This is a post that I have been mulling over for quite some time. Although I am what might be considered a “young” blogger, I believe that I have worked my way to the level that I am with dedication and a passion for what I do. Lately, I have felt as though the term blogger and subsequently “influencer” have been changing. Evolving if you will. However, this change is not entirely for the betterment of this industry.
I look to long standing bloggers such as Julio, Jay Strut & Casie Stewart for their strength and determination. I can only hope that DoTheDaniel.com achieves a level of notoriety and recognition as they have. What I cannot turn a blind eye to anymore are colleagues of mine that have twisted and changed this industry for their personal gain.
In my opinion, my blog is meant to be an expression of my opinion in a field which I love. My audience and followers turn to me for honest and fair representation of the brands and businesses I work with. However, the blogger world seems to have become a faux popularity contest and cut throat world.
The worst of these crimes in my mind is the act of buying followers for various social media accounts. In my mind, you are not only lieing to yourself but also to each and every brand that you work with. Not to mention misleading the audience that has loyally followed you as you progressed and grew. For those of you who aren’t aware of this process, there are businesses that you can purchase social media numbers from in order to increase your “followers” on social media accounts. For a blogger, this idea may seem tantalizing in order to pursuade businesses to work with you, but at what cost?
In my mind, this purchase destroys credibility. More importantly, the authenticity you once claimed to have is gone. I can confess to each and every one of you reading this that I once contemplated engaging in this business of buying followers. Unfortunately in the blogger world, there are some companies and PR firms who don’t do their homework. They see a big number and immediately assume that means a better blogger. But when I stopped to contemplate what that would mean for my brand and my image, I realized I couldn’t lie to you or to myself.
I am not naive. I do not believe that this letter is going to dramatically change the blogging world and make the ones who have bought unbuy. But I can write and promise to each and every one of you that my authenticity will never be in question. I promise to never buy a follower in order to propel myself into “fame” status. Each and every view on my site or like on an Instagram photo is real and is because of you. Not some purchased novelty or lie told to a PR firm to gain a new contract.
And to my fellow bloggers who have and pretend to have not, please note that I do not condemn you. I understand how incredibly difficult and competitive this industry can be. I simply ask that you take a step back and realize that as convincing as your facade may be, has it really achieved what you wanted for your brand?
I will not allow the competitive nature of this industry to change the way I write. I will not allow the unfortunate reality that buying followers has become the norm to diminish how happy I am for each real follower. And I will not stand by and be disrespected by those who have no respect for themselves.
Wishing you all a fantastic day.
I think buying followers is only a small part of the problem. While I have never participated in this practice and find it very unethical, it isn’t really hard to figure out if someone’s audience is purchased. Their engagement will be non-existstant and you can usually just scan through their following to confirm this. What about people who spend every day just following 100 people (no matter where in the world they are) and unfollowing if they don’t follow back? What about “bloggers”, whose blogs are just one giant advertisement and write opinions based on getting things for free? To me a review needs to come with an unbiased opinion but I find I don’t even like looking at blogs anymore because the trust between the reader has been drastically diminished. This is a great post and has been said many times in the past, but there are definitely bigger problems out there. I truly believe that the “blogger” as we know it today will be very different in a few years, because bloggers are killing the blogger.
I loved reading this today! As a blogger who’s been around to see the growth and change of the industry, I can honestly say I agree wholeheartedly with what you’re saying. I admittedly work with brands and will continue to do so in an effort to grow my readership and share products I love. But there was a point where I felt like every post was coming up as a sponsored or c/o feature and I needed to take a step back and work to recreate my real content that I loved to create for my own personal passion and style. Thank you for sharing this! Alex 🙂
Daniel! It’s so good that you are honest about your take on this issue –it’s to be praised. Funnily enough, I was completely unaware of the concept of buying followers up until a month ago. Another blogger had broken it down for me and I couldn’t believe such a thing existed (but I should have believed it, I mean really, we’re in 2014 – what can’t we buy?). Being a new blogger – I had naively assumed that people had a knack for the PR side of blogging and were just hashtagging the sh!t out of their material to gain large followings – and I was just not using the right ones. The blogging world is very cut throat and I think in a lot of ways people take it much too seriously – which results in their credibility being questioned, as well as their losing personal zeal to continue on with what started as a passion. It can be hard for you or anyone who works hard to gain a legitimate readership to be lumped in with other seemingly highly esteemed bloggers who are taking shortcuts. It can be very discouraging. Keep working hard at what you do – which is being yourself, that is what will last in the end. People who aren’t – are usually chewed up and spat out by the Toronto blogging scene and PR groups eventually and they become such a distant memory they are looked back upon like a figment of our imaginations. I love your blog and the coverage you provide – don’t change (well yes, grow, but you know what I mean!). Keep it up!
Thanks for this honest post, Daniel. It’s something that’s been on my mind as well. I did a post also on my site about “why I do this?” and having blogged for over 4 years now on several sites and it’s fascinating to see the changing landscape. Sure, anyone can be a blogger, but I truly believe that those who stick true to their passion will rise above. Sure, we get some perks to try out something new but I’ve also turned away products or services if I don’t have any interest, or if it isn’t something that is of interest to the readers. Our followers follow because we have a connection to them. Whether it’s hundreds or thousands we earn their attention and we are grateful. Bloggers need to understand why they do what they do and ignore the noise. PR firms are paying more attention and the ones who do the research know numbers aren’t the only things that matter. Stay focused. Stay true. xx