The Secret to Not Falling for an Influencers Product Promotion
In the words of the Wizards of Waverly Place theme song, “everything is not what it seems”, especially when it comes to product promotions among influencers. Whether it’s Instagram or Tik Tok, the influencer might not have your best interests at heart when promoting a product. Why wouldn’t they get educated before trying to sell these products to you?
It’s for the money, don’t take it personally!
Disclaimer: not all influencers are scamming you, but many of them are. As a fitness and fashion blogger myself, I have been approached by many brands who claim that their products really work! For those who want to make their platform profitable, they will try to monetize themselves in any way they can. For some, that means promoting products such as special juices that ‘help to lose weight’, whether they’ve actually tried it or not. If you are a blogger reading this, I really encourage you to try the products out or do research before you promote these because your followers will know if you have and you don’t want to betray their trust. If you are a follower, search for reviews from an influencer you trust!
The line that should make you question: ‘This is what I did’
There are many people on social media, especially in the fitness niche, who like to share what they do to help others. They share their results to inspire others and embrace their progress which is amazing! However, it gets to be a not-so-good thing when people tell you that this is the only way to get these results. This can be misleading sometimes for many reasons:
The results that one person gets from a diet or exercise may not be the results that someone else did.
There is probably more that goes into what they did to get those results than what is being shown.
They are not educated on the topic they are talking about and are passing on false information.
Ask yourself- What is actually being promoted here?
As a follower or viewer, that is one question that you can ask yourself when an influencer is promoting a product that might spark your interest. There is one tik tok that comes to mind when talking about this. It is a perfect example of promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. This Tik Tok is of a girl’s before and after results during a juice cleanse. Her before portion of the video talks about how she wants to lose weight while having a flat stomach. She looks to the juice product that is being promoted as the key to these transformations. She shows the results of her after-cleansed body as if it was not a struggle for her to live on juice. She looks happy with her body’s appearance on camera.
Now, what is really being promoted here? Yes, the juices obviously, but look at the bigger picture! Body image is being promoted.
Is this too good to be true?
Every girl has dreamt of fixing that one flaw that would make themselves look ‘better’ in appearance. Brands know that. Influencers know that. That information is used to try to sell you these products, whether they actually work or not! With one simple search on Google, you can find numerous reasons why juice cleanses are unhealthy for you. If you ask yourself “is this product too good to be true?” than it probably is unfortunately. Whether it is a juice cleanse product or a waist trainer product, something that seems to be a quick solution to a flaw most definitely is not the correct solution. Remember, working on yourself and your body is not a quick thing. It takes a long time and patience if you do it the right way.
Can I trust anyone online then?
Of course you can! I’m not saying that all influencers are doing this. I am just saying that as influencer platforms become more popular, more people will look to monetize themselves by getting sponsorships or collaborations any way they can. As followers, we can get roped in to spending money on false advertised products easily especially when we see a video on Tik Tok promoting something that we want. My advice is to not trust products that seem to be too good to be true.