We’ve been getting some great questions on how to have your profile show up more in the “EXPLORE” tab, so here are some tips and things to keep in mind that affect the relevance of your profile:
REVIEWS– Both the average star rating and number of reviews.
ACTIVITY– Be active on the app and don’t let weeks go by without collaborating. Most importantly, if you have active collabs, don’t leave them hanging. Stay in contact!
PROFILE– Having a completed profile (including fresh photos, bio with keywords, multiple social accounts, etc.).
WEBSITE– Make sure a website is added to your profile. If you don’t have a website, you can create a “LYNX in Bio” url and add your various social media accounts, portfolio, etc. all within the LYNX. Get Lynx for free HERE.
COLLAB FULFILLMENT– Completing collaborations on time, in full, and as agreed upon in Collab Details. Don’t forget to leave a review because the collab is not 100% finished until you have done so.
If you have any questions about these tips, please feel free to reach out to us. Thanks!
It is undeniable that influencer marketing is a massive buzz in the marketing world. And at the moment it doesn’t look likely to quiet down any time soon. Many savvy marketers are either adopting the tool or exploring the possibilities of leveraging influencers to promote their brands. But a quick search on Google can easily leave you feeling like engaging the top talent in your market is simply out of reach, especially if you are a small or startup business with a modest budget or limited resources.
With mega-influencers such as Kim Kardashian reportedly demanding up to $500k for access to her vast Instagram audience of 104M, it is not surprising that many see influencer marketing as an over-priced and simply over-indulgent way for some businesses to rub shoulders with the stars.
But worry not. Many experts on the subject now preach the benefits and cost-effectiveness of working with smaller influencers and brand advocates to gain real and substantial exposure and brand value for smaller businesses. In fact, some businesses have practically built their whole marketing growth strategy on leveraging their numerous assets to work with a range of influencers. Take for example the Taft shoe brand and Gym Shark clothing, two businesses that have sky rocketed to success through the use of a mix of influencers and customer-generated content on Instagram.
Micro, Macro, Mega
Taking into consideration the sheer ridiculousness of paying up to $500k for influencer posts on Instagram, defining the size of influencers your business will work with goes a long way to defining your strategy and overall approach to this type of marketing.
Let’s start by putting Kim Kardashian and the other mega influencers on the back burner for now. At least until your business is making so much profit your only option is to buy a mega yacht or pay Kim to say she loves your stuff. You still have two options available. One is to focus on a small number of macro influencers or a larger number of micro influencers.
Working with a small number of macro influencers may seem like the obvious option here. A smaller pool means less leg-work and bigger reach per influencer. However, with startup and small business budgets in mind, working with these types of influencers can be cost inefficient. As macro influencers are often approached to collaborate with brands, this usually means there is much less wiggle room to leverage brand assets beyond financial reward for collaborations.
Working with micro-influencers on the other hand leaves more room to barter deals based on value that can be brought to the table. It also allows more scope to work with multiple individuals, this brings a host of benefits including increased creative assets as well as creating the ‘everybody is talking about…’ effect.
Micro-influencers as a general rule also bring more to the table in terms of engagement with their audience, this is often due to the more manageable numbers of followers they hold and the ease with which they can continue conversations. Engagement is key when working with influencers, without it there is no way a brand will benefit from collaboration, some reports show that micro-influencer demand more than 60% more engagement than their larger competitors.
Leverage Assets
With the media’s approach to influencer marketing you would be forgiven for thinking that all influencers care about is money. Yet, many influencers are open to bartering deals around the value your brand can bring them beyond actual cash payment. When approaching influencers, take into consideration the various aspects you can bring to the table that will motivate them to work with you.
These can include free products/services, early access to products/services, discounts for themselves or/and their audience, exclusive content, access to events, access to other influencers or access to your audience or expertise. The list goes on, but you get the point. There is no harm in getting creative!
Once you have a comprehensive list of what you are able to offer influencers, you must then understand what motivates them. Usually this is as simple as starting a conversation with the influencer and discovering their goals and ongoing objectives. This then allows you to match your assets to their goals and strongly compel them to collaborate with your brand.
