Becoming A Content Creator- I'd follow you!
***Preface: This entire post is composed 100% if my personal opinions and personal experience. I am not a social media guru nor do I pretend to be one. This post merely scratches the surface of how to BEGIN content creation and just what I personally did to get to where I am currently at, nothing more. ***
Two years ago, if someone would have told me that I would be able to supplement my income and get a TON of cool products for myself and my family solely because of Instagram, I would have laughed. No, really. I would have thought you were absolutely crazy. Fast forward two years and at times i’m now making more money per month creating digital content for brands than I do from my ACTUAL job in the medical field.
I think it was around the summer/fall of 2018 when searching for motherhood and baby products that I began to realize the extent of brand advertising and content creation on the Instagram platform. You would think it would be just from small shops and stay-at-home moms selling homemade goods, just trying to make a few extra dollars, but no. Along with a lot of smaller, unknown businesses there were also well-known, BIG brands. Brands that everyone knew the name of because you see them at your favorite retailer and via commercials on television. There are brands on IG with only a few thousand followers, some with hundreds of thousands of followers and everything in between. It didn’t matter the size, they were all working with content creators- literally women just like me.
Seeing so many women easily partner with brands to advertise their products via social media immediately sparked my interest. As someone who LOVES taking photos, writing and making money (I mean, who doesn’t?") I knew this was something I wanted to pursue.
I immediately realized that my IG page would no longer be something used for personal, spontaneous photo uploads, but rather converted to a “business” or “content creator” profile. With that conversion came the mindset that my profile would become a digital portfolio of my work and a home for my brand advertisements. It’s professional. It has to become something that brands WANT their products to be featured on. Posts would be thought out, edited and strategically uploaded (something we will discuss later in this post) so my feed “flows” and appears cohesive and visually appealing.
Okay, so how do you do it? How do you become a content creator with a large following that partners with brands and actually makes real compensation?
First thing’s first- Follow, pay attention and reach out to others who are already doing it. I remember following a few mommas for MONTHS before messaging them asking them how to grow my following and also become a content creator like they were. I paid attention to how their captions were laid out, the various hashtags they used and even the way they implemented products into the photograph without it appearing “too staged.” I quickly realized there was an entire science to becoming a content creator. No, seriously. There is.
Take a step back for a moment and think about what kind of page you want to be and make sure to include it in your profile. A brand should be able to quickly view your profile information and know what to expect from you without having to even speak to you. For example, my profile includes the following information: Girl Momma, Healthy living, Motherhood, Lifestyle. It also includes my website and e-mail address.
Pretty cut, dry and to the point. A brand or potential follower visiting my page can read my profile information and immediately know what type of content they will likely see on my feed if they decide to follow and/or work with me. They also have my e-mail address and website link instantly accessible without having to ask me for it. Make your profile information clear, concise and to the point.
Alright, now that you converted your page to professional one and have input your profile information letting everyone know what type of content creator you are, how do you grow your followers?
Growing your followers- This is something that honestly takes a LOT of time, patience and at times, money. As I type this, I currently have 30,000+ Instagram followers. When I decided to venture down the content creator rabbit hole I had around 3,000 or so. It takes A LOTTTTTT and I can’t stress this enough, A LOTTTT of patience and understanding that if you are going to build a genuine, good following that actually engages with your content, it will take months, if not years to do.
You also want to make sure that you are actually interested in the accounts you are following and anticipate that they will likely follow you back. For example, I know that a fellow mother who enjoys healthy living will likely follow me back since our content will be similar in some capacity. I’m not saying find followers who post EXACTLY what you do, but make sure it’s apparent that you would be creating content that they would actually be interested in seeing and vice versa. Start following accounts and make sure you are actually ENGAGING on your followers content. Comment, like, share, whatever! Just do something to let them know that you enjoy following them. This will likely boost your engagement rate as well since many individuals usually reciprocate the love and ultimately will give you a follow back! *fingers crossed*
Create good content! For example: Instastories- create polls, bar swipes, questions. Do it all! Make sure your feed posts are worth liking and commenting on! I usually add in a question within the caption of each post I make. This is something that encourages readers to easily comment on your post, thus boosting your engagement rate and your average number of comments (which is a win, win)! Also, make sure your inastastories are worth watching and offer a way for someone to engage on it. Find a happy medium where your daily presence is known, but you aren’t annoying everyone with dozens of drawn out stories per day. Make sure they are meaningful (or just entertaining) and something your followers wouldn’t mind seeing and engaging on! I personally keep my Instastories more spontaneous in the moment and really “go with the flow” to keep it fresh, real and relatable, whereas my feed posts are more “professional” and planned out days, if not weeks in advance.
In addition to searching for accounts to follow and engaging on their content, you can also join engagement pages. Engagement pages are a great way to not only meet other individuals trying to grow their pages, but also a fantastic way to boost the engagement on the posts you make AND find new collaboration ideas! There are dozens, if not hundreds of engagement pages on Instagram. A lot of them are geared towards various “types” of accounts. For example, I try to ensure that I am only participating on engagement pages that are “motherhood” and/or “women” driven so I know the others accounts participating will be somewhat relevant to the type of account mine is and vice versa. Many engagement pages offer various daily threads to participate on and are truly a great way to get the ball rolling with finding new people to connect with, growing your following, seeing collaboration ideas from posts others are making, and also a great way to boost your content engagement!
