An Influencer’s Guide To Working On ZINE

A guide for successful collaborations, happy clients and repeat business

• Run your content idea past the client. Give them a rough idea of what you want to shoot, where and what vibe you are going for. This will avoid disappointment, forth and back over already produced content and re-shoots. 

• Always provide at least 2-3 different options. Try different angles, close up vs further away, different backgrounds. Make sure your images are well lit and if you are planning on using any filters, present the client with the final image not the pre-edited one or at least point out that some work will be done on the selected image. It’s ALWAYS a good idea to take a product close up just in case! If the client isn’t happy with the big picture shot, because the product isn’t visible enough etc. you can offer a carousel with the product close up as an alternative.

• Give realistic time estimates. If you won’t be able to shoot the content for a week or two after the project was confirmed, let the client know! It rarely is a deal breaker, if they really like your content, and it helps the client to coordinate their own social calendar and other influencer posts.

• Do not reuse old content. It’s tempting right? A perfectly fine picture that would look oh so great on your Instagram and coincidentally aligns with the content guidelines. No! If you have already produced content, be honest. Tell the client, make them aware of the context – eg. I posted a similar image 4 months ago, there was /wasn’t promotion attached to this content. If the client finds out later on that you repurposed content from an old shoot, repeat business is unlikely.

• Archiving/deleting content after it was posted. We get it, an Instagram feed that’s cluttered with sponsored posts, possibly awkward images that you were forced to post under heavily branded and restrictive guidelines (someone’s gotta pay rent, right?), don’t attract new business or followers. Taking down an old promotion is ok – unless the brand terms say differently – but even if they don’t, you shouldn’t take down a sponsored post for at least 3-6 months. 

• Always publish the approved content. This is super important. Often your content will go through many checks by the client’s in-house teams. When your content is approved, the client expects that exact post to be published (no tweaks to caption and no alternative image posted, no matter how similar it may be).

• Buying followers, likes, views, comments, etc. No, no, no. Just no. If you do it, you will be caught. Get caught once and your reputation will suffer indefinitely. Influencers caught cheating (yes we are watching) on ZINE are banned from the platform for good. Don’t risk it, it’s not worth it.

• Read the Guidelines and Terms before you respond. You may get a dozen collaboration requests every day or even hour and reading all of them seems like a waste of time. If you’re busy, give it a skim read, make sure you check for anything that might be a deal breaker for you, make sure you understand the type of content the brand wants you to produce before you go ahead and agree to produce something that you’re not comfortable with. It’s a waste of time for both, you and the brand to have to decide to not work together after going through the negotiations etc. Be on top of the brief and know what’s asked of you before you even send a quote.

• Be aware of any competitor clauses in place. This could include rules that refrain you from publishing sponsored content promoting a competitor of the brand within a particular time frame.
   

• Showing branding or logos in shot may be perfectly fine for some collaborations however this could bring up issues for larger companies, such as FMCG brands. Particular examples include: branded clothing, restaurant name logos, creative props (we all love a Jo Malone candle for aesthetic purposes), book titles – even your shooting location could cause issues for select brands.

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Caroline Duong

I’m founder & CEO of ZINE. When I am not crusading to make influencer marketing more profitable and transparent, I am travelling the world one country at a time!