It is worth noting here that influencers often gain their position through the expert content they create. This takes high levels of creativity as well as countless hours of honing their skills whether that be in writing, video or image editing. Therefore, it is often worth generating some budget when it comes to working with influencers even if it is a token amount. As it allows you to show your appreciation for their craft as well as covering at least some of the time they invest into delivery.
Squeeze It
As a small or start-up business, it is crucial that you squeeze every last drop of benefit out of everything you do, therefore it is crucial to understand exactly what influencers bring to the table and how to leverage their skills to the benefit of your brand.
It is also crucial to understand the difference between the metrics that can be measured from influencer marketing activities and the actual physical benefits. Just like 1,000 new followers makes no real difference to your brand unless they can be converted into customers. Impressions, likes, reach, comments and sentiment on influencer posts truly provide no benefit for your brand, but are simply indicators of performance.
It is clear that influencer marketing is not simply at the reserve of marketers within the big brands, working with massive influencers, paying them huge sums of money to create quite frankly often insincere posts about their products. In fact, smaller businesses can hack the influencer economy and get much better ROI on their assets by working with smaller influencers with higher engagement to create more assets that can further benefit the brand.
Collabor8 sets itself apart in the Influencer Marketing community by being the best app to connect micro and macro influencers to brands across the world. Here’s the proof:
Now that we have a larger number of users on the app, it is important that you are doing the following in order to make sure that your profile is being seen and showing up in search results:
Complete all aspects of your profile. This includes a bio about yourself or company, location, social media integrations, interests (we recommend top 3), rate information, and payment information.
Portfolio photos. Make sure you have 5-10 photos where you can showcase your style, aesthetic, personality, etc.
Make sure to “complete” each collab that you execute! This is such an important part of the Collab process because it allows you to rate and be rated by whoever you are collaborating with. Completed Collabs and your Ratings are the 2 biggest components of the EXPLORE tab algorithm. We give priority to the most active profiles and new profiles!
Send/receive collab payments securely within Collabor8 (Stripe). Payments done outside the app are not backed/protected by Collabor8 because we have no control nor visibility. Make payments through the “Collab Details” page of your collab so we can help with anything as needed. It also allows you to complete the paid collab and get the benefits of bullet point #3.
Tag @collabor8app #collabor8app in your posts and we’ll use them for reposts, newsletters, blog posts, website, etc. and tag you and/or give you photo credit.
Request to work with smaller brands/influencers to boost reviews and completed collabs.
Other Ways to Grow your Influence
Visit our website to see some of the other tools that have been recommended by Collabor8 users. If you have any other suggestions for tools you enjoy, please let us know!
Think of Collabor8 as one large marketplace. Just like other marketplaces, there are two kinds of participants. In our case, there are the “influencers” on one side and the “brands” on the other. Influencers are typically content creators and publishers. Brands create and sell products and are typically on the hunt for the right product placement and content. To be successful in this marketplace, it’s important that users create a well-curated profile. You can learn more about how to create a great profile in our previous post. Once your profile is created, it’s time to enter the marketplace and start doing some deals! These 7 steps will help you be successful in your collaborations:
Find the Right Fit – There are a ton of influencers and brands on our app just waiting to collabor8. Additionally, we’re adding more brands and influencers to our platform everyday, so there should always be new brands or influencers to check out. Be sure to read their bios and take a look at their products / content to see if it’s a good fit for your objectives. It’s also a good idea to check out some of the social accounts on each profile to spot check their engagement.
Request to Collabor8 – Once you’ve determined you’d like to work with that certain brand / influencer, you’ll tap “COLLABOR8” in the upper righthand corner of their profile. This will send a request to that influencer / brand that you’d like to work with them.
Determine Details of Collab – After your request has been submitted, it’s up to that influencer / brand to accept or postpone your request. If a request is accepted, the collaboration will move from the “Requests” tab to the “Collabor8” tab. You’ll find these recently approved collabs under your “Active” queue in the “Collabor8” tab. Either of you will then have the opportunity to begin a conversation with your match in order to determine the details of your collaboration in the chat feature. Typically these details include 1) Date of Post 2) Charge (if something other than trade) and 3) Details of Post (where will the influencer post? what content? what product will be given? any special campaign such as a giveaway, event appearance?). Once these details have been finalized in chat, the influencer will insert them into the “Collab Details” screen – found by clicking the blue floating button in chat.
