This post was made from Posting Instagram sponsored content is the new summer job – The Atlantic.

I have written about Instagram before, it is a platform overrun with ads, wanna be models and honestly low on genuine photography content. Instagram owned by Facebook turned into a platform with a race for fame and attention. Guess what? it gets worse too…

Teens (large Instagram user base) are now thriving of posting ads. Paid posts of products has grown rapidly on most platforms but Instagram suits it best. The teens reach out to brands that have a huge target segment on Instagram users and post “clever” or “interesting” images of the product. Those accounts doing this on Instagram aren’t necessarily huge and famous but that’s where its a win for the brands.

Wider scope

Paying an Instagram user who has 3,000 followers $50 to post an image can be more effective than reaching out to a rel celeb/athlete and paying thousands of dollars for a post. It also can be hard to get an accepting party willing to deal. Instead the brands can saturate Instagram with their “niche” products and get attention quickly.

It’s a different approach to all these YouTubers who sell out to companies to clickbait their review videos. You see this a lot in the tech categories, a channel reviewing a product they got for free and saying in the title “The best gimbal ever [Product name]!”. It gives you zero credibility on the actual review and opinion, i wish people realized this.

Pay to post

Creating an Instagram post is a lot easier than a video so brands pay less and can go through more accounts. The company might not even have to send out products to be endorsed, the accounts may even purchase and just take payment for a post.

There are positives to this frenzy of Instagram promoting like management, communication and editing skills but i see downside too. Aggressive behavior, misleading posts and being taken advantage of are problems that may well arise from this frenzy.

At the end of the day these Instagram posters are minors who can not be in positions to make decisions on some aspects. Companies need to be aware of this in which for them all they see is $$$.

Instagram has enough ads, same case with every other platform but soak it up because now accounts are blasting paid content all over the place.