As you might have noticed, marketing wrecks most things.
Like remember the good ol days, when your inbox was just filled with messages from friends, or when Instagram was all about strangely flattering filters?
Yep, marketing has got an uncanny ability to turn good things bad.
But for once, I don’t think marketers are entirely to blame for the abominable rise of ‘The Influencer’ polluting our home feeds.
Without the inflated egos and narcissistic personality traits of those that horrendously refer to themselves as ‘influencers’ – the whole concept wouldn’t get off the ground.
And just incase you’re not 100% sure what I’m on about… there’s a current trend for brands to get Average Joe and Average Georgina to plug their products.
People sitting around the boardroom table call them ‘micro influencers’ and they usually don’t even bother to pay them.
Nope, a lot of brands will just offer a measly discount or maybe some free stuff in order for Joe & Georgina to infiltrate their friendship circle with cringeworthy sales posts.
And with that, there are two things that really confuse me about this concept…
Firstly, does anyone actually believe Joe or Georgina?
We all know they’re motivated to plug these products for their own gain… So doesn’t that null & void any legitimate recommendation?
Imagine for just one second you’re looking for comfy work boots that don’t fall apart in 6 months…
Are you going to believe Joe – who’s received some freebies and needs to screenshot all the brand spamming he does in order to get the next model up? Or the old guy at work who never complains about having sore feet?
Do you want Georgina’s gushing recommendation for a bronzer because she’s hoping to make on to next year’s ambassador team? Or a hearty heads up from a friend who has nothing to gain?
To me it’s a no brainer but clearly it must work on the majority of people because it’s why our feeds are full of cringeworthy promotional posts.
The second thing that troubles me is why Average J & G don’t mind alienating their friends?
As they’re crafting their 17th post for the week, surely they wonder why their once wonderful content was getting showered in likes – now it’s just a handful of the same old friends dutifully hitting the heart button?
Well here’s the news they’ve been dreading- It’s because they’ve been muted. Snoozed.. or whatever the platform equivalent is.
This is because most normal human beings cannot stand having stuff shoved down their throats by friends.
Don’t believe me? Why not check in with anyone that’s dabbled in an MLM and see how that worked out for them? 🤷♀️
Thankfully, once someone is muted, snoozed or otherwise told to shut up (in an invisible and passive aggressive way), it sends a message to the Meta Overlords that their content is pretty shit, so it’s shown to less people.
This makes Joe and Georgina feel a bit desperate. They worry they won’t make the cut for next year and they double down.
They start sending unsolicited DMs and organising group chats that no one wants to be part of.
Sometimes they join engagement ‘pods’ just to get a bit more action on their posts (after all a screenshot with 3 likes won’t be getting ANYONE a new pair of boots, let alone a promotional cooler to go with it)
So who are the winners here?
I’m gonna go with no one. Not a single soul.
So please have some respect for yourself and for those around you.
Next time a brand slides into your DMs asking if you want to be ‘part of the promotional team’ just let the idea briefly caress your ego and then move swiftly on with your life, safe in the knowledge that the 10% discount code will never, ever be worth it.
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