How to Work With Brands When You Have a Small Social Following
Written by nutrition student Brendan Cooke. Edited by Dietitian & Snapstudio55 founder Elis Halenko. Photos taken in collaboration with Crystal Imaging.
Partnering with popular brands is one goal many content creators and influencers share. Not only does it provide the opportunity to try out some amazing products and services, it also offers the possibility of growing your following, especially if the brand shares your post to their Instagram, Tik Tok, website, or other social media platform. Most importantly, it lets you share with your followers the products or services that you feel are worth it.
However, not everyone has a massive following on their social media. There’s a misconception that you must have an army of followers in order for brands to even notice you. This is not true! Even if you have a small following, you can still partner with brands to show off your favourite products that you feel are worth sharing with your followers.
There is a big reason why companies seek to sponsor smaller influencers:
Smaller influencers tend to have better engagement on their posts.
Have you ever noticed how smaller Instagram pages tend to have a greater portion of their followers liking and commenting on all of their posts? This phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by brands looking to advertise their products through the channel of influencers, and may reach out to partner with you if you have solid engagement on your posts, relative to your following.
How do you check the engagement on your posts? Normally there is a built-in feature for most apps to check your engagement with your followers. For Instagram, start by making sure your account is set as a “business” or “creator” account. Next, click the “Insights” button, and then you can check all the different metrics of your pictures, videos, and reels!
Influencers with a smaller following get the most engagement because people like to be recommended products by people who are more accessible. The people who follow these smaller accounts are also generally quite interested in the products that are being recommended, and more likely to engage with this content creator/ influencer through likes, comments, and shares.
However, there are some important considerations you must make as a small influencer (micro influencer) before accepting any sponsor deals.
Therefore, it is important to ask consider the following first:
1. Is this brand the right fit for my own personal brand?
No matter what product or service a company approaches you with, you must first ask a few questions: “Would I buy this product on my own?” “Would I repurchase this product?” “How much did I truly enjoy this product, sponsorship aside?”. These questions may help you decide whether or not you should accept a sponsorship deal. Accepting a sponsorship for a product that you wouldn’t use yourself may be doing a disservice to yourself (feeling disingenuousness, followers losing trust in your judgement) and your followers (e.g. buying a snack you have recommended and not liking how it tastes, and consequently feeling like they’ve wasted money).
2. Is this a mutually beneficial relationship?
In some cases, a person may approach you with a brand deal for a product that you absolutely love. However, in a lot of cases they will offer you a discounted rate for the product, in exchange for your endorsement of the product. Whether or not you accept such an offer is a personal decision, but it's important to think about it carefully. For someone who is just starting to gain traction, this may be a great opportunity to get experience working with companies’ products and creating sponsored posts/videos! As these posts get you more followers, you may start getting more offers for partnerships with brands. In this case, it would be to your benefit to take that opportunity. On the other hand, it may not be in your best interest if you’ve already done a number of sponsored posts, and have got other brands offering you products for free in exchange for your endorsement. In this case, it may be best to politely decline. The decision, ultimately, lies with you.
If you have an idea of the return-on-investment that the brand is receiving for your sponsored posts, this can give you a better sense of whether or not you should start switching to only accepting sponsorships if they send you their product for free. It may become appropriate for you to start looking at paid collaborations too, as you increase engagement with your posts.
3. Who is my audience?
This question is important to ask yourself, because brands want to know who will be perceiving their product on your page. Influencers normally gather their target demographics through the insights page on their social media platforms, as mentioned earlier. By letting the brands know who your audience is, they can have a better sense of whether their product is going to be well-received, or ignored, by your followers. For example; what age range is most common? Endorsing a healthy, portable snack for children would likely be best for the age range of young parents (28-35), who are busy and need something quick and healthy for their kids. If your followers are mostly teens, this sponsorship would likely fall flat, even if it’s a product that you enjoy!
4. Learn as much as you can about the product and the brand behind it.
If you want to sponsor a brand, it’s always a good idea to do a background check on the brand before accepting a sponsorship. Look at what products they have offered in the past, what ingredients they use (if it’s a food item), who are the people behind the brand, and if they use ethical business practices. This will help protect you from getting involved with any unethical brands.
As well, getting to know the style of marketing a brand uses is good to note when creating your own sponsored posts/videos. This will help in professional development and ensure your content is aligned with the brand’s own content. Knowing exactly what you’re sponsoring will help when you are talking to your own community as well.
You have something unique to offer the brands that you’re interested in working with. Whether you have 20,000 followers or 2,000, your own content and recommendations can be a valuable resource for brands to use, and by receiving sponsorships, you can begin expanding on your own followers, and develop professional relationships with a number of large brands.
Key Takeaway
The main takeaway is that brands want to work with RDs & nutrition experts because it helps to educate their audience with credential sources which legitimizes their products in the wellness landscape.