What kind of influencer do I want to be?
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Certain things have been going on with mainstream media that have made me ask myself, "what kind of influencer do I want to be?".
I want to be that person that you can relate to. I want to share my life, my experiences, and my advice with all of you, and make you guys feel like you actually know me. I want to have a place where I can tell you guys about products I'm loving, books I've read, and places I've visited. I also want to tell you about products and things I didn't like so much, and why.
What I never want to do is to try to sell products to you that I would never personally use or recommend to my best friend.
If you don't already know by now, there was a huge controversy about Kim Kardashian. A few weeks ago she posted a Instagram post with a lollipop in her mouth. In her caption she goes on to talk about the fact that they are appetite suppressant lollipops (the post has been taken down, but you can read the caption and more information here on this site).
People were outraged. People with common sense know that she doesn't use those lollipops in her daily life. She has 111.3 million followers on Instagram. That's a huge amount of influence she has the potential to have. Lots of those people are young. They might actually believe that in order to have the figure she has, they need to buy these lollipops.
What kind of world do we live in that we are encouraging people to buy a product that suppresses their appetite? There's reason we feel hunger. This could be extremely dangerous, especially in the hands of young teens.
Kim is a person who definitely does not need the money, and this isn't a product like Sugar Bear Hair, or something that really isn't a big deal.
While I know there are detox teas and other products that some people advertise for losing weight, someone like Kim needs to consider the her audience. As someone with over 100 million followers has a responsibility to be aware of what she's advertising.
No matter how much influencing power I have, I would never work with a company where I don't believe in the product. I want to bring a positive influence to my readers and followers. There is already so much pressure to be perfect, I would never want to add to that!
What do you think? Do you think it's not a big deal and that it's being blown over proportion, or do you think people had a right to be outraged? I hope you enjoyed reading today's post!
As always, have a wonderful day/night! Sending you love, strength, and positivity.
-Melina xxx
Yasss Mel! Preach! 👏🏽 Homestly it’s amazing how many products are on the market and being offered to influencers when really and truly they shouldn’t even exist. But like everyone is so caught up in the SM world and the power they have to relay a message to others the more followers they have, however they hardly ever consider the message they’re delivering and the impact it can have. It’s such a shame tbh... wonderful post hun!! 💕💕
xx Lena | https://lenadeexo.com
Omg thank you so much! My friend Cleia wrote an amazing post about staying relatable as an influencer, and I found it really interesting!
While I love getting free products to test out and write about, I just don't think it's worth it when your reputation is on the line. I mean I guess you can always receive the item and write a completely honest review on it. I don't know, I think it's something everyone has to learn as a blogger. You can't say yes to everything. You have to be geuninely interested in it! Thank you so much for reading and commenting Lena 🙂 xxx
I can only promote things that I personally use. As a business blogger influencer, integrity is very important to me. Thanks for writing.
I think the same exact thing. I'm all for supporting people who I love their work, but I won't support people for the sake of supporting people. It will clutter my feed, and then I won't be able to support people who I actually care about! xx
People definitely have a right to be outraged! It's ridiculous to put all the blame on the youth and their parents. Both can only do so much without influencers in bombarding them. I'm glad people were outraged I would be upset if they weren't outraged.
Deanna
deannastilwell.com
I'm glad you agree with me! Thank you so much for reading and commenting 🙂 xx
I used to promote skinny coffee on my Instagram. I generally like the product and think it's amazing that it's all natural and uses 6 ingredients. However, I hated that they were marketing it as a weight-loss product and were offering intensives for people to talk about how much weight they lost using it, and taking before and after pics with dramatic weight loss. I ended up cancelling promoting.
I think it's so important that with health, you remain absolute honest. Of course, a good influencer should always be honest, but health is just an area where you take extra precaution. It is a shame that Kim chose to promote the lollipops. I remember reading an interview where Victoria Beckham spoke about sucking on frozen grapes to curb hunger pains, and I started doing it as well.
Great post girl - I think you make a perfect influencer and using me to be my true and best self!! 🙂 xxx
Like you said, when you're an influencer you have to be careful about what you post and how you come across, especially in terms of health products.
Thanks for giving your insight! I've never actually known anyone who's actually used the skinny teas and has had an experience with them. Thanks as always for reading 🙂 x