No.1207025
File: 1778498689716.png (570.95 KB, 640x640, 1:1, Xa8WTEV.png) ImgOps Google
I know that we do have a few (wannabe) influencers and content creators on this site.
I get that it's nice to have an extra bit of income running promotions for whoever wants to contribute.
But how do you feel if an influencer ends up pushing something that turns out to be a scam? (f.e. crypto / or another service) Is it easy to wave it away as "Well, it's the company behind the product that's pushing the scam"?
What if the product / service was never legit to begin with? (I imagine you can genuinely believe something is legiot when you start only to find out the truth a couple years later)
What if the scam impacts products tied to the influencer / content creator, or the creator announced they are working closely with insert product)
Can you still separate scammer from the creator?
How would you do damage control if you're the creator facing this?
> image from Jontron for Fool me once / twice. I don't know if he ever got entangled with any actual scams
No.1207026
Awe hell yeah, upgraded to wannabe.
You can absolutely seperate scammer from creator, much as you can seperate scammer from any other victim. That's what a scammer does - trick people into thinking they're getting a good deal. Most youtubers arent business minded. I am sure plenty of people who pushed Honey genuinely thought it was legit, because finding out that it wasn't required a skillset that many simply don't have. There's a reason the really big youtubers, like any company, have legal advisors.
Now when we're dealing with folks knowingly, deliberately pushing a shoddy product, then that's a bit of a different conversation - because in that moment the influencer IS a scammer, not just advertising another's product that they were led to believe was good.
You can't expect every youtuber to 100% know everything about every product they agree to be sponsored by.
But look at it this way. My shitty little <10k channel gets like five sponsorship emails from scam companies a month. How many so you think channels with hundreds od thousands of subs get? How many do you think they weed out before picking some they actually want to represent?
The "youtuber sponsored by scam" stories are big, sure and you should always be careful, but they are still the exception rather than the rule, thankfully.
