I guess this is how the wider world views social influencers?

January 19, 2018

Here’s a story about a young lady who wanted to spend five nights in a luxury Dublin hotel. As she says herself, it was to be for “an early Valentine’s Day weekend”. Nothing too unusual there.

Here’s the kicker, because of who she is, rising social media influencer Elle Darby, with 87,000 YouTube subscribers and 76,000 Instagram followers, wanted to stay for free. The request was bluntly and publicly denied by The White Moose Café on their Facebook page, in a response that was clearly written to get the baying masses whipped up into a frenzy. And in turn, Elle Darby posted a tearful YouTube video letting her fans know how hurt she was by the experience. This was soon picked up by the Independent.

But this is where things get interesting. In the short synopsis above, you’ve learnt that Elle Darby is a rising social influencer who is used to having free stays at luxury hotels, such is her influence. And that The White Moose Café is a luxury hotel in Dublin, with a significant Facebook following too.

Neither of these two parties are novices when it comes to social media. Were I more cynical, I’d think that this was planned, perhaps even some sort of PR stunt!

On the surface of it, this might just be an entitled young individual who hasn’t fully understood the work that goes into running a hotel. Equally the response might just be from a hotel owner fed up of those that haven’t put in years of hard work to achieve what they have, while still looking for handouts.

The reason this doesn’t quite add is up is, all savvy social influencers know they can’t simply expect to get items of real value given to them for free. Right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8zElbN2_hg&feature=youtu.be

Latest Posts

AI is helping B2B organic content rebound on LinkedIn and Reddit, so SEO optimisation for posts has never been more important. We’ve got a playbook to help you get started on boosting that organic visibility on Google and LLMs. First things first – we do often preach here at Immediate…

B2B marketing feels slower because you’re selling to a buying group, not a decision maker. Forrester says the average buying decision involves 13 people and 89% of purchases involve two or more departments. Add three generations with different trust cues and you get rework, internal debate, and “one more version” forever. Buyers are also doing more research without sales, which makes guessing expensive. This LinkedIn Live with Tejal Patel is about buyer behaviour, trust cues, and what social is doing in research and validation, so you can build one narrative that travels across the group and saves your team time.

We’re only a couple of weeks into 2026, and social already feels…different, in the best way possible. This year isn’t just about flashy new features or the next viral sound; it’s about making the internet feel more human, more useful, and a lot less exhausting.