Photo: Getty
Gigi Hadid
Ever since Instagram evolved from being a platform and community for sharing posts to a serious money-making opportunity for people with large followings, it's become harder to differentiate between genuine and sponsored posts.
And despite influencers, brands and even celebrities being slapped across the wrist for failing to disclose which posts are paid advertisements, it doesn't change the fact that the requirement of #sp and #ad hashtags still go largely unnoticed.
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Instagram has come up with a way to combat this so all sponsored posts are clearly labelled as such.
"As more and more partnerships form on Instagram, it's important to ensure the community is able to easily recognise when someone they follow is paid to post content," Instagram's team wrote in a recent post on their business blog.
"In the coming weeks, you'll start to see a new 'Paid partnership with' tag on posts and stories. This feature will help creators more clearly communicate to their followers when they are working in partnership with a business."
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The update will also benefit content creators and their brand partners with tracking the reach of their posts.
Instagram illustrated what this new transparency will look like with Song of Style blogger Aimee Song. As seen in the images of both a regular post and her story, the 'Paid partnership with volvocarusa' is much more obvious than what was previously required.
It's clear, it's unobtrusive, and it will help clarify all the inconsistencies around paid partnerships.
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From: Harper's BAZAAR UK