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I’ll give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge that there are many influencers out there who actually contribute something to brands, behave professionally, and don’t let the whole ‘follower count’ thing go their heads.

Take Aisha Shaban for example, a business student who has a decent following on Instagram, but also refuses to go hunting for sponsorship because “it’s disrespectful for micro-influencers to ask small businesses for freebies”.

She is still sponsored by beauty and fashion brands, but they came to her, not the other way around.

But let’s return to what she referred to as a micro-influencer.

Macro-influencers are people with ridiculously high follower counts – think Kim Kardashian who, by freezing her Insta account, caused Mark Zuckerberg to lose money. That’s some serious social media power.

Micro-influencers are the average folks who have built some kind of online brand which can be used to market products.

In that group, there are those that give all the others a bad name, sparking pushback from business owners who have had enough.

Here’s the BBC with London-based baker Reshmi Bennett:

The London-based baker runs Anges de Sucre, and she’s created a bit of an online storm by calling out social media influencers who’ve asked for freebies…

“I’m sick of influencers asking for free cake all the time. After the pandemic it got worse and it started upsetting me.”

“We have never had a sale off someone [saying] they saw our cake on someone’s post or profile, it’s always been through word of mouth, from paying customers.”

Brand and digital strategist Ashanti Akabusi says that the relationship between a business and an influencer can often be a positive one, but “the key is to choose the right influencer”.

“When it’s the right influencer, they can be extremely impactful for a business.” However, she understands that many do not have real influence they claim they do.

“A lot of the backlash we’re seeing is in response to an over-saturation of the market, and people calling themselves influencers when they probably don’t have the right to do so.”

The ‘right influencer’ in most cases isn’t someone who barges into your establishment demanding freebies.

Influencers who aren’t making a nuisance of themselves can also use their followings as a force for good.

Travel blog Mrs O Around The World run by Ana Silva O’Reilly recently started a campaign for travel influencers to support the tourism industry.

#PayOurWay wants influencers who have previously benefitted from travel freebies to help kick start the industry by paying for their next trip and blogging about it free of charge.

Travel bloggers or influencers who tried to take advantage of the hospitality industry for free holidays, and were shunned, as a result, need not apply.

The lesson to take away from all of this is that the industry is growing, along with the competition, which means that influencers need to think about how they present themselves to the world.

Failing this, they’ll end up with responses like this, from Bennett:

“I’m as passionate about telling other cake makers to not do it. If everyone says no, someone is going to have to pay for cake at some point.

“We love influencers…as customers.”

In other words, it might be time for an attitude adjustment.

[source:bbc]