Is It Time to Regulate Social Media Influencers?

[Caliga]

fashion.

[Threviel]

fashion.

Nice, I dabbled in a baking/stay-at-home-dad blog, but I realized that for it to be successful I would have to spend hours every day. Does she make enough to live on it or is it a hobby?

[Caliga]

Nah, it's just supplemental income.

[The Brain]

My wife is in fact a social media influencer and makes tens of thousands of dollars a year in advertising income.  The majority of her income is derived from passive advertising carried on her websites but she also actively advertises for companies.  When she does this she always explicitly states that she is doing so, as it is a violation of FTC guidelines (as the article states) to not do so.

She complains quite often now that a lot of her peers 'cheat' and buy followers in order to land higher paying gigs, which is something she's never done and refuses to do, but it also means that her influence seems smaller to advertisers who merely count followers and don't do the real legwork to determine if their potential partners have a legit following.

What are the advertisers buying exactly when it comes to followers? Is the price determined by the number of followers or by the number of actual physical followers, and if the latter how is that determined? Is the influencer typically stating in the contract that they don't buy followers? I assume the influencers don't make guarantees about the status of their followers since they do not control them (unless they buy followers in which case they partly control them)?

[KRonn]

My wife is in fact a social media influencer and makes tens of thousands of dollars a year in advertising income.  The majority of her income is derived from passive advertising carried on her websites but she also actively advertises for companies.  When she does this she always explicitly states that she is doing so, as it is a violation of FTC guidelines (as the article states) to not do so.

She complains quite often now that a lot of her peers 'cheat' and buy followers in order to land higher paying gigs, which is something she's never done and refuses to do, but it also means that her influence seems smaller to advertisers who merely count followers and don't do the real legwork to determine if their potential partners have a legit following.

That sounds like an interesting job indeed. Also sounds like a somewhat chaotic business, so good for your wife for sticking to the rules. Hope it pays off better for her since as you say she loses out a bit. But probably better than risking legal blowback.

[The Larch]

On the issue, Influencers might be facing a bit harsher consequences in the future:

Kendall Jenner and top models can be subpoenaed over Fyre Festival

Celebrities and top models including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and the agencies that represent them can be subpoenaed for their participation in the doomed Fyre Festival, a federal judge has ruled.

The models and so-called social influencers promoted what was billed as a VIP music festival on an island in the Bahamas, helping to generate buzz and sell tickets to the 2018 event. It was cancelled at the last moment, stranding hundreds of people who had flown in for the concert.

The models and celebs played a prominent role in marketing Fyre Fest. Festival organizer Billy McFarland and members of his team posted videos of them frolicking on yachts and sipping cocktails at the purported site of what was supposed to be an exclusive music festival.

But the event descended into chaos when facilities weren't completed on time, leaving guests to spend the night in rain-soaked tents and without sufficient access to food or water.

Fyre Festival LLC filed for bankruptcy in July 2017 because it couldn't pay its vendors and other creditors. McFarland is now serving a six-year prison sentence for fraud valued at $27.4 million. He and his business partner, rapper Ja Rule (whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins), also faced a $100 million class action related to Fyre Fest. Atkins has claimed over Twitter that he never earned money from the event and that he was "bamboozled."

The models, along with influencers and musical artists who had been scheduled to perform, were paid a total of $5.3 million in advance of the event, court records show.

Kendall Jenner was paid $275,000 to promote the event, court records show.  She is represented by DNA Models, the same agency that represents Emily Ratajkowski. Ratajkowski earned $299,000 for her work with Fyre Festival, according to court records, Billboard reported.

[dps]

The article is just saying that they can be subpoenaed to testify in the civil trial of the organizer.  Not sure that's much of a harsh consequence.

[garbon]

The article is just saying that they can be subpoenaed to testify in the civil trial of the organizer.  Not sure that's much of a harsh consequence.

I guess it then becomes at what point can they be sued for promoting a sham.

[dps]

The article is just saying that they can be subpoenaed to testify in the civil trial of the organizer.  Not sure that's much of a harsh consequence.

I guess it then becomes at what point can they be sued for promoting a sham.

That would seem to be the implication, but then why doesn't the article just come out and say it?

Of course, it's possible that the judge actually did rule that they can be sued, and the article is just poorly written.  Well, the article is certainly poorly written;  among other things, it doesn't even say in which federal court the ruling was handed down.

[Caliga]

Emily and I watched a documentary last night about the Fyre Festival.  What a complete clusterfuck

[The Larch]

What I read about the Fyre case and the subpoena to the influencers and celebrities is that they're being chased by the bankruptcy administrators, who are looking to get back the money that was paid to them to promote it (a few million dollars, not exactly a pittance).

I guess that it depends on establishing their responsability on the scam. It can be argued that they're either completely innocent, and not responsible at all about what happened to the festival afterwards, as they were not the organizers, or that they share some level of guilt, as the festival was promoted heavily using them, and they're complicit in leading on the assistants, who were lured in part with the possibility of being around them.

[The Larch]

Emily and I watched a documentary last night about the Fyre Festival.  What a complete clusterfuck

Which one, the Netflix one or the Hulu one?

[Caliga]

Which one, the Netflix one or the Hulu one?

Netflix

[FunkMonk]

Which one, the Netflix one or the Hulu one?

Netflix

Yeah, it was good one.

Felt really bad for all the Bahamian laborers who got stiffed though. 

[Caliga]

One of the guys who worked for Fyre did some kind of a fundraiser (GoFundMe?) for the Bahamian lady who was in charge of the catering and raised like $50K for her.