Bonjour my Beauties, finally writing a post I've been wanting to share since a month talking about "Blogging & Social Media"
So as you all know, I am a fashion blogger, I started as a hobby about 5 years ago when I moved from Paris to Orlando and made it my full time job since 3 years. My goal was to bring a "French style" to Orlando and the first step was to create a blog to be able to share it on a bigger scale and then create an account on Instagram as back then, it wasn't what it is today, I was casually sharing my outfit of the day (taken with an iPhone with no edits haha) with no intention on making any money out of it until one day I got reposted by a make up brand where I gained over 4000 followers (yup, like I said back in those days it was different.)
That was a turning point for my Instagram/blog as brand started contacting me to offer products in exchange of Blog post/Instagram photo/reviews. You have no idea how excited I was, a girl getting clothes of her choice for free, YES PLEASE! I did it for couple of months which was great because it led to a lot of repost which made me gain more followers until I got to find out that you can now charge brand to promote their clothes on Instagram, I started at $50 with 10k followers for a blog post with an Instagram photo, back them my husband used to take all my photos so it worked out.
The more I gained audience the more I increased my price especially when I found out from brands that the item I featured was sold out. I was very happy with my inspiration until Instagram became the leading social platform where everyone wanted to become a what they call now "Influencer", numbers were everything, brands and people were judging you and your work through how many followers you have.
I'll be honest, it did get to me where I got confused on what content I should post to get more engagement, Different style of photos? Different edit? Maybe food photos? until I asked myself "Hum is this really me" Well of course the answer was NO. I got diverted chasing likes and followers and got frustrated because so many bloggers were and still are buying followers/likes and they get to collaborate with brands that they clearly don't deserve. It got to a point where I was like forget this, change of career hahaha but then after some self reflection, I told myself that the current audience I have (40k) like my style and always ask question about it so let me figure what made me started to begin with.
The answer was easy: Not care about numbers, bring some French Streetstyle in USA and that's it, me and my friend (also my photographer) started creating content that represented me, I stopped attending event that I did not really support or believed in, stopped working with brands also that I had doubts about, narrowed down which blogger I was associating with and the next thing you know, my audience started growing very fast, I finally got reposted by fashion brand that I used to tag since 3 years, a lot of my photos went viral and today I am at 118k. Hard work do actually pay off!
So the whole reason for me to write this article is to show you that don't get discouraged, if you truly believe in your work and you are inspiring someone, you'll get the attention for it and because I always say "Sharing is Caring" I wanted to write down tips that worked for me and hopefully works for you. (I am a primarily fashion blogger with occasional beauty and travel) So are you ready ?
1 Found your niche, don't try to be all over, try to have a targeted audience. Be creative with your content, get inspired but don't copy, make sure all photos are quality and high resolution.
2 Have a pleasant feed, colors should flow, the first 9 pics are always important because it usually determines wether the person is going to follow you or not. It's like your first impression haha (I use the app called UNUM to organize my Instagram feed)
3 Tag and Hashtag, for me since it's fashion, I found out about all the fashion accounts that would potentially repost me (@zara_europe, @inspocafe, @streetrends, @street_style_paris, @fashion.voyage, @senstylable, @womanslook, @milano_streetstyle) and for hashtag it would usually be #orlandoblogger, #frenchstyle #frenchblogger etc... Don't give up if they don't repost you, it took me 3 years because I got noticed
4 Be active on Instagram by posting one photo per day (for me 2 per day is maximum) Now Instagram offers insight so you know when your audience is the most active so post accordingly.
5 NEVER EVER BUY FOLLOWERS OR LIKES, that's seriously a big NO NO. I mean in my opinion it's just wrong to begin with especially if you're being compensated by brands, long term you' ll get caught so just let it grow organically. See below some statistics of my Instagram. Trust me, just be patient! I feel super proud that this is due to my passion and hard work and it's super rewarding!
6 Join fohr.com, it's a great platform that provides you statistics and brand can look up your profile if they want to work with you according to location etc. They also provide you an average price you should be charging brand according to your audience.
7 The other platform I am part of to get collaboration: aspire.com, brandbacker.com, brandsnob.com. I have personally maybe reached out to 3 brands so far for a collaboration otherwise I got contacted.
8 For the payment, I personally charge based on how much I pay my photographer, my cost etc but I do some partnership with gifting only because I love the brand. I recommend if you are trying to get noticed, do couple of gifting based collaboration for maybe get reposted and gain exposure through that. Just make sure you no brand is taking advantage of your hardwork that's all! Don't forget to create a media kit with your prices so it's more professional.
9 Be exclusive, don't promote just anything, I see some profile on Instagram that literally look like an ad agency. You should build a trust with your audience, they should know that you will not promote something just because the brand is paying you. Be also exclusive when attending events, you want to make sure you associate with the right brand.
10 Always be honest, if you get a product and don't like it, wether its paid or not, don't promote it, simply reach the brand and express your honest opinion about it. I've had once a paid face cream partnership and I had an allergic reaction after using it, clearly I wasn't going to promote it and say you must buy this product blablabla just because they were paying me. I simply reached out to the brand and told them about it. They said no worries, sorry about that. I did not get paid of course but neither I had to fake promote a product. I ALWAYS TRY TO PUT MYSELF IN THE BUYERS SHOES!
11 Know your worth, value your time, be confident with everything you do! Impress yourself instead of trying to impress others. Stay away from toxic bloggers, in the blogging industry, all bloggers from the same city will often meet at events etc but that doesn't mean you should force yourself to become bestie with them or even follow them. Sometimes some girls are not there to lift you up but more about taking advantage, jealousy etc....
12 Stay humble, often bloggers that has a good amount of audience with literally think they are the "Shit" and everything should be granted to them but that's not the correct attitude to have, stay down to earth, keep inspiring....
13 Don't be selfish or foolish! I like to share as much information as I can to anyone that needs help starting this whole "Instagramer thing"and I believe it's a good thing to pass on your own knowledge and information but when girls ask me PR emails, I am like "Come on" seriously, first of all it's not even allowed, second, work your way through just like everyone else did.
14 I am going to add this here because these question get asked to me often, I use a Canon t3i with a 40mm lens for most of my photos but in case I can't, I ll use my iPhone X max. I edit all my photos with lightroom and I use Unfold and Pixaloop to create cool stories
And the most important, enjoy what you are doing, don't let numbers define you or your work, you'll be surprise at how many brands actually prefer to work with micro influencer so have faith. INSPIRE, that would be the keep word! EMPOWER, SHARE LOVE, There is so much you can utilizing the great tool of social media, use it for something good.....
I believe in energy! I might sound crazy to some but I believe it, do everything with a positive positive energy so the people seeing your photo etc feels it :)
I think I said everything I can think of, hope you enjoyed this article, if you have any question feel free to reach out at alpa.rama@gmail.com
Voila!
