Sarah Harrison has made a business out of being Little Miss Melbourne.
She started a blog in 2011 documenting her life in her new home city and now has about 18,000 followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
![Sarah Harrison of Little Miss Melbourne believes in the power of word-of-mouth marketing.](/web/20170302014445im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/m/9/s/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gum64a.png/1488236785574.jpg)
What began as a hobby now makes Harrison money, with businesses like KFit and Scratch & Jotter working with her on featuring their products.
Harrison is an "influencer", one of a growing number of celebrities, bloggers and popular social media users who businesses look to for product promotion.
![Tribe co-founder Jules Lund backs the updated guidelines.](/web/20170302014445im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/d/8/1/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gum64a.png/1488236785574.jpg)
"I personally prefer to disclose when I have worked with someone on something," Harrison says "but it is a grey area and it's quite subjective".
Increased scrutiny
Updated guidelines from the Australian Association of National Advertisers that come into effect on Wednesday are seeking to make things more black and white.
A new provision is being inserted into the AANA Code of Ethics requiring advertising and marketing communication to be "clearly distinguishable as such to the relevant audience".
Influencers must ensure any paid content is marked and cannot "camouflage the fact that it is advertising".
The practice of businesses working with influencers has come under increasing scrutiny, with Media Watch investigating influencers such as chef Matt Moran, who was paid to send tweets recommending Kangaroo Island and failed to disclose the payment.
More recently author and entrepreneur Zoe Foster Blake was criticised for posting a photo to Instagram of her fridge filled with YouFoodz products that she received for free.
Foster Blake captioned her post "this isn't sponsored by the way. Just a recommendation".
Influencer marketing has come of age as a more legitimate and predictable marketing channel.
Jules Lund
Under the revised guidelines if a business arranges with an influencer to post content on social media and "retains control over the content" the AANA advises it should be marked with "#ad or similar wording".
However if a business sends free products to an influencer without any stipulations that they post about them on social media and the business has "no control" over any statements the influencer may make, then the post is not considered to be advertising or marketing communication.
A huge step forward
Former television and radio star Jules Lund is one of the founders of the app Tribe, which matches influencers with businesses.
Influencers with between 3000 and 20,000 followers can receive up to $300 a post while those with 500,000 followers can charge more than $1200 for a post.
He describes the AANA guidelines as "a huge step forward for the industry here in Australia".
However Lund says Tribe will not need to change anything on its platform as it already "strongly advises" influencers to disclose payment.
"Influencer marketing has come of age as a more legitimate and predictable marketing channel," Lund says. "Ironically I think even though influencer marketing 1.0 was full of Top Gear celebrities selling teeth whitening and protein balls, influencer marketing 2.0 is potentially one of the most honest forms of marketing we've seen in history. It's about everyday consumers recommending the brands they use and love."
Lund says audiences appreciate honesty when it comes to payment.
"This is not Alan Jones and John Laws cash for comment on radio," he says. "The audience for those situations found it difficult to distinguish between sponsored and non-sponsored content. In social media the audiences are savvy and there is a greater understanding that it's part of that industry and there's a greater acceptance. To go one step further and add in your caption #ad I think only attracts greater respect."
Acting with integrity
Harrison says the guidelines won't be changing the way she works.
"I think if you are being paid to represent a brand which you would not have otherwise used yourself personally then it needs to be disclosed," she says.
But Harrison says the majority of the content she creates for Little Miss Melbourne is not paid.
"It goes back to passion and my passion is sharing good things with people," she says. "I do believe in word of mouth and I do believe in supporting small businesses that are doing something that I like. Guidelines are going to be good for people who are seeking guidance, but they're not going to do anything to pull people into line who are not acting with integrity."
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