A wonderful thing happened today. I sent some jewellery I made to somebody I follow on YouTube and socials, she is very much into handmade and sustainability. This morning when I woke up she had made a fabulous post, my folksy shop is linked, hopefully our who community will benefit, so far there has been 41k views in 12 hours.https://www.instagram.com/p/DcMo0sIjIpw/?igsi=MW1rZWRrZ2x3ZmR4cg==
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Well deserved. Your jewellery is beautiful!
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That’s fantastic! Well done 
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Thank you so much, hopefully it will get us all some more traffic, I’m still to make my first sale 
xx
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Oh do you mean you gave them to her ?. That’s a very generous (and lovely) free gift ?
Your work is gorgeous.
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I did, she’s so lovely and tbh I am now up to 42.5 thousand views since 7am this morning, 35 new instagram followers so a pretty fair trade I think, not to mention extra free folksy promo which is fabulous for everyone. Thank you for liking my jewellery, still to have my first sale, I’m hopeful as I love folksy, I need more traffic to my shop really 
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That’s a fantastic amount of views - well done and hopefully it will translate into lots of sales 
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That’s amazing, I hope you start getting lots of sales soon 
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Ahh thank you, I really appreciate your response, I hope so, I’m loosing heart a bit x
That’s great! What a lovely post to have your work shared on I can see it’s already been increasing views, hopefully it’ll lead to some sales soon too.
Would she allow you to use the photos on your listings? I expect the pieces are all one of a kind so it won’t show the exact item, but it could work well as a later photo to give an idea of how similar pieces look being worn.
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I have a different view, because I don’t think this is something to celebrate.
Sending free products to an influencer in exchange for publicity isn’t the same thing as a genuine customer choosing to buy and recommend your work. If someone is receiving a product for free and then posting about it, that should be made completely clear to their audience. Otherwise it crosses the line from an authentic recommendation to advertising.
Her post creates the impression of an independent recommendation, when it isn’t. It was promotional content in exchange for a gifted item, not a genuine customer choosing to buy and recommend your jewellery.
It’s not an ethical way to build trust. As a customer, if I find out a seller uses gifted influencer promotions, I will not buy from them. I’d much rather support makers whose sales come from genuine customers and honest word of mouth than from free gifts in exchange for exposure.
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Firstly, we’d like to say a huge congratulations to @Severnsilver - this is a great success for your business and we’re delighted for you.
It’s worth saying that influencer partnerships aren’t going to be for every seller - and they certainly don’t need to be. Different makers will find different ways of marketing their work that feel right for them.
But for sellers who are open to them, Gifting and creator partnerships can be a genuinely positive and mutually beneficial relationship. A maker gets their work in front of a new, relevant audience, while the creator gets something they genuinely like and can share with their followers. When there’s a good fit between the maker, the product and the creator’s audience, it can result in some really positive outcomes for both sides.
We completely agree Poppy that transparency is important where products have been gifted or there is a commercial relationship. But when a product is marked as gifted it doesn’t mean it’s not a genuine recommendation/endorsement.
Ultimately, this is just one form of marketing. Some sellers will find success through Instagram, some through craft fairs, SEO, email, PR, word of mouth, collaborations or influencer partnerships. There isn’t one “right” way to build a handmade business - and it’s great when sellers share what has worked for them so others can decide whether it might work for them too.
And perhaps most importantly, we should be mindful of how we respond when someone comes to this community excitedly sharing a win. We can absolutely have conversations about the ethics and practicalities of different types of marketing, but there’s a difference between having that conversation and taking the wind out of someone’s sails when they’re celebrating something that’s worked brilliantly for them.
We’re a community of makers. We should be looking for ways to lift people up, celebrate their successes and share in their excitement.
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I think you’ve misunderstood.
This isn’t about whether influencer marketing is a good idea or whether sellers should celebrate a successful marketing campaign. It’s about honesty and transparency.
Nobody has suggested that gifted collaborations can’t be genuine, or that influencers aren’t allowed to recommend products they’ve been sent. Of course they can. The issue is that consumers need to know they were sent the product for free so they can judge the recommendation in the proper context.
In this case, the influencer has presented the jewellery as though it was simply something they’d chosen and purchased, without disclosing that it is in fact an unsolicited free gift. That’s exactly the kind of advertising practice that UK regulators have repeatedly said must be clearly disclosed.
As a marketplace representing handmade UK businesses, I would have expected Folksy to be encouraging sellers to follow advertising rules and best practice, not glossing over the disclosure issue by talking about “celebrating wins.”
This isn’t “taking the wind out of someone’s sails.” It’s pointing out that marketing still has to be honest and transparent. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
If a seller gets thousands of views because an influencer genuinely loves their work and clearly labels it as a gifted item, fantastic. But if the gifting isn’t disclosed, followers are being misled about the nature of the endorsement, and I don’t think that should be normalised or defended.
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