Who doesn’t like free products, or even better, getting paid while promoting products, brands or services you like on Instagram? In this post I’m going to share with you a step-by-step guide to help you start getting Instagram collaborations.
Collaborations on Social Media are something that a lot of people talk about but nobody tells you exactly how to start or what to do if you are new to this. 5 years ago this was me. I started taking my Instagram more seriously and decided to get a little bit less personal and a lot more professional.
As we know, Instagram is a platform that has been changing so fast and growing as well. These days everyone has a really good cell phone with an excellent camera and is taking amazing photos to be shared.
So how can you stand out from all the millions of amazing content creators out there?
How To Up Your Instagram Game And Start Getting Instagram Collaborations
Let me tell you step by step how to start on this collaborations and sponsored content.
Choose your audience
Decide on your niche and figure out the audience that you would like to reach.
Are a budding fashionista? Maybe you are a makeup junky or you travel a lot for work or pleasure? Work out what you are good at d then it’s all about figuring out how you can help others learn more about that thing you love.
Once you decide what audience you would like to target, then it’s time to create the content.
Get Professional
I know it might feel a bit say to say goodbye, but it’s time to archive all the personal content that no longer fits in with the niche you decided to focus on.
If you are planning to do makeup, I would recommend archiving all those party photos, that birthday cake of your friend, those drinks you took 2 years ago with friends, or that random photo you think is cute but it’s very low quality.
Remember your Instagram feed will be your cover letter and it’s the first thing brands or businesses will look at once they find you before reaching out to talk about Instagram collaborations.
What would you like brands to see from you?
Quality Not Quantity
You don’t need an expensive camera but you do need good quality photos.
If you are using your phone be sure to always clean your lens before taking a photo. This is one of the biggest mistakes I see online.
A lot of people are recording an insta story or post a photo and it looks a little bit blurry or dirty and this is why. Even if you think the lens is ok, it is not! Always ALWAYS clean the lens even if you think it’s clean, do it again you will see a huge difference already on your photos just by doing this simple thing.
Take a day to create content
Ask a friend, or use a tripod or even some boxes and a timer to create your content.
If you are doing fashion, you can ask a friend to help you in a day, find really cute walls around your neighborhood or town, and you can do 3-5 outfits changes on the same day. With this, you will have enough content for a week or maybe even 2.
Get Organized
Organize; Before you start posting, it is important to see how your content will look once it’s out there. There are a couple of apps where you could organize it. I personally prefer the UN UM app, but there are a lot of options that you could use. PREVIEW and PLANOLY apps are also very popular.
I would recommend not posting similar photos day after day. For example, if you are posting a selfie, try to post something different next to it, maybe a flat lay, a quote, a landscape, an outfit. Also, try to find at least 3 colors that you would like to pop up on your content and try to add those colors as a sequence.
Know Your Hashtags
A lot of brands have specific departments or a specific person in charge of looking for influencers or content creators to reach out to for Instagram collaborations.
How are the brands going to find you? Hashtags work as windows (at least that’s how I like to see it) If you are posting amazing photos, amazing content but you are not using hashtags, you are not tagging other pages to be reposted, you are not adding a location. How are other people going to find you?
With hashtags, you have 30 little windows for brands and people to see your content so take advantage of this and use them wisely. I would recommend finding your hashtags first to see what other people creating content similar to yours are using.
Make a list of the ones you find that have enough posts and make a note on your phone with 2-3 options of 30 hashtags each so you can copy and paste every time you are posting something new. Try to avoid very general hashtags such as ¨cute” “lovely” ¨lipstick¨and instead of those you could use #makeuplover #ootd (outfit of the day) etc.
Tagging
This is a great way to let brands find you, whether it’s makeup, fashion, hotels, coffee shops, or restaurants. Let them know you appreciate the place or the brand you are using and you are willing to create quality content by tagging them.
Brands give a look to see if you share the things you love. Even when you are not getting paid for it. The idea is that you want them to notice you with the hope of them reaching out to you for Instagram collaborations in the future.
With this, you are also giving them the option to repost your photos. This in turn will give you more exposure so other people or brands can find you.
Engage with other people
Take time during your day, maybe while you are having breakfast or when you have a break at work to engage with other accounts. Give them likes and genuine comments. This way you can start creating a community and you guys can support each other every time you have a new post.
PLEASE don’t play the game of following and unfollowing. That looks so bad on you and its very annoying so don’t be that person.
Conclusion
Once you start having more audience and more content. You can start making a list of brands that you like or brands that you see other content creators are having collaborations with. You can write an email pitch saying what you like about their brand and mention what you would like to offer in exchange.
Be prepared for a lot of NO’s in the beginning, but don’t get discouraged, after a lot of no’s I am sure you will get at least one YES.
There are plenty of platforms or apps out there where you can start making collabs in exchange of products, but i would like to talk about this another time so, stay tuned for the next post to get more info about it.