In addition to engagement pages, participate in giveaways! Here’s where you might end up spending some money….When trying to navigate how to even get started with giveaways you might get lucky and initially participate in one that an engagement page you’re on is hosting. Honestly, that’s how I came across them and realized how great they are for helping to grow your follower count! As you start growing, you’ll also start noticing accounts you are following occasionally posting giveaways, which is another great way to find one you are interested in participating with! If you’re unsure exactly what Instagram Giveaways (or “giftaways”) are let me explain it to you… In a nutshell, giveaways cost money to participate in and the price varies per page and per giveaway. For example, a giveaway prize offering someone the chance to win something valued around $2,500 is likely going to cost more for you to participate in than say one that is for a $500 gift card. Giveaway pages vary page to page and prize to prize. The benefit for someone wanting to grow their following is that in order for someone to actually WIN the prize, they must follow everyone that is participating in the giveaway, which would include your page. While giveaways are a great quick and easy way to grow your following, there are a few things to be mindful of…
Make sure the type of giveaway you are participating in is relevant to your type of page & following. For example, as a motherhood/lifestyle and healthy living account, i’m likely not going to participate in a giveaway geared towards just fitness and exercise. Why? (While I do LOVE fitness and working out and will OCCASIONALLY post about it, my account just isn’t geared towards fitness) Because the accounts participating in a fitness/exercise giveaway are likely interested in following accounts that post mainly about fitness and exercise-related topics. The accounts will of course follow me for a chance to win the giveaway, but once the giveaway is over, they are more than likely going to unfollow me because i’m not making daily fitness-related content that they would be interested in.
I HIGHLY suggest only participating in giveaways that are pretty relevant to the type of content you create if you want to retain followers upon giveaway completion. Also, please realize that you will NEVER keep 100% of the followers you gain from a giveaway. You just won’t. There will always be people who only followed you because they wanted a chance to win the prize and when they didn’t win, they unfollow everyone they were required to follow. It's unfortunate, but it happens and you should expect it to happen. I always anticipate losing around 20% of what I gained from participating in a giveaway. I could honestly type up another two paragraphs just discussing giveaways and how to properly utilize them so you don’t waste your time or money, but i’m going to move on. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to comment below or send me a DM on IG and I would be happy to help and go more in-depth since it’s such a broad topic.
I would say I followed the above method ( searching for new followers, engaging on their content, participating in engagement pages and also participating in giveaways every few weeks) for about 8 months or so before it bumped me up to around 10,000 followers (from 3,000). I started doing brand collaborations well before I hit 10k, but for me, 10k was a great benchmark for me to start feeling comfortable charging brands for collaborations and getting more serious about it.
Another important component to becoming a content creator- A media kit! I created my media kit pretty early on (when I had around 4,000 or so followers). A media kit is basically your social media resume. Seriously. it’s a thing! It’s something you create that talks about you and the type of page you are. It also includes statistical information for brands such as: your engagement rate, your average weekly impressions, your average weekly story views, the top cities your followers are from, the average age of your followers and other information that is relevant to brands wanting to potentially partner with you. You could also include information regarding your compensation rate and what type of content creation you offer. You should anticipate updating your media kit every few weeks as your followers increase and the data shifts on your account. Anticipate a fluctuation without getting too flustered about it. At times I have weeks of high engagement and sometimes it dips way down. It happens and it’s expected! Just make sure to keep your media kit updated and saved to your device so it’s on hand if a brand asks for it! (I made my media kit on canva.com for free)
Okay, you’ve done it all- you’re working hard to grow your following, you have a media kit and you’re an active social media presence. Now how do you start working with brands?
When I was first starting out and even now, if there is a brand I love or really want to work with, I usually make sure to follow their page and engage on their posts for a while before I decide to direct message them and/or e-mail them using the address they provide in their profile regarding potential partnership. Write the brand, let them know what you are seeking from them, what you are willing to offer and most importantly- why it would be beneficial of them to partner with you! Seriously! Just sell yourself. Explain to them why a partnership with you is worth their time. Sometimes you will be told “no” or your message will just be left as “read” with no reply (which sucks, but unfortunately WILL happen), but I think you would be surprised at just how many times you WILL get a reply back and you can discuss a collaboration opportunity! It’s not as scary or overwhelming as it might seem, I promise. The answer is always “no” unless you ask!
