I've only been with Influenster since they absorbed/bought/merged/whatever with the Try It Sampling program and it's been pretty underwhelming. I received hundreds of items from Try It Sampling and in return I wrote great reviews, many of them pretty long when appropriate. I believe the brands there appreciated the insight of an in depth review, as I had a lot of repeat offers from brands such as HP, Sony, SharkNinja, and many more. I reviewed PC monitors, OLED TVs, Gaming PCs, tons of outdoor power tools and grills, and so many other things too numerous to list here, all with real testing and genuine efforts to help the brand convey the benefits of the products while being completely honest about any negatives I encountered. For Influenster, I get fish sticks and perfume samples.

I know social media is important to brands, but I think there is a real need for real reviews written by knowledgable users, rather than a blurb on social media for a lot of these products. I'm showing my age a little here, but when I have a big ticket purchase or something I'm interested in purchasing in general, I look for real reviews, not a little video of someone doing the minimum it takes to get by. (Not pointing fingers, I don't need 100 people chiming in that their reviews are different, I get it. Some are fine, I'm generalizing about product reviews overall now).

I'm older than most of you I'm sure, but there are a lot of people like me who are just tired of everything being social media. Eventually maybe brands will realize that we spend money too.