• This brings up something I wanted to talk about which we will get to answering that question. Something I've been talking to our brand partners about which I see is a pretty big problem in the space, which is not fully influencers' fault and not fully brands' faults.

    In general, I think that influencer marketing has gotten too transactional in that a brand comes to work with you guys, they do a sponsored post, or they do some gifting-- excuse me. They do a sponsored post or some gifting, and then you just don't hear from them anymore, they just disappear. You're probably left being like, "What the hell? I thought we were going to have this relationship and now you've ghosted me."

    You've told your followers you love this brand, `and this brand is so great, and then they never hear about it again. As an influencer, when you onboard someone to be a brand partner, to do a sponsored post with, you need to be thinking about that as a six month thing. You need to be thinking about how you're going to continue to support the brand. This is something that Idalia talks about in her talks.

    I believe her and I talked about it on her podcast, which I was on, which Tim will throw a link to. When any of her talent does a deal, she always gets them to do some bonus organic posts for the brand after their sponsorship is done. I don't think you do your followers a service by just posting about a brand once and then peacing out. Every influencer I talk to, every influencer panel I've watched, influencers sit up there and they say, "I would never do a sponsored post for a brand that I don't love."

    Then they post about it once and they never fucking talk about it again. I'm led to believe, feels like maybe you guys are doing posts for brands that you don't love and that's okay, like we've talked about that before. The fact that like you can't absolutely love every single brand that you work with, but I do think you have a responsibility to your followers and to your client and to your brand partners to try and integrate that product into your life more.

    I'm not saying you have to give them 10 in-feed posts for free, but if you do a sponsored post for them, try and get them in your stories, try and include them in a "What's in my bag?" post. Try and do something. Then as time goes on, if there's opportunities for you to reach out to try and get gifted products-- Let's say it's a makeup brand, you do a post for their foundation, and you're going on a trip, and they have a new foundation with SPF that just came out, reach out to them.

    Ask if you can get some so that you can post about it when you're on your fabulous beach vacation as I sit in a conference room and bang my head against the wall for 10 hours a day. Get proactive, get creative. We talked about doing newsletters for brands and a lot of you have done that, and a lot of you have told me that you're getting brand deals from your newsletters, and that is working.

    You also need to have some sort of CMS that has all your brand partners, and maybe the last time that you've mentioned them organically. I would have who my brand partner is, how much money to date I have made off of them total lifetime, the last time they've worked with me in an official paid capacity, and the last time I've talked about them organically. If a brand had paid me, I would make sure that no more than three months goes by without talking about them organically because this is a relationship.

    You have to understand the expectation on the brand side when they pay you is that they want this to become part of your life. If you work with that brand, you're like all in on it. You love this product, you think it's life-changing, it's incredible, and they send it to you. Here's an example, I had a meeting the other day with a client-- I'm not going to say who, and they talked about how they paid an influencer to talk about their product and they were happy with the post.

    A month later in their stories, they saw a competitor's product in their kitchen that had replaced their product, and that competitor hadn't paid them, but they just never used the product. The brand was really upset because understandably, they're like, "What the fuck?" Yes, they didn't pay for exclusivity, but I do think as an influencer, you have to try to make the brand a bigger part of your life.

    I think that to have longevity in this space, you need to build great relationships with brand partners that can carry you on for years. I think your audience will start to know you're a fan of that brand, and you love them, and you'll support them. You need to be thinking about those things. Look, I slap brands on the wrists, too. I think brands do a terrible job by continuing to gift the partners that they work with an official capacity.

    It's something that we are pushing pretty hard to say, "If you pay someone, you should be sending them something every month. You should be giving them opportunities to talk about you. Otherwise, what are they supposed to do?" They have to be thinking about what you're launching, go out and buy it, and promote it.

    It is a two sided thing and both sides need to get better. As an influencer, I think you need to be keeping some sort of documentation of the brands that you've worked with, when the last time they paid you was, and when the last time you talked about them organically was, and start to build a system that makes sure you stay on top of that because it's just good business, honestly. End rant.
    Episode #142
    - Saves (The New Like), Staying on a Brands Radar, Negotiation Tips