In addition to directly messaging or emailing brands, I have also found incredible success with social media marketing platforms such as AspireIQ, Cohley, Clever and Massive Sway (just to name a few). There are seriously HUNDREDS of sites to choose from but these happen to be my current favorites. When you join these sites, you can see active campaigns brands have going and apply to participate in ones that interest you and are applicable to your IG page. When you read through available campaign briefs you will see exactly what product(s) are being offered, what they expect from you as the content creator (sometimes just product photos and other times photos in addition to an IG feed post, instastories…etc) and how much compensation you would receive (if any). Sometimes campaigns are just for product in exchange for content and other times compensation for content can range from $50 to over $1,000. What you receive is either a pre-established amount or it could vary based on the number of followers you have, your engagement rate and various other factors (which is why growing your account and staying active on it is so important!) They are all different! I personally check these pages almost daily to see if there is anything new I can apply to and can honestly say quite a bit of my income originates from participating in campaigns on these type of platforms.
Another important bit of information I want to make sure I discuss is setting your collaboration price and what you are willing to offer in exchange. It’s inevitable that you will be sometimes be low-balled and other times not even offered compensation at all, but asked to create product photos, various Instastories, a static feed post and offering up your right arm in exchange (i’m being dramatic, but it’s SO TRUE and it happens all the time) for a $10.00 tube of sunscreen in exchange. It’s going to happen and likely often. Simply respond but remain polite and professional. Either accept the offer, negotiate or politely decline. There is absolutely NO harm in negotiating what you are willing to offer and/or what you will receive in exchange! Collaborations should always be MUTUALLY beneficial for both the brand and you.
KNOW YOUR WORTH. Seriously. I can NOT stress it enough! KNOW. YOUR. WORTH. It takes time and effort to stage beautiful, ad-worthy photos and videos as well as taking the time to edit them and also create a decent caption! Sometimes you’ll also be asked for a blog post (if you have a blog) or multiple Instagram feed posts spread out over time in addition to a Facebook post. I HIGLY suggest you view your time as money and KNOW that your time IS important. Nothing you receive is “free.” Correction, if someone sends you something with no-strings attached and asks for absolutely nothing in return- its truly free. If someone sends you a product and asks for content in exchange, even just a few photos- you are WORKING. You are spending your time and effort to earn having received that item. Please keep that in mind. Also, be aware that as your following and engagement rate grows, you should be increasing your compensation rate to match! Don’t sell yourself short.
Pro-tip: You don’t always need to be compensated. Yes, that’s correct and not a typo. Sometimes I initiate a collaboration knowing I won’t be asking for compensation and i’m more than okay with not receiving it. If i’m partnering with a really small business, I NEVER ask for or expect compensation and likely never will, regardless of the amount of followers I have. This is just something I personally feel strongly about since a lot of the small shops I work with and love are seriously SMALL SHOPS consisting of just a few individuals or at times, ONE MOMMA making it happen all on her own! In these cases I am MORE than happy to increase brand exposure and accept receiving a cute item or two in exchange for a feed post or a few Instastories. I know and understand that not everyone will agree with me throughout this blog piece, but again, it’s just all my personal opinion!
There are also times that i’ll partner with large companies and still not ask for compensation because the specific item(s) i’m wanting to collaborate for is very expensive. For example, i’ve done a few mattress collaborations that were product exchange only. These mattresses cost roughly $1,100 a piece if I had to purchase them. I needed new ones and didn’t want to pay if I didn’t have to, so i’m more than willing to spend my time creating content in exchange for an expensive product I needed anyway. Ya feel me? I’ve also collaborated for other items that have retail costs in the THOUSANDS and when establishing the collaboration, I just didn’t feel the need to potentially ruin the partnership because I also wanted to be paid. You just have to feel it out and decide if you are happy with your collaboration being just a product exchange or not.
If you’re ever unsure what you should be charging, simply reach out to your fellow content creators who have the same or higher following than you and simply ask what they charged when they had your amount of followers. Don’t feel embarrassed or unsure, everyone has done it at one time or another.
It’s all in the details, ladies!- I highly suggest utilizing various apps to help keep your feed looking great! “Preview” is an amazing app for uploading the photos you will eventually post on IG and allowing you to visually organize them to see what posts would look best next to each other prior to uploading them on your Instagram feed. I SWEAR AND LIVE BY this app! I use it DAILY! “Adobe Lightroom”, “Photoshop Express” and “VSCO” are just a few of my regularly utilized apps for editing with “VSCO” being my absolute favorite. I also suggest “PicsArt” for instastories, “Life Lapse” if you want to make stop-motion videos and “Videoshop” for general video editing! Btw, all of these apps are free in the App Store. Of course they have in-app purchases or additional features you can “unlock” by paying money, but I honestly haven’t spent a nickel on any of them and I think i’m doing pretty well on here!
Okay guys, i’m going to wrap this long-winded post up. I could seriously talk about this stuff for another 20 paragraphs because I not only find it so interesting, but still mind-blowing that social media allows average people to make money and obtain great products all in exchange for content creation. It’s incredible and something I can honestly say has changed my world for the better. I absolutely love creating content for brands and especially love when I see them reposted on their feeds and within their marketing ads. I mean seriously, who wouldn’t?
If you have any questions or would like me to dive further into the world of content creation on social media, please let me know in the comments below or send me a DM on Instagram!
XO, Nikki
