When I found myself gaining a bit of a social media following I also found myself receiving more and more messages asking if I’d like to receive something or collaborate on something in exchange for exposure on socials
It sounds quite exciting but I’m a bit of a cynic and it’s quite obvious in the majority of cases it’s my large social media following that is the attraction. These people don’t genuinely want to work with you, they just want your followers!
The last freebie I accepted was of a set of yarn pegs for the Yarnsmiths range from Wool Warehouse a couple of years ago. I felt uncomfortable receiving it as beautiful and useful as it is and I felt like I’d ‘sold out’ and that my followers would be disappointed in me and worried I would become yet another ‘large’ crochet account just pushing whatever freebie/craze/new yarn was doing the rounds onto them. I then soon after made the decision that this would be the last ‘freebie’ I accepted.
I’ve turned down all sorts of things from the obvious yarn to book deals to design commissions to scissors and also some really random things totally unrelated to crochet!
There’s been a few reasons for this decision
- Sometimes I just don’t like what is being offered and I’m not going to help promote something I don’t genuinely believe in, wouldn’t genuinely use or isn’t being compensated for realistically and tangibly. Books for example are poorly compensated for, the publishers are the real winners, not the authors
- I don’t want the pressure of having to create a certain amount of content in return for the freebie/collab. Crochet isn’t my day job, I only do it in my spare time and I have enough deadlines and obligations with my actual job already as well as a busy personal life and I just don’t want to give myself more pressure.
- I don’t want my social media accounts to just be advert after advert. As a follower of various yarn related accounts myself I’ve been known to swiftly unfollow them once their feed becomes a steady stream of adverts.
- Without the pressure of creating (effectively free) content for others I can make what I want, when I want, with what I want which enables me to be my authentic self and I think that’s what my followers prefer.
I’ll never say never again but so far declining freebies (yep even the ‘free’ yarn!)and collabs has been one of my best crochet related decisions.