Influenster

Have you heard of Influenster? Of course you have. I've dedicated 8 posts to my Beauty Blogger Vox Box. Now I've decided to take the time to explain what Influenster is in detail. My sister first introduced me to this amazing site and since receiving my first box, I've become even more hooked on Influenster.

Let's start with what Influnester is. Influenster is a site for anyone who enjoys talking about the products they are loyal to as well as trying new products. You don't have to be obsessed with make up or hair products. You can review everything from charities to movies to candy. You choose what interests you most. These are called expert and lifestyle badges. To start, you can work on 5 expert badges. Expert badges show Influenster what you are passionate about. I have the Beauty Queen badge, the Sweet Tooth badge, the Chowhound badge, the Fashionista badge, and the Decorator badge. Lifestyle badges help the Influenster team know what sort of demographic you fit into. For example, sending me a box meant for a mother or a bride is a waste of their time but because I have the collegiate badge, they have some idea of what my lifestyle entails. The goal is to increase your badge scores to increase your overall Influenster score. To increase your score, you take surveys, write reviews, answer questions and share products on social media sites. Your score determines your eligibility to receive products to review.

It's not all about the free stuff. Even if you do have a high score, you are not guaranteed a Vox Box. The site is about giving companies useful feedback about their products and services. If it only took writing a couple of reviews and liking some stuff on Facebook, the site would go out of business. Nope, you have to work for the stuff. And even when you receive stuff, you still gotta do a little work. For example, with my Beauty Blogger Vox Box, I had to complete a survey to claim my box, complete at least one review for the box, and complete an exit survey along with trying all seven products that came in my box. There are also bonus brand challenges. Each challenge was a little different, but for the most part, I had to write a specific review for each product, like the company on Facebook, follow the company on Twitter, and write a review on either the company's site or on Influenster. It's all about how involved you choose to be.

I have been part of the Influenster site since the beginning of the year and they recently relaunched the site to make it more efficient for Influensters. I absolutely love the new site! You can be as involved as you would like and your involvement is rewarded with discounts and free product to test. Less involved people have less of a chance to take advantage of these great perks and that was my biggest complaint before the relaunch. There seemed to be no real rhyme or reason to who received Vox Boxes. Now you know exactly what areas you need to work on to improve your chances and since most people like having that sort of feedback, that seems like a really efficient way to pass out the boxes.

Let's talk about shortcomings. The site seems to take forever to update your scores. I wrote quite a few reviews in the last week or so and my score for those badges has yet to reflect that. I don't know if I didn't do enough for each badge or if the site is simply slow to update my scores. Either way, I would like the site to address that. The "Plan of Attack" that appears on the profile page often features tasks I thought I had previously worked on. I get that you have to continually keep up on reviews and such but if you have just recently done a task, it should be reflected in your profile in a timely manner.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoy being part of the Influenster community and look forward to my next chance to actively review products through the Vox Box program. If you would like to be part of the Influenster trend, check out Influnester.com or leave me a comment and I'll send you an invite!