Inspiration for Influencers
We closed last year with a blog post highlighting our top tips for how marketers should best work with social media influencers. Now that 2024 is in full swing here in Park City, Utah, Redhead Marketing & PR is offering up inspiration to influencers who collaborate with brands or are looking to do so. We have experienced a wide range of professionalism during the many years we have partnered with influencers. There are ones who’ve made our banished list, and others we return to repeatedly when we believe a partnership is beneficial to them and our clients. Thankfully, most belong to the latter category. Social media is a fun medium with unlimited creativity and opportunities to develop a powerful sphere of influence. But if you’re working with brands, it must be viewed as a business endeavor that calls for a certain level of professionalism.
Here are ten tips for social media influencers:
- Whether you are partnering with businesses in exchange for product, payment, or experiences, have a media kit available upon request. This should have your social handles with number of followers on each, a brief bio, number of followers, your follow demographics, and sample packages with pricing (if relevant). A couple of case studies are also helpful to showcase successful collaborations or content with exceptional engagement.
- If you’re interested in working with a brand, be flexible and willing to negotiate. Treat smaller businesses and startups differently than national brands when it comes to pricing. You can negotiate on items like deliverables, whether you provide visual assets for company marketing use, post frequency, and type of content.
- Responsiveness is key. Be prompt when corresponding with marketers. Keep in mind they have timelines and budgets to adhere to.
- Speaking of timelines, timeliness for your agreed upon deliverables is important. If a luxury hotel in the Caribbean was looking to promote their winter season by hosting you in October, don’t wait until January to share your content.
- Be on your best behavior. Whether being hosted by an event, a restaurant, hotel, or any attraction, follow the motto of our hometown, New York City Police Department: COURTESY, PROFESSIONALISM, RESPECT. Do not over imbibe, make unreasonable requests, arrive late without a good excuse, or act entitled. It’s best to steer clear of politics or controversial issues. Constructive feedback after your experience is appropriate, but not during it.
- Ask for permission beforehand if you’d like to bring a guest. And do not have your children accompany you if it’s not a child-friendly event or business. If kids are permitted, only bring yours if you know they will be well behaved in public and particularly if they’re relevant to your planned content.
- Be clear on deliverables with the business you are collaborating with and deliver on them. Not doing so guarantees they will avoid working with you in the future.
- Do some homework. Don’t sacrifice creativity and authenticity, but explore the website and social media handles of brands you work with for inspiration when it comes to messaging and look and feel.
- Grammar matters. While there are appropriate liberties that can be taken on social media, refrain from making outright grammatical errors. Have a question about a grammatical rule? Consult Google!
- Send an email to your collaboration contact to notify that content has been shared. Just as we advised brands in our previous post, send a thank you! This increasingly rare bit of etiquette will be appreciated and remembered. It’s a common courtesy. Don’t even get us started on how people these days fail to send thank yous for wedding and engagement gifts.
All the above is important in establishing your credibility with brands and marketing agencies. It will make them want to work with you again. What’s more, many of us marketers and public relations professionals are well acquainted. We’re a tight-knit group that doesn’t hesitate to share negative experiences with each other. Ultimately, marketers and influencers are on the same team. We all want to demonstrate and maximize return on investment for our clients.
