It’s that time of the week my friends! Things You Ask Thursday #10! I love this organized chaos of a blog because it allows me to respond to your questions and hopefully benefits you guys! Throwing all your questions regarding marriage/babies/motherhood/fitness/healthy eating into one post is very fun for me! With that being said, I want to only focus on your questions regarding collaborations today because there is so much information I want to share! Before I get started, I would just like to state that today I am only going to be talking about product collaborations, not paid. There are so many forms of collabs but the first step is typically to start with the product which is where a company sends you their products, for free, and in return, you promote that product on your platform. Once you get the hang of this you can start focusing on utilizing your page as a billboard where you promote the products you love (sent to you for free) and get paid for doing so! Sounds pretty cool, right?! I will do another blog regarding paid collabs at a later time. With that being said let’s dive into today’s blog, shall we?

 1.) How do you pick which companies to collaborate with? When you first start collaborating, do you try to collaborate with whoever you can or should you be picky?

BE PICKY! I can’t stress this enough. Only collaborate with companies you 100% believe in and would buy yourself! Everyone has their own opinion on this topic so keep in mind this is my own personal opinion and how I go about collaborations. At the beginning of starting either a blog, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, (whatever it may be) sometimes people feel pressure to collab with whoever will in return work with them, even if they themselves aren’t sold on a product. This is a no-no in my book! It has to be genuine. There is a pressure for some to collab with whatever they can get there hands on because that in return means more traffic to their page. If they collaborate with a company and the company then turns around and promotes them it can build up their followership! You have to keep in mind that you want your followers to trust you. If you promote a brand for the sake of new followers, payment, and free products without even liking them, it’s not honest. Not only that, but you’re directing your followers to a brand they will probably end up not liking either! Remember, these people are following you for a reason- they trust you and what you have to say! Do not steer them in the wrong direction, ever.

2.) Do you DM the companies on Instagram or email?

I have always found it easiest to start off direct messaging companies on Instagram. Majority of companies (especially if they are larger businesses) have their own social media team running everything! Occasionally I will get a response back weeks later but there are many times where I get a response back that day! Many times, when I send a direct message the responder will automatically give me an email to contact whoever manages collaborations. A lot of businesses have a team just for managing potential collaborations, how crazy cool is that?! It just goes to show how big it is getting and that many people turn it into a full-time income from the comfort of their own home. I just think the whole process is fascinating.

I have several friends who like to go to the companies website and sometimes there is an email available to inquire about a partnership. I just have always found it easier to DM so that’s my main channel to communicate through initially and then it typically switches over to email!

3.) What should you highlight in the message especially if you are a small growing blog?

It’s crucial to never leave a generic message! The messages I am about to share are ones done off direct messaging on Instagram!

 For example:

” Hi, there! Do you do collaborations? I would love to work with ya!”

NO, NO, NO! To the company receiving this message, it comes off as a message you probably sent to 20 other companies, hoping that at least a few people will respond. It comes across kind of tacky.

I recommend keeping your message short and sweet, personalized, yet straight to the point.

For example:

“Hi there, I am Rachel!  I would love to collaborate with you! I have 9-month-old twins and would be honored to promote some of your mama friendly yet chic clothing on my page/blog! On my Instagram handle, @livelygirlfitness, I would say a large part of my following is mama’s or soon to be mamas! Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in doing! My email is livelygirlfitness@gmail.com”

I made it clear I wanted to work with them. I also made a point of saying WHY. Something that will often make a company decide whether they want to work with you or not is how would their product even fit in with your page? By the name of my own page, they might initially not want to work with me because they assume it’s only about fitness. That is why I made a point of saying, I have 9-month-old twins and looking for some cute mama outfits! Boom! They get it. I am a real person who wears other clothes besides yoga pants and tank tops (sometimes, hehe). It fits in with my life. It is genuine. It is real. If they decided to not collaborate with me, I would purchase their clothes regardless. Ya feel me?

4.) How many companies did you start off messaging daily?

