Knowing who to collaborate with and when is one of the hardest areas to navigate in the social realm. There are many businesses and influencers out there who are all wanting to ‘collaborate’ but what does that really mean and what are the questions you should be asking.
Collaborating with others can be very fruitful exercise, it helps get the word out about your business, new products you have and generally gets people talking. So how do you collaborate successfully, for us, it all about the insights – measurable data that can give you tangible results that you gauge whether or not your collaboration has been successful or not.
More often than not businesses will collaborate with another business or influencer, send them product and then that’s it. They’ll get a post and maybe a story but that’s it. What comes next? And did you really get anything out of it?
Don’t get us wrong, if you’re wanting to blanket the market and get your products and business out there this can be a very effective method but but understanding your return on investment (ROI) is critical no matter which way you go.
It is important to have clear objectives (one or two) for your collaboration/campaign, these objectives should be simple and straight forward. When considering these objectives, the easiest question to ask yourself is, what are you wanting to achieve and why?
Following this, whether you’ve approached a potential influencer/collaborator or they have approached you, you should still ask questions to make sure he parking is a good fit:
– Does their brand align with your brand?
– Who have they collaborated with before?
– What reach and engagement did they achieve on previous collaborations
– What are their exceptions, I.e. are they wanting product, payment, etc.
– What will you be getting by collaborating with them, i.e. how many posts and/or stories, will there be any back links to your website on their website, will they be writing an article on their website?
This point is important, especially if you are a new business who is looking to build internet credibility, creating links back to you (backlinks) and articles about you and your products are important for your SEO ranking.
When considering the type of content that will be created for you, you should also have an understanding of which each of them offer. There are two main types of content that collaborations will yield social posts and articles (ideally with backlinks).
Social posts will often give you a burst of exposure but such is the nature of social media it is a flash in the pan, as quick as the post is live, is a quick as it disappears in the mix of the millions of other posts that are all being simultaneously posted.
Remember with social posts its not only up to the influencer to create the engagement, comment an interact with their community as well creating links and potential relationships that can further create ROI for you.
Articles and reviews that are posted to the users website provide for longevity and create brand history, that work together for SEO and develop brand integrity and better ranking for your business. Again engaging with their community is important as it creates further opportunities for new customers to engage with your business.
Knowing all this information should give you a better understanding of what type of collaboration to seek and the questions to ask to get the most out of your next campaign collaboration.
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