Being paid to post on Instagram doesn't make me a 'sell-out'

Whoever you are on the internet, you will sometimes see a flicker of #ad or #spon on Instagram and think, ‘Here we go, they’ve sold out.’ Chances are, we follow our favourite pixel pushers because their posts entertain or inform us, or make us feel a bit less alone - at least that’s what I try and do with my Instagram feed, @mother_pukka, which has over 181,000 followers.

But there’s been change afoot these last few years. The reality is regular people, not celebrities, are better placed to flog the goods. It’s basic consumer behaviour: scrolling through pictures of Cara Delevingne trotting around in a velveteen catsuit as I chomp on soggy Weetabix is obviously unattainable – but then I clap eyes on someone who looks a bit more like me wearing something similar, and feel more inclined to ‘add to cart’.

I’ve flogged/vlogged about bog roll. I was asked if I felt I’d sold out – to which my response was no, not at all. I’ve got 33 years of experience on the loo and if I can, I’m going to use it to pay the mortgage.

My Instagram motto is ‘parenting the s--- out of life’: what could be more befitting than rear-wiping for comedic effect? It was my most-watched vlog to date, and one of the reasons there was limited backlash was, I think, because 4-ply is sold better with an everyday human than a cartoon koala.

I’ll admit, however, that asking the marketing manager if ‘I need to back onto the pan’ as part of the post was something of a low.

This is a shift across the media landscape as traditional magazines and newspapers close, and the publishing graveyard means that budgets are being directed towards The Real People on the Internet. Instagram may occasionally be a curated wonderland of filtered unicorn reality, but Real People exist there too, trying to put their experiences to good use.

The difference is that you pay for magazines, which in turn justifies the stacks of adverts across their pages: there’s no furore, then, because the process is clear.

Things on social media become murky because, while the principle of putting words and pictures out to a mass audience is the same, I need to know whether it has come about because the poster genuinely recommends it, or because a brand has paid for that endorsement.

Building a career on the internet is not for the faint hearted, and running a blog is on par with running a magazine, just without the other bums on seats - you are word monkey, picture researcher, editor, tea maker, ‘Bob in IT’ and legal counsel.

And while some Instagrammers have bigger followings than those magazines, their readers don’t pay a dime - downloading Instagram, even, is free. So what’s a little ad, so long as it’s clearly marked as one?

I partner with products I like, but only do so in a way that feels natural to me, and always note that it is an #ad clearly in the caption. So long as there is transparency, Instagrammers being paid for posts is just the logical next step for the social media generation.

Anna Whitehouse blogs at Mother Pukka and, with her husband Matt Farquharson, co-authored  the Sunday Times Bestseller Parenting The S--- Out Of Life. To order your copy for £16.99 plus p&p call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk