Four Tips to Get Paid Collaboration With Brands Through Social Media

So you got into filmmaking, and you want brands to pay for your work? Many of you are probably in this case and are wondering where to start to get paid jobs. Matti from TravelFeels gives us a few tips and requirements to make it possible and start receiving brand collaboration offers.

Provide Value to Brands

Any serious company has a business and marketing plan, with goals and targets to achieve. If your work doesn’t help them to reach these goals or grow in a way, most likely they won’t need your help, let alone your job. Value can be brought through a large following, a great product, or both. So instead of wondering how to get collaborations, start by working on your audience and product.

Larger Audience, More Jobs

A large following on social networks is going to bring you work. This is a secret for no one. What’s important regarding your audience is to target the social network of your choice. If you are a photographer and want to be hired for your stills, don’t grow an audience on YouTube showing your filming skills. Concentrate on what you do best and what you want to do.

A Solid Product for a Clear Message

Show what you want to be hired for and make it clear. More than just the right choice of social media, the correct way of showing it is important. As a photographer, YouTube could be a way to be hired if you were to show behind the scenes clips of your jobs – Von Wong is a great example of this.

Define your product so that your potential customers know what to expect from you. Do you shoot beauty, weddings, corporate, a bit of everything? The easier it is to understand what you do, the more chances brands will want to work with you.

Get in Touch

Now that you’ve built your audience and a solid product, it’s time to get the jobs! But how? Where? There isn’t any magic solution.

One way is through advertising agencies or networks. It’s a great option, but usually, you’ll be limited in what you do and have an artistic director on your back. Another solution would be to wait for brands to get in touch. With a large following and a great product to offer, they should start to come up to you sooner or later. Just be sure to make your contact details accessible enough so that they can get in touch. Finally, if none of these work, why not try to call or email brands directly? Perhaps they just didn’t know you existed but would have loved to work with you if they did. 

Maybe you were looking for a shortcut or an easy way to get paid for your Instagram photos and your YouTube videos. However, there isn’t any. It takes time and effort, the more dedicated you are, the more chances you will have. So be sure to refine your product and engage with your followers to grow your audience a little bit more every day and surely enough, brands will come to you sooner or later.

I'd love to hear your ideas on the subject. What are some of the tips that helped you getting paid work out of social medias? Are some of you making a living out of social media jobs such as YouTube videos or Instagram photos? Do you think YouTube and Instagram are two of the platforms content creators should keep an eye on and invest time in? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments below.