INSTA-HYPOCRITES!

For 24 hours these celebrities came off Instagram to protest against ‘hate’. But funnily enough they don’t mind using the site to promote their own products or posting adverts that can bring in over £300,000

Crammed full of pouting selfies, snapshots of envy-inducing holidays and general selfpromotion, Instagram is usually screaming under the weight of the posts churned out each day.

But for 24 hours last week, this noisy corner of the world wide web was rather quieter than usual.

a host of celebrities and assembled worthies — including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kim Kardashian and Leonardo diCaprio to name a few — temporarily hit pause on their profiles. Why? as part of the # StopHate

ForProfit, a boycott against Facebook (and, by extension, its sister company Instagram) organised by civil rights activists in order to hold social media companies accountable for allowing ‘hate on their platforms’.

But surely if a celebrity really wants to protest against social media, the most powerful statement would be to quit it all together? The trouble is that Instagram is a powerful tool in a celebrity’s profile — not to mention bank balance. Not only can they use it to plug their various projects to millions of fans, they can also hope to rake in thousands of pounds advertising other brands. a well-placed plug can net them more than £300,000 per post; reality star Kylie Jenner is rumoured to be paid almost $1million (£780,000) per sponsored post.

michael Heller, founder of global agency Talent resources, says that what determines a star’s value for marketing on Instagram is not so much how many followers they have, but ‘how engaged’ the audience is. Because the more followers ‘like’ or comment on a post, the more likely they are to then click on a link to buy a celebrity-endorsed product.

Here, we look at those involved in # StopHateForProfit, and consult with Instagram marketing experts to demonstrate why celebrities will never really boycott ‘Plug-stagram’.