The way brands interact with bloggers is interesting. Some brands will only give you products to review if you agree to only write positive reviews. Others want to see and edit your review before you post it. I kid you not.
Some brands are brilliant and ask that you write an honest review once you've properly tried the product and that you disclose that the product was provided for review. I like those brands.
There are other brands that will send you a product to post on Instagram using a specific #. The post they like the most wins a prize. This is only open to specific bloggers and unknown to the consumer.
They also run competitions on Instagram to receive a product. They ask you to post using a certain # and if they like your post the most you get the product. Again, this is only open to certain people and not disclosed to the general public.
Also, what's with Instagram lately? It's all advertising, promotion and people trying to get you to follow them. What really surprises me is when huge accounts and brands follow you, wait till you follow back and then unfollow the next day. What's with that? What do they think they'll achieve? Do they think you don't know what they're up to? It's pretty obvious when someone with over 10 thousand followers, who follows under 2 thousand people, that they're only following you to unfollow. Crap tactic.
I'm shocked that brands do the same thing. It's a brilliant way to put you off them. You'd think they'd want to keep customers/potential customers happy, not to annoy them. Mirenesse did that to me a few weeks ago. Burt's Bees does it all the time. Every few months they'll follow me and then unfollow a few days later.
The strangest thing is when you unfollow a blogger and they block you. WTF? I understand if they're doing a giveaway and they don't want you to follow then unfollow, but if they aren't and block you purely cause you unfollowed them, WTF?!
That's the side of blogging and Instagram that most people don't know about. Interesting isn't it?