most people are choosing the platform that has the highest commission because….duh. In the past few months though, I’ve found myself using ShopMy even when the commission is higher on LTK.
Are things [influencers] post about given to them free when you see “ad” next to it? If influencers are given money to shop at a brand, do they say the purchase is “gifted”?
Gifting and ads/sponsored posts are different. No money is exchanged between brand and influencer with gifting. A brand can request you speak about the product, but unless a contract is signed, you are not required to share the item. Gifting is a great way for brands to get their products into more hands but without a huge loss in profit since they are only losing out on the cost of the good and not paying anything additionally.
I don’t do paid posts of any kind so I can only speak from the information I have learned from other influencers who have openly spoken about sponsored content. Ads and sponsored content which are often seen with "#ad” or other disclosures are contractional business transactions. A brand pays an agreed upon amount in exchange for an agreed upon content. This could mean 1 feed post or 2 stories, 1 feed post, and 1 reel. Sponsored content might also come in the form of a long term partnership where you’ll see an influencer do an “#ad” every quarter for the same brand. Because sponsored content has an agreed upon payment, influencers utilize sponsored content to better determine their income instead of relying on the very unreliable and ever-changing affiliate revenue.
In regards to the second question, I’m not entirely sure. If the person was given an allotted amount to shop on Shopbop, for instance, and then they do an “#ad” via a haul, I assume that this is a sponsored post where the influencer was given the clothes for free and they were paid on top of that.
Do influencers fear we are done funding their trips, new homes, and [everything] could end for them?
The OG bloggers are smarter than that…I hope. I assume they have been saving and investing their incomes because they know better than to put all their eggs in one basket. You’ll notice a lot of influencers, old and new, are forging brands with products and other streams of revenue outside of social media.
In regards to “funding their trips, new homes,” I think we need to give up this line of thinking. Anytime we make a purchase anywhere online via a link or in a store we are funding something for someone. Even before I created this account and began dabbling in influencing, I never saw the accounts I followed as unworthy of earning a commission from my sale. They did the work of finding the product for me and it doesn’t cost me a single cent for them to earn a commission big or small. I know my handle is “Things Bloggers Lied About,” but it will always be tongue in cheek. I have and will forever be pro-blogger/influencer. I encourage anyone who might be cynical about an influencer to unfollow them. When you follow accounts you trust and enjoy on a personal level, you’ll have far less instances of annoyance when they have a heavy linking day or “#ad” season.
Has running this account changed your thoughts on other influencers?
Yes and no. Anyone can make a buck on the Internet and this breeds a variety of accounts with different motives. Running my account and seeing behind the curtain of affiliate linking and gifting has made me NOT want to follow accounts that link ALL DAY LONG or do hauls from Amazon, Target, Abercrombie, etc every other day. I don’t look down on these accounts because I know they are trying to make a living, but it's not the kind of content I’m interested in and it’s not the kind of shopping I want to practice on a frequent basis. Running my account has made me more understanding overall with influencers and everyday I am reminded why I do not want this to be my job. There are so many variables and so many opinions being launched at you from every corner of the internet. Being small in size and anonymous, I don’t get many rude comments, but I can sympathize with the some of the tedious aspects of influencing.
We made it to the end! If you’re used to my rambling captions on Instagram, I’m hoping this wasn’t too painful to get through. Thank you for all the questions submitted about influencing. I couldn’t get to all of them, but my DMs are aways open and I will continue to share more behind the scenes information as I walk down this weird road. I still don’t know if I would call myself an influencer, but I do hope the stereotype the moniker holds would come with less negative baggage for all our sakes.
Dear real influencers/bloggers/content creators/etc,
I’m hoping that reading a post this lengthy from someone who has only dipped their toes into an industry you built brick by brick wasn’t insufferable. I’d love to hear your constructive criticism to not only enlighten me, but also shed some much needed transparency that consumers are craving so badly.
Signed,
Things Bloggers Lied About, who ironically doesn’t think you lie that often