How many times have you been scrolling through your feed on Instagram to run across one of your favorite celebs showing of their brand new teeth whitening kit or skinny tea? And so you think I am one step closer to being just like you! I don't hink I can go a day without seeing BOOTEA, MateFit, waist trainers, teeth whitening kits, detox teas and other products being promoted on my feed.
I get paid $10 an hour to Tweet, Snap, Instagram, and post to Facebook five times a week about recreational sports. Don't get me wrong I like my job, but when I found out that athletes, celebrities, and popular social media users were being paid anywhere from $1,000-$300,000 per post to basically do the same thing...I realized I was in the wrong business!
The fact that some people are simply mentioning and showing a company's product and make up to 30,000 times what I make is amazing. It's obvious that the requirements to promote these products are to be a celebrity or have a high number of followers and to be attractive. They send you the product for free and you gain them a couple of thousand new customers. The promoter probably doesn't even really have to use the product. I mean there is no requirement to other than to tell your millions of followers that you do anyways. So who really wins here?
Let's face it; as annoying as it may be to see these staged promotions it's smart marketing. Using someone with a lot of influence on social media to say "Hey I use this, you want to be like me and look like me so you should use it to. Oh by the way use my discount code for 15% off as an extra incentive and so the company knows it's working." Though the company pays per post, the cost varies and it is so much cheaper than making an advertising campaign. I also think it reaches more people because it's not just one actor, model, singer or athlete. They use the "inbetweeners" of Hollywood celebrities and everyday people. Fashion bloggers, makeup gurus, fitspos, dancers, etc. In a way you want to trust them just a little bit more because it's not a huge celebrity who always gets paid to do this. It's someone who you feel like you relate to and they wouldn't do this if it didn't work. You learned how to conture because of this person, there is no way they would steer you wrong now. As a marketing student, even though I know exactly what these companies are doing I have been slightly interested in a detox tea or two. Great job guys, it's working.
