Asking for something to be done for free in exchange for exposure. Sounds bad, looks bad is bad. This sentence is common in emails and direct messages of social media platforms from self assigned influencers sent to business managers.

Your exposure is nothing

Most cases it’s a simple “No we aren’t giving you a nights stay/ boat ride/ product for free in exchange for exposure you’re a 16 year old kid who has 20,000 Instagram followers.” because honestly how many of some young Instagram users followers would be in the target demographic for most businesses.

These types of deals, mass exposure for a goods or service only works when the business pays someone who is a genuine influencers i.e a Sports star or actor/actress.

There is an obvious mis connection or uneducation in that these social media influencers are well over evaluating their impact from any business relationship.

What makes it worse is if the account is just pumping out advertisements left right and center, stating bias views and opinions without even putting in research or time to create a better valued post.

I would hate to think that being an Instagram based advertiser gives you a whiff of importance or royalty.

Gianluca Casaccia a Philippines beach club owner gave Instagram free loaders a bake saying “we would like to suggest to try another way to eat, drink, or sleep for free. Or try to actually work.” in response to requests.

This worked wonders from a. Firing back to freeloaders and low quality advertisers and b. the attention his response got certainly put his club on the market and in the news for something that isn’t negative by any means.

You cannot actually put a value for what the exposure will be, if 10,000 people see it then so what. Are those people techies? Outdoors people? earning high 5 figures?.

Using social media advertisers

The cases for when these influencers are useful? Cheap, niche products or gaming gambling such as the CSGO gambling scene. Cheap products are available to most even children and the next fad is always poking its head around the corner trying to catch on.

Giving a gimbal or tripod to a video/photo YouTuber to do a biased opinion review on is a good idea for that business it is then up to those that view the video to decide if that product is for them. You have to match the hatch as best as possible to get your “exposure” at demographics that matter to you/

Match the hatch

CSGO gambling whilst unethical and rigged has associations with many large-sized YouTubers in the CSGO genre. Also of note is the linked site is advertising betting/gambling whilst hosting an article stating theyre rigged.

DJI gives its drones out to many tech/video/photo Youtubers to review as does GoPro as does Camera companies with new releases. Interesting enough it would be the company reaching out not the other way around.

Take that as a note, aspiring influencers; if you have to reach out to companies for freebies you aint big enough.