Instagram has seen the rise of many young stars over the past few years. Random boys and girls all over the world are gaining a large following by either being sexy, funny, or able to compile good memes. They then promote each other and make their way up to have thousands to hundreds of thousands to even millions of followers. With all of these eyeballs looking at their posts each day, the smart ones have figured out a way to monetize with ads.
This social media influencer marketing game is very lucrative and has solid conversions. Influencers can charge anywhere from a free gifts to $500,000 for one post (like Kylie Jenner does). Some influencers on the other hand are scums and ask for money up front before letting out their address and then never deliver their post.
One example would be @Empemb - Emily P. Ember of Orange County, CA Age 22. She goes by lil em and has over 192K followers. It's nothing crazy, but it's a good audience for a small startup that wants to reach an audience at a relatively low price.
A reader wrote in saying, "I reached out to Emily from my personal Instagram in hopes of having her promote a startup of mine called Dollar Fresh Squad [www.dollarfreshsquad.com]. She told me she usually charges double, but would give me a discount if I paid upfront because she needed money for her sick dog. She's hot / seemed legit so I paid her and sent my product (a tongue scraper). I waited a few weeks and then started reaching out. She kept delaying until there was about a 2 month window where she didn't respond at all so I thought I would ask to pay her more for a post. Radio silence for another 2 weeks till I finally reached out and asked if she could send money back or post the picture and she responded saying she would do neither.
Now I totally understand that in business you get screwed and I'm not out here trying to seek revenge. I simply want other companies to be mindful of the deception that some of these influencers play.
Moral of the story is don't pay up front for influencers because there are so many of them that it doesn't really matter to DM or email a few more to get one that won't make you pay upfront and then screw you over.
Some screenshots of the DMs:
