Let's straighten a few things out

Scrolling Instagram the other day I noticed comments underneath the influencers image, repeatedly asking where her jacket / shoes / sunglasses were from, each one responded to with directions to head to her Like to Know (LTK) link in her bio, LTK is a shopping app that allows influencers to connect their followers with the brands they are wearing quickly using images and direct to website links, It's a way to facilitate and track sales directly back to them. 

I could see from the comments there was an expectation for the influencer to share the brand name right there in the comments, and for some it was as though the penny had dropped, it had just dawned on them that the friendly influencer isn’t actually their stylish virtual friend, willing to share her fabulous taste in clothes and shopping secrets with them out of the goodness of her heart, she is a business, if they click the link and buy directly, she benefits, which is absolutely fair, she’s done the leg work, found the item, build the look, took the image, and most importantly built an aspirational instagram page which created this appetite to shop. 

This is modern marketing, and its strictly business, once you accept that the people on social media sharing their looks with you are being paid to either directly or as part of a sponsorship / gift / affiliate deal, this knowledge should make you less 

likely to shop and spend mindlessly, it then becomes easier to resist impulse purchases, that you may not need or be able to afford. 

This isn’t to suggest you don’t follow them, be inspired, I follow loads, I just quickly unfollow anyone who wears fast fashion brands, buys fashion from Amazon or who uses the word “Haul” clothes should never be bought in a haul, the definition of haul is to drag or pull with force, save that for your rubbish or garden waste. 

We need to remove the illusion that the interactions we have with influencers are similar to the ones we have in real life, asking a women on a night our where her dress is from is a connection, when you ask an influencer on social media there is a currency involved that you the shopper provides the money for, you are being sold to and that’s ok, as long as you are aware of it. 

The positive side is that its social media is brilliant shopping tool for anyone who is time poor and in the market to shop, it removes the need to scroll for hours, you can dress like your favourite content creator at the click of a button, but please remember you don’t need to shop for clothes as frequently as they appear to, no one does.