Run Journal Entry: Dear Companies, Do your homework!
This is about one particular company that reached out to me because of a small article in a very big publication that happened in 2019.
They were interested in partnering with them and possibly using content of my creation on their site to further promote the growing brand. They were open and honest about the fact they were struggling to access minority demographics. I was excited to assist them in this regard as I loved their product and use their product.
Emails were exchanged. Conversations were had. Everything was moving forward. Until the dreaded metric inquiry. How many followers do you have on Instagram? Roughly 1,5000.
You would have thought I screamed bloody hell go #$@% yourself!
"Unfortunately we don't work with people with such small audiences."
Excuse me? Currently you have no penetration in a market, so you have zero audience!
This happened a few times in 2019.
These companies are small. Have small or in some cases zero advertising budgets to target anyone. Thus the use of social influences or ambassadors to spread the word of their product through social media to their followers. In short, wont see any commercials on the tele about these products.
However despite their size, I would hope anyone doing business would do some simple homework before reaching out to individuals to publicly support their product and become an ambassador of sorts.
Especially to determine if the person they are reaching out to have the influencer statistics they consider satisfactory.
For those of you who don't know the details of this world, these agreements come with contracts. And the contracts can vary in what is expected, what must be performed, and the details of the limitations or restrictions.
What grinds my gear the most is the routine focus on simply the number of followers I have on Instagram. I tried to make this argument with one company, followers are not purchasers.
Sure celebrities and social media influencers with large followers can "promote" something on social media and companies can see a direct and immediate response.
Communities interact in various ways, that are not associated with a verified check on Instagram.
Organic influence happens, well more organically. For instance, when I research products for a solution, I typically will reach out to people I know via social media community pages and or direct messages.
There's a lot of chatter on the internet with small content creators and individuals with no social media platforms at all. And we all have a voice. We all influence each other in some way by the words which we type and speak when at a run meet or race.
Yes, I was a little pissed.
However, I won't bad mouth the particular companies in question. Neither will I diss their products, as they are good products. But I won't say or ever mention any of these companies names ever again. Neither will I support them financially.
Most of all, be mindful social media is a form of advertising. There are a lot of contracts floated around and the messed up part about it all is there are few willing to disclosed their associations or contracts.
So products are being peddled in many cases without you knowing you're being peddled to.
I'm a proud ambassador of InkNBurn and continue to be a supporter of their products and their brand. I don't hide the fact I'm an ambassador when I support them either. Because I believe in their products. It's that simple.
But as I've said before, I will not support a product I don't personally use. Period.
Am I the only one who things Instagram Famous is not the same as a celebrity? Maybe I'm showing my age.
Now how do I craft a plan to get 10,000 followers on Instagram just to stick it to the companies which wasted my time, specifically that one, that don't work with "small influencers"? - evil laugh-
They were interested in partnering with them and possibly using content of my creation on their site to further promote the growing brand. They were open and honest about the fact they were struggling to access minority demographics. I was excited to assist them in this regard as I loved their product and use their product.
Emails were exchanged. Conversations were had. Everything was moving forward. Until the dreaded metric inquiry. How many followers do you have on Instagram? Roughly 1,5000.
You would have thought I screamed bloody hell go #$@% yourself!
"Unfortunately we don't work with people with such small audiences."
Excuse me? Currently you have no penetration in a market, so you have zero audience!
This happened a few times in 2019.
These companies are small. Have small or in some cases zero advertising budgets to target anyone. Thus the use of social influences or ambassadors to spread the word of their product through social media to their followers. In short, wont see any commercials on the tele about these products.
However despite their size, I would hope anyone doing business would do some simple homework before reaching out to individuals to publicly support their product and become an ambassador of sorts.
Especially to determine if the person they are reaching out to have the influencer statistics they consider satisfactory.
For those of you who don't know the details of this world, these agreements come with contracts. And the contracts can vary in what is expected, what must be performed, and the details of the limitations or restrictions.
What grinds my gear the most is the routine focus on simply the number of followers I have on Instagram. I tried to make this argument with one company, followers are not purchasers.
Sure celebrities and social media influencers with large followers can "promote" something on social media and companies can see a direct and immediate response.
Communities interact in various ways, that are not associated with a verified check on Instagram.
Organic influence happens, well more organically. For instance, when I research products for a solution, I typically will reach out to people I know via social media community pages and or direct messages.
There's a lot of chatter on the internet with small content creators and individuals with no social media platforms at all. And we all have a voice. We all influence each other in some way by the words which we type and speak when at a run meet or race.
Yes, I was a little pissed.
However, I won't bad mouth the particular companies in question. Neither will I diss their products, as they are good products. But I won't say or ever mention any of these companies names ever again. Neither will I support them financially.
Most of all, be mindful social media is a form of advertising. There are a lot of contracts floated around and the messed up part about it all is there are few willing to disclosed their associations or contracts.
So products are being peddled in many cases without you knowing you're being peddled to.
I'm a proud ambassador of InkNBurn and continue to be a supporter of their products and their brand. I don't hide the fact I'm an ambassador when I support them either. Because I believe in their products. It's that simple.
But as I've said before, I will not support a product I don't personally use. Period.
Am I the only one who things Instagram Famous is not the same as a celebrity? Maybe I'm showing my age.
Now how do I craft a plan to get 10,000 followers on Instagram just to stick it to the companies which wasted my time, specifically that one, that don't work with "small influencers"? - evil laugh-
Follow me on Instagram @run3sixty5. Have yo brother sister-in-law cousin best friend on yo step mother side of the family gawd daughter follow me too! Bout to make these so n so's recognize the errors of their way. 😅
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