If you’re an avid social media consumer you may have noticed a new hashtag, #ad, or the use of words such as “sponsored” or “partnership”.
“Because you have multiple social media platforms — and sometimes even blogs — you charge as per your rate card, depending on your following. It can be a campaign or a one-off post.” Schimmel said: “If the content is paid for, the way the consumer receives it is different from the content [that] is not paid for. So the recommendation from an influencer has a very different impact if you know the influencer was paid to make that recommendation. Consumers have the right to know whether the content is paid for.”
She said the onus is on brands to emphasise the rules to their influencers. “We go to the brands, we do not go to the influencers; the brands have the primary responsibility. An ethical brand should be insisting that their influencers use the indicators and should be putting it in their contracts.This conversation about regulating social media advertising is new in South Africa, but not abroad; the United States and the United Kingdom, for instance, already have regulations in place.
Lesego Legobane, known as Thickleeyonce, is a “lifestyle influencer” on Instagram with 417 000 followers. She said: “I always say with paid ads, followers can always pick it up, because whether you are authentic or not, when you are doing an ad for brands it’s kinda always obvious — and followers can always tell. Adding that it’s an ad doesn’t make a difference.