Blogger & Influencer Guidance: Why I won’t let brands steal my images….

As of the 18th February 2017 the terms to our site changed and it’s kind of a big deal. In fact, it’s a huge deal. Not just for Elle Blonde but for those of us who are involved in online, social and digital marketing. We’re going to share with you a little influencer guidance today.

Believe us when we say it. We are fair and we believe in giving more value than is expected. Why? Simply because the more you put out to the universe the more it comes back to you in abundance. Great believers in the Law of Attraction we’ve seen this happen time and time again.

We give, give, give and people take, we know our worth and our value and then we are rewarded with greater, bigger and better opportunities and freedom and financial rewards.

frederic_malle_perfume_house_Fenwick_fragrance_hall_beauty_week_newcastle_elle_blonde_luxury_lifestyle_blog

However, the reason for the change in our terms and offer this bit of influencer guidance is on the back of an influx, a huge influx of brands who not only Elle Blonde, but other online publications and bloggers are working and have worked with using imagery without consent.

Take Instagram for example. At least daily image that have been posted on our profile are shared, we are notified as we are tagged and mentioned in the image. Credit has been given. Perfect. Our favourites include Scent From & Nouveau Lashes those have got Blogger & Influencer relations down to a tee! We salute you guys!

Imagine scrolling through a news feed and seeing an image of yours which has taken your time to take and edit and then publish to have been lifted and posted as if it were the brands own image with absolutely no credit given back to you. You’d feel a little bit put out.

The Looking Glass Sharing Board | Sunderland Restaurant Week | Where to eat in Sunderland | Elle Blonde Luxury Lifestyle Destination Blog

Daily we see bloggers and influencers asking what to do and have even found ourselves in the same situation and quandary. What can you do? In all fairness have you even stipulated your terms of usage for the images prior? Have you simply just assumed that these companies and brands follow the same book of code you read? Perhaps it’s the first time they’ve published content other than their own.

Grab your FREE Social Media Strategy Guide

Drop your email address into the box below and we'll send you our free Social Media Strategy guide immediately to help you create an impacting marketing strategy for your business now. 

Influencer guidance

As bloggers and influencers, writers of digital media it’s time that we got clear on this and acted together.

This is our stance here at Elle Blonde. Creating great quality content is key and we have absolutely no issues with brands pushing our content out to their audience. AS LONG AS WE ARE CREDITED FOR IT. Simply link back to our site or tag our social profiles. Then we are happy. Usually, this results in a small growth in readership or followers from those discovering our site which is great for us. The brand gets great quality content, we gain a greater following win, win.

The issue arises when brands use your content with no credit. In effect, this is classed as intellectual property theft. As a blogger or influencer who spends hours curating content why are you allowing this to happen? If you created art (your image) it was in a gallery and the brand took it to show everybody without paying or giving you any form of credit you’d demand either the item returned or payment made.

We are not saying every image should be a paid for image here.

However, as per our new terms we are stating that by using our images brand accept the terms of our site which also includes all social media channels to and they have an opportunity to credit us for any imagery used, where we will be more than happy for them to promote our images for a gain in readership even though they may financially gain sales from our imagery. If they fail to credit our images and/or work then we will then invoice them suitable for the images used.

Pandora Birthstones Collection | Gifts for Mum, Sister, Daughter, Wife, Girlfriend | Elle Blonde Luxury Lifestyle Destination Blog

If bloggers and influencers all make a stand together, the industry becomes stronger, the lines become less blurred and those who are forging a path in this industry aren’t having their lives made any more difficult by those who are letting brands take advantage of them.

We’ve changed our terms, now it’s your turn! What influencer guidance can you pass on?

Pin me for later ?

Blogger & Influencer Guidance: Why I won't let brands steal my images.... 1