Influenced? Or Not?

One of my neighbors is a social media influencer, and over the years I've observed her promoting certain products that companies give influencers for free (and often also pay them) in return for recommendations on their social media platforms. The neighbor makes good money at this, too, and receives a lot of free merchandise.

There's nothing wrong with this as long as the influencer lets their followers know that they've received a free product and/or are paid to endorse the product. This disclosure is required by law, too, and if you're curious you can read the .pdf of the FTC's Guides covering disclosures here.

There's no way even the FTC can police the internet, so influencers can offer endorsements without those disclosures, and you'd never know. I can tell you right now, for example, that I really love this Mandala Ombre yarn, which is soft and light and works up like a dream, but am I being paid or given freebies to tell you that? Have I been handed a script to publish on the blog? Will I make fifty bucks for mentioning the yarn here? (I'm not, I haven't, and I won't, but I'm just making a point.)

There are crochet social media influencers that I follow on YouTube, primarily for their video tutorials. If they're popular, they usually endorse a lot of things, usually at least one product per video. I thrift 99% of my yarn for my crochet, so their recommendations are wasted on me. The same goes for the online classes, hooks, winders and other crochet-related products they endorse. Honestly I do not buy influencer endorsed products at all.

Do I feel guilty about that? Nope. For one thing, my views of their videos contributes to what they earn from YouTube. For another, even with the discount codes I couldn't afford 90% of what they endorse on my tiny budget for crochet. The 10% I can afford usually doesn't interest me, although I reserve the right to change my mind, especially if I see a pattern or book I want to buy in the future.

When I do want to show extra support for an influencer, I will donate directly to them, usually by purchasing a print version of their free patterns. As it happens I just bought the big beautiful basket pattern from Jayda InStitches. I don't actually need the pattern, which I've memorized from watching the video tutorial, but I've made about a dozen of these baskets, which have been super helpful as containers for yarn, projects and other things around the house. Buying the pattern is my way of saying thanks.