I have had so many questions lately about my brand partnerships, "influencer" like activities, and growing on Instagram. I am so excited to dive into this topic! If you haven't already, make sure to check out the I Got You, Girl! Podcast episode on the topic.
Since this is Part I, we are going to dive into the basics. I want to start with what it means to have "influencer mindset". Just as the word itself says, an influencer is someone who has influence. This means that your audience, or others, are looking to you for guidance, leadership, and suggestions. Understanding this is key to growing as an influencer. Don’t focus on what YOU can earn or how YOU can win, but how YOU can serve both your audience and the brands you work with. That is what it means to be a true influencer.
You may have 100 Instagram followers & 1,000 limiting beliefs like “I don’t get enough likes…” or “I don’t have enough followers…”. If you get 20 likes on a post, you may not feel that's impressive. Take those 20 people into a classroom, and they would fill every seat. Maybe you get 100 likes, those 100 people would fill a huge college lecture hall. Start realizing that every follower, every like, and every view of engagement counts. People follow YOU for a reason. Start appreciating and serving them, then watch the growth.
Now that we have our mindset in the right place, let's dive in & get to work!
STEPS START HERE: Remember, your Instagram is your storefront. Will people WANT to shop in your store? Let's make it that way!
1. Change your Account Settings to a Creator Account, then edit your Instagram bio to show who you are & how you serve.
2. Look at your feed. Do you use a preset? IF NOT... you SHOULD start. **My presets are linked here & in my bio for 20% off. They come with multiple presets & shades for all types of content. I LOVE them!
3. Make a free Milkshake app account where you can host your links, bio, and website like this if applicable.
4. Start a PLAN for beginning to share content pro bono. Have a coffee brand you love? A sweater from Amazon you’re obsessed with? Share, share, share. Let people begin to expect recommendations from you! Start on your stories, and conduct a few on your feed as well. Here is a link to my Brands I Love Highlight where I have been sharing content for years, even for unpaid collaborations. For examples of feed posts, check out my Instagram in ways I share brands in-feed. Do the SAME thing! Except, these won’t be paid… yet ;)
5. Want to be fancy and use an app? Canva is free and has a content planning calendar. Planoly is also a good one. Don’t mind the tech? Break out a calendar. Now… I suggest 5-10 story slides daily. Not just brands, but show people YOU! As per my bio, people know to expect faith, wellness, & lifestyle. Granted, I have been doing this for years so it makes things a bit different but the goal is to let people feel like they know you. Unless you want to be a so to speak ghost poster where you SOLELY share brand pics or Amazon finds, etc without your face. I’m probably not the expert for that, and it may be simpler, but I like to have INFLUENCE and IMPACT. I want to make an income clearly, but I like creating COMMUNITY. I would suggest this go on for about 2-3 weeks before we begin pitching. Try to post 2-3x a week on your feed. I used to do a mix of products & blog style life posts but now I tend to lean more towards brand in-feed. Check out my captions for some examples, but whatever you’re sharing-- try to focus on a few aspects of that product and WHY people would love it.
6. Use tagging! Tag your city, tag the brand, and tag hashtags on these! Don’t overcomplicate, but I add 5-10 hashtags at the end of my caption. If I share for example, a protein shake, I’d do #brandname #proteinshakerecipes #glutenfreeproteinshakes etc. Try to differentiate your hashtags from a generic #proteinshake.
7. Start interacting with other bloggers in your community physically and in your niche. You can do this by clicking on the hashtags you use, or searching new ones like #delawarebloggers, and interacting there.
8. Now we are rollllliiinnngggg, let’s start pitching!!! Tune back in next week for my blog post & episode all about how I pitch to brands. I will include DM templates, email templates, and MORE!
Feel free to DM me with any questions about this topic… & any other questions you have about collaborations for the upcoming episode.
Let me know if this was helpful!
xo,
A