Fancy getting cash for posting a couple of pictures? New app Takumi promises you don’t have to be a superstar blogger who lives on the beach to take advantage of working with brands on Instagram.
Takumi, which launched last week, claims to match Instagram users with brands looking for promotion. The premise is simple: you check out their ‘gigs’, sign up for the ones you like, post the required pictures and get paid cash in your bank account.
‘Our promise is a minimum payment of £40 for 1,000 legitimate Instagram followers. Larger rewards are tied to your Instagram reach,’ says Takumi. ‘Brands trust you to create original content your followers will appreciate – the campaign brief is your canvas. We guarantee the payments. All you need is a UK bank account.’
Weeeeeeeelllll, actually, that’s not quite how it works in our experience.
At the moment, there only seems to be one gig available – for winter clothing wear brand 66°North. To get cash you need to post a picture of yourself in something from the brand that you’ve bought off their website, tag them in and get paid £40 –bish bash bosh.
For starters though, I don’t have a 66°North coat. ‘No problem!’ say Takumi, which is happy to provide a 30% discount on its website (which is actually pretty good – the stuff looks super well made and hella warm). The cheapest thing I can find on Takumi’s site is £13 for a hat so, once you’ve purchased it and posted your picture, you’ll make yourself a tidy profit of £27 quid. Banging. And you get a hat.
But, here comes the problem. The app promised £40 if you’ve got 1000 followers. I obviously don’t have that many because I only post pictures of me and my friends getting pissed and/or my cat Gandalf. So I signed in using The Debrief account which has 17.7k followers and averages around 2-300 likes per post. It is, by all accounts, a healthy mid-sized social media presence.
But alas. That isn’t enough for Takumi! When I try and ‘reserve’ the 66°North gig, I get an error message: ‘Instagram profile was flagged. Engagement levels too low’. Gutted, mate. Guess this wasn’t the golden pony I wanted after all.
Who knows, perhaps as the app grows and more and more people and brands sign up, it might work as it says it’s supposed to. It’s definitely an interesting business model, probably one we’re likely to see more and more in the coming months and years. This time though, it’s back to eating baked beans out of a tin.
Like this? Then you might almost be interested in:
Backlash Begins: Essena O’Neill’s Mates Are Calling Her A Liar
5 Nightmares That Instagram Has Created That Didn’t Exist 5 Years Ago
**Follow Jess on Instagram and help me get that sweet, sweet 66****°North cash at @Jess_Commons.
**
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.