The power of instagram

There was an article (I think from the BBC) about how holidays are now changing and traditional destinations are being ignored in favour of "instagram" holidays. People will specifically go to locations that they encounter on instagram to take a photo of themselves in the same place and the same pose.

A cynic might say that there might be an underlying current that is pushing tourists to specific places to boost tourist income.
 
There was an article (I think from the BBC) about how holidays are now changing and traditional destinations are being ignored in favour of "instagram" holidays. People will specifically go to locations that they encounter on instagram to take a photo of themselves in the same place and the same pose.

A cynic might say that there might be an underlying current that is pushing tourists to specific places to boost tourist income.

This is very true, there are thousands of photographers that earn a living from Instagram doing this. They get paid to go and grab a photo in a particular place as they have have hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. Nice gig if you can get it.

Almost everyone that has a reasonable amount of followers will get contacted by various brands asking them to promote something on Instagram, I have had a few companies contact me asking if I would promote their product and I have less than 9k followers. There are also Instagram influencer sites where you can sign up and advertise your Instagram account for doing this. They will pay different rates based on how many followers you have, how many average likes and comments your account has etc.
 
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Seems quite crazy that people can make a living and seemingly a good one being social media influencers. Effectively running the ad-to-sales percentage gauntlet, almost a kin to a farmer owning a field with a advertising trailer by the side of the M6 in Manchester or M25 vs one by the M45. The more traffic passes the more probably that translates to sales and hence the more valuable. Moreover the people who "follow" and are influenced by these people is also astonishing. I guess thats the world we live in.
 
Seems quite crazy that people can make a living and seemingly a good one being social media influencers.
It's essentially a form of advertising but being done by certain people on instagram, it's more "indirect". It's not so much a case of "hey this is a great product that you should buy" but "i found this item really helpful in my hobby (or really cool location)" and then the followers will think "hey i should do that, buy that, go there" or whatever.
 
This is very true, there are thousands of photographers that earn a living from Instagram doing this. They get paid to go and grab a photo in a particular place as they have have hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers. Nice gig if you can get it.

Almost everyone that has a reasonable amount of followers will get contacted by various brands asking them to promote something on Instagram, I have had a few companies contact me asking if I would promote their product and I have less than 9k followers. There are also Instagram influencer sites where you can sign up and advertise your Instagram account for doing this. They will pay different rates based on how many followers you have, how many average likes and comments your account has etc.
But how many of those accounts with big followers are just full of bots, pods, bought, follow4follow and fake accounts. More than 80% I'd guess.

So I've never understood why brands use these account, surely they know the game!
 
But how many of those accounts with big followers are just full of bots, pods, bought, follow4follow and fake accounts. More than 80% I'd guess.

So I've never understood why brands use these account, surely they know the game!

I don't think that is really an issue any more.

As far as I understand it having fake followers on Instagram reduces your reach. So if an account has a lot of followers but little interaction on posts then its likely they have a lot of fake followers. I assume they look at the interaction on the account as well as how many followers they have before they offer them work.

To be honest I am not that clued in on Instagram my daughter and my wife look after mine. :D

With so many companies doing it you would assume that it must have value for them.
 
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But how many of those accounts with big followers are just full of bots, pods, bought, follow4follow and fake accounts. More than 80% I'd guess.

So I've never understood why brands use these account, surely they know the game!
I suspect its a cheaper method of marketing. You find an "influencer" that has done the hard work of getting target market followers and of course with the internet being global its an easy way to get a global market (most small startups that location specific need to start at national level). Once you, as an influencer, have got companies paying large sums for a single post on a regular basis you can the branch out into selling "the secret to my success" programs too.
 
Thing is if you're on Instagram you'll know the bots, they are the ones that like of even comment on a picture withing seconds of it being posted.

I know Instagram has been cracking down on these of late.
 
One of the big stories in this vein is the UK social media influencer Elle Darby, who seemingly had no awareness that some organisations wouldn't want to take them up on their marketing proposal and might find the proposal bordering on insulting and then seemed to play victim when social media presence as the hand that fed her then turned to bite her.

I think the word used was "entitlement", which seems to be common in contemporary interwebland
 
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One of the big stories in this vein is the UK social media influencer Elle Darby, who seemingly had no awareness that some organisations wouldn't want to take them up on their marketing proposal and might find the proposal bordering on insulting and then seemed to play victim when social media presence as the hand that fed her then turned to bite her.

I think the word used was "entitlement", which seems to be common in contemporary interwebland
Yes i remember this, wasn't she trying to get a free stay at the hotel or something?

We had this at Moriane Lake and Lake Louise in Alberta. The amount of people trying to get the perfect instagram pose was incredible and boreding on dangerous on some of the rocks!
 
Yes i remember this, wasn't she trying to get a free stay at the hotel or something?

We had this at Moriane Lake and Lake Louise in Alberta. The amount of people trying to get the perfect instagram pose was incredible and boreding on dangerous on some of the rocks!
Yes, free stay for a blog article, that would be effectively a loss leader as the exposure would bring in more guests. The hotel responded with how do they pay their overheads with a blog payment. in short its a no and supposedly they posted the request email and their response to, you guessed it, the interweb.

I this instance I suspect the influencer wouldn't be able to guarantee that a blog post would result in an acceptable rate of return (I think they were asking for about 5 nights) which would need a payback of say a months worth of bookings as a direct result of the blog.

Yes i remember this, wasn't she trying to get a free stay at the hotel or something?

We had this at Moriane Lake and Lake Louise in Alberta. The amount of people trying to get the perfect instagram pose was incredible and boreding on dangerous on some of the rocks!

Theres similar at Taft Point in Yosemite

https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...05467/1525810601884/7O4A2109.jpeg?format=750w
 
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It's not just Instagram - how many here have been to Buachaille Etive Mor and taken largely the same pic as everyone else (at least from the same spot at the end of the mudbath leading to the falls) - there was a queue behind me as I took my shot at 7am last month - everyone of them had a tripod and not a mobile phone is sight.
 
I refuse to queue for anything :mad:
 
As much as I find them cheesy and annoying, the Northrup's have an amusing video on this, where Tony deliberatey shoots some Insta cliches to see what happens to his likes/comments etc

The Insta cliches are there in all genres - if you're a street photographer you have to shoot the dumpling shop on Gerrard street and the staircase in the Tate, if you shoot travel then Lago di Braes seems top of the pops!
 
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