Why I’ll never be an influencer

Now, this post wasn’t created to have a dig at anyone, make anyone feel good, bad or otherwise. It’s just a personal opinion on the word “influencer”. Isn’t it great being British and eternally sorry for everything?

The word influencer gets thrown around a lot now – so I thought I’d throw some light and shade on the term and give some background why I don’t want to be seen as “an influencer”.

First things first – what is an influencer?

Google’s defines the term ‘influencer’ as:

A person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.

Urban dictionary coins the term as:

A word Instagram users use to describe themselves to make them feel famous and more important when no one really cares.

Lol.

All jokes aside, I didn’t set out on my writing adventure (yes, writing adventure – I am five years old) to influence anyone and to be perfectly honest I don’t want to influence anyone.

I’ve been lucky enough to work with some great brands and I’m blown away that people regularly head over to my corner of the internet for a nosy. If they then want to buy something they’ve seen me wear or use then cool, but that’s not my reason for doing what I do.

Everyone has their own personal reasons for starting a blog. Mine? I just love to write, it makes me happy.

I don’t want to be Instagram famous either

I have bit of a love hate relationship with Insta. I use the platform to promote my writing but as a platform it doesn’t fill me with joy. The algorithm is a bitch, there’s a hella’ lot of unfollow/follow going on over there and my feed (like most other peoples) is just a highlight reel.

I’ve tried to make my captions work harder over on Insta and make them more micro-bloggy. But to be totally honest no-one has time to read a three, four, five paragraph caption on their commute into work. The amount of times I’ve spilt out a heartfelt caption, only to be met with “cute dress hun”…

While we’re here – if you ever want to feel a little insignificant – take a stroll on over to Bears Instagram, my dog now has over 10K followers, which is over double my following.

The internet really is a funny place.

Let’s talk brand collaborations

If I post about something it’s because I genuinely like it, enjoy it or use it. Yes I’m sometimes gifted items or paid for ads but I’d only work with a brand if I’d actually use the product or service or have an interest in it. And I’m super grateful for every opportunity that comes my way through writing.

I often turn down brands that I don’t feel would be a good fit for me stylistically or morally, because I don’t want to pretend I’d use something if I wouldn’t. It’s a waste of the brands time to send me something I’d never use, it’s a waste of product, it’s a waste of my time and it’s unfair to those that read my blog or engage with my social channels.

I guess “influencing” doesn’t necessarily have to always have a negative connotation – which is true. And I have tried to start writing a bit more consciously and sustainably, about topics that affect more than my bank balance or my Insta feed. In all honesty I’d rather inspire someone or give someone a giggle, rather than get them to buy a new jumper.

Product pushing peeves

If I could choose any term to be referred to as, I would probably just opt for writer or blogger. I’d never want to be seen as a product pusher who’s only aim is to encourage people to spend money on things they can’t afford, to impress people they don’t know. Which in my eyes is almost as bad as those people that slide into your DMs trying to sell juice plus or offer an exciting business opportunity in the shape of a dodgy pyramid scheme. Just stop it.

My pet hate is the Love Islanders of the world that promote everything and anything under the sun, who say every single thing is great and don’t disclose brand collaborations. As for the diet pills and skinny teas, don’t get me started. Sure you’ll lose weight if you shit yourself inside out – but is this a healthy thing to be promoting to young impressionable girls? Probs not.

Are you a fan of the term “influencer”? I’d love to know. In the mean time here’s my dog looking like a total angel.. xo