What's the Deal with Sponsored Posts on Instagram? (And why should I try to stop hating them?)
No one loves commercial breaks. No one likes to feel like they’re being sold to. I get it. I feel the same way. There is nothing worse than that email from a long lost “friend” checking in on you and then BAM- buy my oils!!! WHYYYYYYY?!
But I wanted to help answer the question: What’s the deal with sponsored posts on instagram and why is it important to engage with them (if you like the person creating the content)? I want to give my insight on this, and hopefully stop some of the ick factor when it comes to ads from your favorite content creators and influencers.
A little background on me- I shared on instagram as a hobby creating content for free for almost three years before I realized you could a) get merchandise from brands and b) could get paid as well. My mind was BLOWN! A lot of people come into it these days knowing this, but I was clueless. Ha! I was just documenting our renovations and living in ignorant, unpaid, bliss.
But once I figured this out, I started reaching out to brands asking to partner up for projects, and then brands started reaching out to me… and then yada yada yada (Seinfield, anyone?) it became a job!
Here are some truths and insights from someone in the “biz” so hopefully we can change the cringe, eyeroll, and ignore response to content that is an ad to… “Heck YES! This person I follow along with who creates content and ideas for my home is getting paid so they can keep doing this! Hooray! I’m gonna like it and comment on it and swipe all the swipes with gleeeeeee!!!!” Or something like that. ;)
I say no to brands. A lot. If the product isn’t something I would want to consume myself, I won’t push it on anyone else. I don’t want to steer anyone wrong so I am careful about who I say yes to. I also don’t want to be a constant advertisement for a bunch of crap no one wants. I like to think of myself as your friend who lives in your phone/computer and a friend doesn’t annoy the crap out of their friends with constant ads mmkaaay?
Not all partnerships are paid. Some brands pay with product trade and only some pay with actual money. For example, I might write a blog post, take styled photos for my feed, create stories, take styled photos for their marketing and advertising use, etc. and get a new room of furniture in exchange for that work. So it’s like if you went to work and got products instead of your paycheck. It can be amazing, especially when you really wanted that furniture anyway and would’ve used your money to buy it. So then, its like you DID get paid, but immediately spent it on stuff for your home. But your partner doesn’t yell at you because you wasted your paycheck on a new chair because the paycheck IS a new chair. Pretty fun, huh? I obviously take into consideration how much work I’m willing to do based on the worth of the products I will receive. Like I’m not doing all of that above work for a towel, ya get me?! But, sadly, a sofa can’t pay the bills and you can only have so many beds in one house so… that brings me to the next point…
Some partnerships ARE paid!! Hallelujah! Lots of influencers offer classes on how to make money through instagram and the amount they say they make is way more than what I make. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong so don’t ask me what to charge because apparently I’m the worst. Haha! I do have rates I send out, and a lot of times (pretty much all the time) those rates are rejected and we negotiate what my work is worth. Making actual money and not just getting a bunch of home decor I don’t need is ESSENTIAL. Its why I can keep doing this as a job. I am able to contribute to my family’s income by being a product stylist, marketing professional, designer, and DIYer. Especially now with the pandemic, more brands are working with people like me to be their product stylists and photographer for their websites and marketing materials. Those are honestly my favorite kind of jobs because it’s all behind the scenes and I don’t feel like I’m bombarding my audience with products and ads. (PS If you work for a brand and you’re reading this, please hire me for these styling jobs. I love them. It’s basically my dream job. Thank you. )
It’s not as easy as it looks. So I know when I first heard about people getting paid for content I was like “Are you kidding me? They get paid to snap a photo of their kitchen?! Must be nice!!” And it IS nice. But its not just snapping a quick photo. Competition is fierce and you don’t get hired without high quality photos, styling skills, and great audience engagement. I might take 20 differently styled/tweaked photos of a space before I get the perfect shot to send off to a brand. Also, I often spend my own money to make a shot look better. If my space needs to be updated to get a quality shot for a brand I really want to work with again, I’ll buy new things to style the space. For one brand, I got hired to take photos for the holidays and I went a little nuts. I bought a ton of flowers, new table linens, and even cooked an entire holiday meal to make my photos look great. That’s some effort, baby! Ha! But I valued the brand and wanted to impress them so I could get hired again. And then there are also the collaborations where you actually need to complete a DIY project for the brand. You’re on a strict timeline and have to execute the project correctly, document all of the steps, and submit the pretty content. Its a lot of work, and some pressure to perform, but most of the time, its very fun work!
Audience engagement matters. A lot. Most brands ask you to send screenshots of all of your swipe ups, views etc before a collaboration as well as after. It’s almost like your report card for how the partnership went. So sometimes before I’ll share a sponsored story, I might post a slide that (begs for engagement) thanks my audience for their support. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of people do this. We get graded on every view, every like, every link click, and every swipe up. Even if you don’t make a purchase, it looks good to brands to know our audience is interested in what we share. So if you like us… please LIKE us (tap that heart my friends) and tell us you like us (comment on posts) or we won’t get any paid jobs and we’ll have to get a different job and we’ll cry and you’ll miss our dumb faces talking to you in your phone every day.
That’s it! If you have any questions for me about any of this I will do my best to answer them. I hope this was helpful and explains how it all works a bit better so we can all be happy, instead of annoyed, when someone gets to work with a brand. Thanks for reading!