People often ask me how did you get into influencer marketing? I was discovered by a brand who reached out to me for a partnership a few years back, it was the start of my influencer career. I don’t really like the word influencer, it’s actually made fun of quite a bit within the industry. Since it remains the most identifiable term I’m going to roll with it in this post. I prefer the term content creator, because really that is what I do!
I have a few different jobs, and influencer marketing is only a portion of what I do. First and foremost I own a marketing agency called Chatty Girl Media. My company was started 6 years ago to help small businesses share their voice online through digital marketing. Content creation is something I do everyday at my agency so becoming an influencer was a natural transition for me! From there I quickly identified I needed to sharpen up my photography skills so I began taking courses in photography and editing. My line of work requires photos on the daily so this is a valuable skill for the industry.
My husband Denny was off work for almost a year so we decided to dive in head first to grow this side of my business while we could. At one point we thought maybe he could work with me at my business full time but had a hard time keeping up with it all! The truth is, Denny had NO IDEA how much work was going on behind the scenes for a single Instagram post and that got me thinking, I bet my followers online don’t know either. I decided to share a glimpse into what is happening behind the scenes as an influencer, and it goes a little something like this….
So You Want to Become An Influencer
I think most people want to become an influencer because they get free things! Yay, everyone likes free things! But I don’t think people quite understand what comes with getting something for “free”. Let me start by saying it isn’t free when you factor in the work you need to do for these free things, the hours of emails, the photos, the editing, the content writing etc. There is SO MUCH happening that you don’t even know about! I really had no idea myself until I got into this. If you want to make it a job, you are going to have to put in the work! I think it’s important to note that you can’t pay the bills with free things so if this something you want to get into, the goal should be paid work.
I walked into a room one day to find my hubby sleeping in a pile of things we needed for photos. I had been in the other room steaming clothes and prepping for the photoshoot and he simply couldn’t keep up! It wasn’t even lunch time and we had already moved furniture, steamed clothes, done hair, make up, run to the store for throw pillows and prepped the lighting in the room for photos. Some of these campaigns take hours of work behind the scenes for one single Instagram post. To make everything look perfect online there is always a thousand things going on in the background.
My family and I are so thankful for the opportunities we’ve had to work with brands over the last few years. None of this has happened without a TON of work behind the scenes. In 2019 we set some goals to incorporate travel into online messaging and successfully worked with tourism and travel across Canada! I often share family related content on my channels and travel is something we all enjoy doing together. It is natural for us to share our experiences online as we often get asked about things we are doing on vacation. It’s been fun to be able to blog and share our experiences with all of you.
It’s important to also let you know that there are plenty of opportunities I say no to as well! If it’s not something that we would personally use or want to experience, then the answer is no we can’t promote that online for you. I have always been authentic and transparent in these types of posts and I am so thankful for those followers who engage with them. Sure it’s hard to turn down money, but authenticity is everything to me. This form of marketing is a channel of my job (although it may be strange to some), and how I help support our family. A like goes a long way on social media these days, and I appreciate the support of my followers so much. I want to thank all of you who engage with us, ask questions and send likes our way.
