Who can we actually trust in the digital ‘space’? Whether it’s trolling behaviour, buying followers, taking part in numerous pods to increase their engagement, “follow-for-follow” games, bots and so on. It’s all for a popularity contest, to get exposure, to get freebies and their ultimate dream – to get paid as a blogger.

It really pains me, because working with those who genuinely influence are often a worthwhile line on a marketing strategy, but some are starting to really give the ‘blogger-sphere’ a bad name and reputation.

And as a result, I feel sorry for the influencers out there who are 100% genuine and who work really hard with/for brands on creating fantastic content and thus driving engagement and sales.

If you want to work with influencers online, do your homework. Do their followers all seem genuine? Is it the same people always commenting (in large volumes) which could indicate “pod” participation? Does the engagement seem genuine? And do they represent your brand values and ethos? How have they worked with other brands and what has been their response rates?

I guess it’s going to be hard to uncover anyone who has a fake account to troll others. Building a trusting relationship with any collaboration partner – being a blogger, a magazine, a small business – is imperative too.

Let’s hope this recently exposed example is a rarity. 🙏

I’d love to know what you think in the comments.

Thanks for reading.

Camilla X