Aspiring Influencers Be Aware Of Fake Brand Ambassador Adverts
You don’t need to be a marketing expert to know that Social Media has pretty much taken over as the most popular way of advertising. Many people nowadays make a career out of their social media accounts, whether that’s as a vlogger on YouTube, as a blog writer or even by creating attractive and unique posts on platforms such as Instagram and Twitter.
The word ‘Influencer’ can be found everywhere now, along with the word ‘Ambassador’. Lots of people have managed to become successful as social media influencers and often get paid to promote products and services via their chosen medium. There are many people out there that want to do the same, but of course you must build your way up and grow your audience before you can be chosen to do such things. Most companies won’t even consider working with you if you have less than 1000 followers or subscribers, and many won’t even consider you if you have less than 10,000.
That makes complete sense though, as why would you invest your money into someone or something that people don’t like, or that no one has heard of? It’s too much of a risk for companies to do that.
I’m writing this post to warn people of the risks involved, and why you should be careful when trying to break into the world of becoming a successful influencer.
I am one of those people that enjoys creating content and wants to eventually turn my personal creations into a career. I’ve done a lot of creating in various jobs I’ve had, but I’ve been spending a lot of time in the past couple of years building my way towards being a small spark in this Influencer explosion. It’s difficult, especially for people that have full time jobs, like me. It can depend on so many things. If you don’t have much time to put into setting up your videos and photos perfectly…if you don’t have a high enough quality camera… there can be so many things that get in the way.
Having difficulty expanding their audience can lead to people trying almost anything to get started, and con artists have noticed this.
A while ago, while I was watching various Instagram Stories on my phone, an advert popped up from what seemed to be a headphone company looking for brand ambassadors. I found the advert again and clicked on it to find out more. This took me to a minimal, sleek looking website. I read the information and filled in the form to see if I would be accepted. I thought to myself it’s worth a try but also thought that I wouldn’t be selected anyway as I didn’t have the usual minimum number of followers and subscribers. A short while later I got an email saying ‘CONGRATS! You’re in’.
I was really excited. The instructions were that I could pick up to 3 products from the website and all I had to pay for was the postage. This should have been another clue (in addition to being accepted with a ‘low’ number of followers), but I was trying to consider the cost to the retailer for giving the products away for free. I run an online site, so I can appreciate that. Anyway, I picked out two pairs of earpods and put my order through.
When I told me wife, she was not excited. She felt unsure that this was genuine. She asked me if I was sure it was all legitimate, and at the time I did. I then went off and started to look up a bit more about these products and the brand… I found quite a few posts about them, but none were actually from the brand. In fact, this brand didn’t have any social media. Hmmmmm
Eventually I found a post warning people off and explaining that this was a scam. It all clicked. I researched a bit more to then realise that my wife’s thoughts were most likely correct.
I wont lie, I was very embarrassed. I saw this as a great opportunity for my platform and I had already had ideas of videos and photos that I would create.
I contacted the company on the email address that was given, asking for them to cancel my order. I saw on my banking app that the payment hadn’t completed yet, so I thought it would be an easy fix. They responded very quickly explaining that, as mentioned in their Ts and Cs, they do not give refunds because the products are made to order. Again…red flags everywhere!
If you are not paying for the products, how can they be made to order? If the payment hadn’t yet gone through, the order wouldn’t have been processed, so nothing would have been put into production. All genuine companies have a refund policy. I went to my bank to request the refund. I provided all the evidence I had to show that it was a scam. Thankfully they understood the situation and agreed to get the money back for me, so I was very lucky there.
I didn’t intend for this post to be so long, but I felt that it was an important one to write, to help people who might want to work with brands and become an influencer or have a career in testing products.
Basically, if it seems too good to be true, it most likely is. Don’t fall for these adverts. After clicking on that one, I found loads more, all using the same unbranded product images, just coloured. I can tell, from my experience of working in design, that the images have colour overlays, so they are all using the basic white earpods as the base image.
My best advice would be to steer clear of these adverts. Work hard creating the best content you can. Enjoy what you do and maybe one day it can become a career for you. Whether that’s as an influencer, or otherwise. Once you reach at least 1000 followers, you can apply to some of the well-known influencer agencies… or who knows, they may come to you.
Please get in contact to let me know if you have been a victim of these cons, or if this post has helped you. I would love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading
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Credit to: @honestambassadors for the image I used