Charles Teves
- An anonymous influencer was asking for too much given that she doesn’t even have a big following
- Photography company questions her status as an influencer
Google defines an influencer as “a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.” In order to be an effective influencer, one must have a good number of followers and enough online clout.
But some influencers have been giving the title a bad name, become aggressive and greedy and oftentimes overestimating their own worth.
Take the case of one influencer who tried to get free services for her wedding.
Betrothed and Co is a partnership that specializes in photography and videography. They are paid to go all around the world to document special events.
They were recently contacted by an influencer’s agent who offered an exchange deal for their services. Blogger of Cheezeburger.com shared the convo of Frankie of Betrothed & Co. and an agent named Melissa.
The agent named Melissa said that her client, a “well known social media influencer” will be getting married on April 20, 2021. The influencer wanted a documentary-style video of the events leading to her wedding. On the day of the wedding, she wanted an hour-long video of the ceremonies with 1,000 photos that she can share.
In exchange for that, the influencer would promote their business to her 55,000 followers combined from Instagram and Facebook. She also asked that anyone who would avail of Betrothed and Co.’s services through her would also get a 25% discount on their services.
Frankie from Betrothed did not really buy into it. He questioned the number of followers that she had. He thought maybe they meant 550,000 followers, not 55,000 since she was asking way too much for too few followers.
Frankie also said that they have had offers like this from different clients who had way more than 55,000 followers on one social media account and that some paid for their services as well.
Plus the 25% discount that the influencer was asking for her followers would only hurt their business, especially since others who featured them actually made their prices go up.
Melissa and her client did not take the reply very well. She called Frankie unprofessional and even threatened them.
Melissa made sure that she won’t be considering Betrothed for the wedding. Melissa also said that they really messed up on this one because they could have used the opportunity to meet up with high-value people and celebrities.
Furthermore, Melissa said that there have been other companies that have better offers, and some of them would even pay her client just so they could get exposure.
She also said that her client’s mother is suffering from cancer.
Melissa then threatened to ruin their name if they continued with their ‘abuse’.
“Please don’t email again as we will have to name and shame you if you continue with this abuse,” Melissa said.
Frankie replied by apologizing if he offended them and asked them to point out what part in his previous reply was particularly offensive.
He also subtlety mocked Melissa when he said that those celebrities who were “scheduled to are actually ‘People who have never been on TV’.
He also criticized Melissa for mentioning the client’s mother having cancer only then, which to him looked like she was trying to make him feel guilty for rejecting her offer.
At the end of the day, Betrothed & Co. is just a business that is trying hard to make it to the top, given that they are in a very ‘challenging’ market.
Frankie ended it by saying he was really curious as to who her client is.