Brand Funds Collab / Verifies Trade – After the details have been entered in by the influencer, the brand will be responsible for agreeing to those details or funding the collab if there’s a fee by clicking “Fund Collab”. If the rate is $50, the brand will be required at this time to pay the $50. If there is no fee, the brand will click the blue “Trade” button to confirm details.
Influencer Completes Task – Once the collab details have been agreed to, the influencer is responsible for performing their end of the deal (i.e. posting to social media, taking photos, etc.). Once the influencer has performed the required action (previously agreed to and listed in the “Details” box) they’ll click the blue “Completed” button to confirm their action(s).
Brand Verifies Task / Funds Transfer – After the influencer confirms they’ve taken the required action(s), the brand will verify from their side that all is completed. If all has been completed as agreed to the brand will click on the blue “Verify” button and the funds (if any) will flow to the influencer that day based on the payout details the influencer has listed in his/her profile. *Note that the funds sit in escrow between the initial agreement and the actual post to ensure the influencer completes their end of the bargain. The influencer will be comforted in knowing their fee is already paid and waiting for them as soon as they post.
Review the Collab – The final step in the process (and one of the most important) is for brands and influencers to leave reviews for those they worked with. The review consists of two parts 1) star rating and 2) comments section. Reviews should be honest and thorough. It’s wise to leave a few sentences about why various star ratings are given.
Remember that at any given time you can click into the progress bar to see whose turn it is to do what. Completing these steps are the only way that brands and influencers can get reviewed in the app, as well as the only way that collabs will transfer from you “Active” queue into the “Completed” queue.
If you need any further assistance in your collaborations, feel free to reach out to us – aaron@collabor8app.com / jake@collabor8app.com.
Do you have any further questions about Collabor8? Be sure to check out our FAQ page!
I have signed up for the beta so why haven’t I received an invite yet?
We have a limited capacity of people that Apple allows beta tests to have at any given time. We are cleaning up accounts that don’t have much activity so that we can send you an invite as soon as possible.
What does “POSTPONED” mean?
See #4 above!
I have some suggestions for the app. What is the best way to let you guys know?
We LOVE getting your feedback. After all, that is what this beta is for. Please send us an email to jake@collabor8app.com and/or aaron@collabor8app.com
When will the app be available in the app store?
If all checks out well and according to plan, we should be accepted into the app store in 3-6 weeks.
I have Android and I am so bummed I can’t join the app!
First of all, why do you still have Android 😉 Just messin’. After we are securely in the app store and working out any additional kinks, we will roll out a version for Android. At the soonest it will be later this fall.
We have both accepted each other for a collab. What do we do now?
Now is where the rubber meets the road! There are no rules on who needs to start the conversation, so just get in there and open up a dialogue! One message we like to send looks like this: “Thanks for accepting my collab request! I love your products and would love to do a styled shoot for you. What are your thoughts?”
How does the payment process work if we are doing a paid collab?
First of all, the influencer will go into the details screen and set the rate of the collab after they have agreed upon it in the chat screen. Influencer will also set the expected due/post date. Once those 2 items are filled out, the brand will go to the details screen and make the 1-click payment which will debit the card information you have set up. The money then is held in Collabor8’s escrow account until the collab has been completed and verified by the brand. Once it has been verified, the full amount of the funds (we don’t take anything from the fee) will be deposited into the influencers Paypal or Square account. **If the collab goes dark or the influencer does not end up posting for whatever reason, the funds will be released back to the brand.
I have tried connecting my PayPay but is says there is a payout method error.
First you need to delete your app and then reinstall the newest version. Should be good to go after that.
What does it mean when I have collabs in my ACTIVE screen?
This means that you have both agreed to collabor8 with each other and you are ready to spark up a chat and proceed with collab.
We have multiple people on our team who would like access to our Collabor8 account. How can they access it.
We can send an invite to their phones and they will be able access your Collabor8 acct.
I accidentally sent a collab request. How do I Un-Request?
We are working on a option to recall the request, however as of now there is not a way within the app to do so.
If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to email us!
