Influencer Industry Education Moment

When I started to write this blog post, I was going to give tips on how to hire an influencer, but then I did some research and realized there are a lot of tips already out there for how to hire an influencer aka me. Although, I may still write a future in-depth blog post about how to hire an influencer from an influencers point of view. For this blog post, I’d rather talk about how I exist within the influencer industry, how the influencer industry has grown, and how I like to work with clients. 

I have been in the influencer game since before the term influencer was even used. Yes, if any of you can remember, there used to be a time that the term influencer was not used. This time, long long ago was when OG influencers were bloggers. This is because Instagram, Youtube, and Tik Tok weren’t a currency and websites, blogs, was how content was shared. YEAH! Long form content used to be the way to work with clients and people used to actually go-to websites. Not just like a photo or watch a video. Blogs were the REAL DEAL for a brief moment… 7/8 years ago to give an estimate of time. 

Over the past 7 years that I’ve been in the digital space, I’ve seen companies not wanting to work with bloggers because companies didn’t find the value in such vain individuals, to companies wanting to partnering with bloggers turned influencers for high dollar payment. Fast-forward to now, almost every company you can think of has a team dedicated to influencer partnership relationships. YEAH! As much as many want to make fun of influencers, the digital space has created jobs for many to either work directly with influencers on their company team, create a database of influencers to then sell that to other companies, or agencies that want to help influencers manage their client work by taking a cut of the campaign budget. The influencer digital space quickly or not so quickly depending on your opinion, went from the wild west to a highly monetized industry with a lot of hands in the cookie jar! 

That’s where I come in as an influencer who loves to work with companies that I look up to and/or use on a daily bases. I stared before there was money involved. I started for the passion of fashion, even as cliche as that sounds and for some is like nails on a chalk board. To me, I honestly just loved fashion and wanted to be apart of the fashion industry. Blogging was my ticket to New York Fashion Week and getting to meet many brands I once only dreamed of even wearing. Now that I’ve been a blogger turned influencer over the past 7 years, it’s always such an honor to be able to collaborate with a brand, to get the opportunity to be an extension of their brand.  

As a full time influencer, I do have a manager who works at a agency which represents multiple talent (influencers). My manager helps pitch me to potential new clients (brands such as Abercrombie, McDonald’s, VisitBerlin, and American Tourister to name a few) and I in addition also pitch myself to new clients. Together we work as a team to gain me new work to share organic advertisement with my audience. 

Organic advertisement is the name of the game when it comes to working with an influencer. I love most getting to work with a client who trusts my creative direction and allows me to create an image that will resonate best with my audience. There is nothing worse than a client who takes all creative freedom away. In such situations where I don’t have creative freedom, I’ve had to turn down a client so I can stay authentic to my brand. Staying authentic to my brand is number one to me. As, Blue Perk, has evolved over the years, I have tried my best to keep integrity at the core! 

Ultimately, a positive campaign is when my audience is learning something new that I genuinely would have liked to learn myself and when the client feels they got a return on their investment. Advertisement is the name of the game. My clients are counting on me to advertise to my audience who may potentially purchase the product or visit the destination I’m talking about. 

If this blog post has gone completely over your head. I am sorry. For some, I do hope this blog post gives you a better understanding of my background and how I like to work with clients. At the age of 28, I’ve never been more serious about the status of, Blue Perk, and where I would like to see my brand go.