Oh man, I was so hungry to get involved in the collaboration world. To me, it just is a win-win. You get free products that you love and then get to share it with your people! What’s not to love about that? I would reach out to 5-10 companies daily. Occasionally I reached out to more, it really just depended on the day. It would take awhile for me to compose my messages because, at the time, I didn’t know what the heck I was doing! I started collaborating with companies about two years ago and I was just faking it until I made. Can I be real? I didn’t even get the process completely. I just knew the best way to learn was to throw myself into it and gain some experience.

5.) How hard was it to get your first collaboration?

I wish I could remember my very first collaboration…but I can remember the first few bigger companies to take a chance on me! I became a partner with Quest and then with Old Navy. Once I got a few bigger bites the collabs began to roll in a lot easier. I can’t specifically remember how long it took, maybe a few months?

6.) Do companies eventually reach out to you?

It took a year, maybe a year and a half before I started to have companies reach out to me! It’s cool and makes you feel like you are doing something right BUT don’t think you do not have to reach out on your end anymore. It’s still important to message companies you genuinely like daily and show that you are interested. That is good business and keeps a more steady income for paid collabs!

7.) What goes on behind the scenes with collaborations?

This is a great question! There is way more to collabs then them just sending you free stuff and you posting a quick photo. I feel like a lot of people wonder what I’m even talking about when I say I have an hour or two of work to do messaging companies so let me explain. You will receive the product and then typically work with the company on the photos first. I always give companies deadlines to when they can expect photos from me. For example, say I am working with a company who sent me baby clothes. I will plan out these photos and make sure I make them as clean and professional as possible. Why? These photos are not just going on my page but theirs as well! Whatever photo I take has to fit in with their page or it’s practically useless to them. Also, it’s useless to you because you WANT them to repost your photos! That is trafficking all their followers to your page! Once photo options are sent to them they will usually help decide on their favorites (this depends on how big the company is). After the photos are planned, it’s time for captions. Sometimes companies do not care what you say in the captions but other times they want you to write it and send it their way before posting ! This is so they make sure they are represented honestly and the information is all correct- very understandable! Lastly, let’s talk about timing of when you post! I personally do not plan out the timing of my own posts because my babies keep me so busy that I just post when I can! However, when I am collabing on a post there are many times the company has a certain time they want it posted by! This is strategic because there are specific times of the day more people are on their social media than others. It makes sense I just don’t care to do this when it’s my own personal stuff.

8.) How to stay professional with collabs?

The biggest part is to have is timely communication! Companies are always taking a chance to send free products someone’s way without even knowing them. Respond to their emails and stay in consistent communication with them! Another big one is to take clean, as professional photos as possible! That’s the tradeoff practically. They send you their products for free and in return, you give them some crisp & pretty photos to work with! Don’t forget you are establishing business relationships through this whole process! I have had several instances where it started off as a product collab but because they liked the work I did, they reached out months later about a paid collab. Be reliable and do good work- it will pay off!

9.) Do you have favorite items to take nice photos with?

I started off just using my iPhone for everything! Once I started to get more collaborations that’s when I decided to invest in a few items to up my photo game!

1.) Diva Light! I can not find the exact one that I purchased but there are several options on Amazon. This was something I wanted for a long time but did not feel like buying because of the expense. Eventually, I caved and I am so glad I did because I use it ALL THE TIME. It’s especially helpful for pretty food photos!

2.) Phone Tripod! This is $10 and something I think everyone should have for social media purposes!

3.) White posterboard! Ever wonder how people get pretty white backgrounds for everything? For example, say you are doing a collaboration with a company and you are promoting makeup items! It wouldn’t look very cute if you are taking a photo of them in your bathroom and the background is of your sink with yesterdays dried up toothpaste on display! Go find some natural light, lay your big white posterboard on the ground and place the makeup items on it. I guarantee your photo will look ten times cleaner, prettier, and fresh!

4.) A nicer camera- Nikon D3400. This isn’t necessary right off the bat but it is nice to have once you start to get more collabs!

I hope this helps make your venture into the collaboration world a little smoother! Keep in mind, no one really knows what they are doing when they start off with this. Reach out, grind, and some magic will happen!

Happy Collabing & Stay Lively!