(Micro)Influencing: What I've learned

First off, I want to point out that influencers are not supposed to talk about the fact that we are influencers to our online community. Inauthentic, to suggest you get paid for an Instagram post....but most of the time your followers can tell the difference between a sponsored and authentic pic...so why not be transparent about it anyways?

It's kind of a modern dream. Even if you don't necessarily like it, or have never even thought about representing the latest vitamin hair gummy trend, at the end of the day...getting paid for a social post is kind of cool. It allows creative freedom, a connection with companies you would otherwise not get, as well as access to a social community that is for the most part encouraging and loving!

On the other hand, it has shown itself in ways that are addictive, unhealthy, and scary for a fellow fashion student such as myself! AHHH

I decided this was something I wanted to do when I was in high school. I looked to what other influencers that I were following were wearing and showcasing and I took pictures in those company's clothes in hopes I would get noticed and get sponsored by these large scale companies right away. LOL. Here's the secret I wish I could've told myself as to not waste time, unless you're already famous or your analytics are outstanding younger Sar, you'll have to start small to go big. I eventually learned that, and went with it.

My first ever real ad that I did was for a boutique called XOmandysue. They had given me a steep discount for their store, which was much smaller at the time (3 years ago) and I paid the rest and posted a picture in return. This obviously was not what I had envisioned for myself, especially not after scrolling through Lulu's tagged pages for probably miles trying to fit the aesthetic. But it was a start, one that I didn't know I needed. Quickly after that, I was doing small ads for smaller companies that were sending me boxes with products that had quirky little personalized notes attached.

I miss getting those little notes :(

If you're reading this for help to get you started here's a list of tips:

- Like I said, if the analytics are off or you're not famous...start small.

- Authenticity, transparency, and consistency

Imma go off here a little bit. I have done ads for companies when I was starting out that I do regret now because I was promoting a company that didn't align with my values or I didn't even know who they were but I liked the free clothes. I am now known by companies for my love of ethical sourcing and cleanly made products. I believe in sustainability. And some of the companies I had worked with were so for from this core value I think it steered me towards attracting the wrong kind of companies after. And this is something I still struggle with avoiding now.

- So know the companies you're promoting.

- Don't be afraid to reach out to a company you love and admire.

- Check boutique website's for ambassador/influencer applications! I applied to so many of these starting out! - If you can get a company to sell out of a product, you can ask them for money. You are their marketing budget. YOU ARE THEIR MARKETING.

- Tag everyone and everything in your posts when starting off.

- Presets are cool, and raw pics are just as cool. At the end of the day a pretty pic is never as pretty as your analytics. Instagram changes how theirs works every other day, but understanding yours is so so so important.

- Here's the best one, the sites/platform's that essentially have led me to work with the most companies and reach the largest scale of my potential audience you can sign for on right now. Influencer marketing platforms that connect you with brands are accessible to sign up for anyone. crazy right. No one tells you that, but these sites help you understand your analytics, and so much about your page to even how much you should be charging per post.

And if you're reading for the scoop, here ya go:

I want to start this off by first and foremost saying that I love love love the small (micro) influencing work I do! The ways I have connected with companies and gained this unique marketing experience has taught me so much and I truly am so grateful to be apart of it.

The engagement groups.

I NEED to start with this. I had no idea these existed until I was apart of them. SO SO goofy, having the same group of girls comment on your pictures or promote you for analytic reasons. But it worked! The way IG would help share your page back then was through this technique, so why not use it to your advantage? The groups were cool in ways that they allowed you to talked to other people who were doing exactly what you were and you got to share helpful tips, tricks, and talk about what was working and what wasn't. Some of my favorite, most positive, and supporting instagrammers(? is that a word?) came from these groups! BUT it was also like being in a forced group chat of assigned project partners that weren't pulling their parts. And those experiences where girls would attack other girls for not leaving enough word count on their latest post or for not saying something positive enough was so so toxic! At the end of the day it is just an app, and we're all just trying to promote and market companies we love, create content that's worth the save button. I think that's the analytics new fav button?. These groups were somewhere between positive and supporting- to getting bullied by a middle aged mom over some intangible words on an app for a screen on a phone for someone living on earth to spend 2 seconds reading. Felt overdone to me.

A job I can't put on my resume?

Seen more as a hobby at this point, it doesn't matter how much you make doing it, most of the time the corporate world doesn't care for it. It's superficial and it's already a risk to say it's your job so there's no reason to treat like one right? EL OH EL. The PAIN I felt when applying for internships and seeing the little lines for select ones that said 'Influencing is not included' in portions of job history. And I get it, I really do because for little people like me or other smaller influencers it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how many hours a week I dedicate to it or give you an estimated pay...but there's also times where I disagree with this so heavily. On one hand, getting sent PR packages for a post in my opinion is a hobby. The company likes who you are and your ~vibe~. This is merely something that you do not get paid to do but rather post for exposure, and for marketing help for the company but does not take much effort to do. The other half though, and a lot of times this work may not even be posted to social media, is the photoshoots and hours of clipping, editing, trimming, and working for companies to create content for them that they use solely for marketing and WITH that comes extensive lists of posting guidelines, contracts, and no guarantee that your first submission that you spent three days working on will get approved, and you might have to try multiple times. This is the work that I would absolutely love to talk to employers about, the work I'm proud of and can say with certainty were small jobs in themselves.

Exploitations

I knowwwww I don't need to get into this one with depth because as much as I love social media, the way it exploits your insecurities is absolutely insane. Influencing has given me the need to post only what fits the aesthetic right, showcasing only the best of the best, and making sure to never post something that could potentially make me lose a future partnership! I can see other girl's feeds and compare mine to theirs for hours deciding whether to change my entire aesthetic for the fifth time or not. I feel the need to talk about everything in my life and share my go-to avocado toast for the 9th time in a row because consistency creates brands. But the downfall, the biggest one to this is the way it allows other to feel as though they know everything about ya. And they're going to judge you for it. Your family will judge you for it. The friends you make in college when they say "let's follow each other on ig" will judge you for it. Not in a good or bad way necessarily, just in a way that is very unnatural. This was something I struggled with more when I was starting, but every now and then it catches me when people mention that expected me to be a certain way than I actually am. And we are all guilty of this. My fav influencer is someone i've followed for the longest time and I have to remind myself that I do not know her as personally as I think I do just because I know her morning skincare routine.

I really do want to emphasize that despite these things, I love it. I love marketing ads. And I am aware of how annoying it can be to see a 'paid partnership with...' on your feed because IG can't make up their mind if they want to be an online store or social media. And to anyone wanting to do it, go for it! As someone who is creative and loves creating things virtually for others, I think that is why I have so much fun doing what I do! And I'm not even big! All these secrets coming from someone considered micro, only meaning there's still so much I can learn from this experience.

I know the world of influencing is so secretive and I think it could be a little less without fear of losing brands because anyone can essentially do what you do, and that is really okay! I have alongside this ride got the chance to be a blogger, sell presets, launch an etsy store that did well, and get the chance to virtually meet some cool people that I adore!

Here are some of the companies you know I've worked with and some you didn't know:

Google, Dunkin’, TOMS, Crocs, Moroccanoil, Birds Eye Vegetables, Princess Polly Boutique, CaseApp, C'est Moi, Kroger, Daniel Wellington, Formulate, Retrospec, Views & Co., Movi, PYT Beauty, Linjer, Save Lands, Sound ID, King and Fifth, Happy Tea, Rellery, Infuzed Brands, The good patch, etc.

just grateful to have made connections with these companies and all of those not mentioned as well, I'm excited to see what the future holds if anything, for the influencer world : )