Interesting as well as unbelievable requests and the truth about blogger collaborations. After my first blogpost a few months ago on a fair payment of bloggers, it’s time for a sequel. Apparently, people always assume that bloggers are stupid and naive and let themselves be blinded by great facts.
Do some companies really think bloggers do not notice when the followers are bought at a start-up, when there is no budget for a blogger cooperation, but at the same time big TV ads are bought or when you expect three Instagram postings for a 40 EUR cosmetics voucher.
The way to professional blogger collaborations with respect
First of all, it must be said that many companies have changed the way they deal with bloggers since 2014. The blogger collaborations are discussed in more detail, it is planned for the long term and is also just incredibly fun – to go forward together and experience something. Looking back at my current premium partners SAMSUNG, ASUS, Canon, Kempinski and Carlson Rezidor, it’s always a meeting of equals and motivates for long-term mutual success.
However, what arrived in my email inboxes once again in the last few weeks was quite unbelievable and therefore simply has to be asked once – do many companies simply believe – “bloggers are naive and stupid”.
Post three pictures on Instagram – 40 EUR drugstore merchandise voucher?
A quite “interesting” request as a blogger cooperation of a drugstore chain from Berlin arrived last week from a “Head of Marketing”. One has of course looked closely at my Instagram channel and can offer me a 40 EUR goods voucher for xxx drugstore. A link to the drugstore would have been helpful. The conditions for the 40 EUR goods voucher, in addition, of course, quite modest 🙂 :
At least three pictures on Instagram, which must be linked with @xxx and #xxx.
The placements must be staged so that the product is in the foreground and the logo of the drugstore chain is very recognizable
If I stick to all the conditions and put together the pictures and all the links and send them over, with luck I might get another new coupon for next month and get to place three pictures in my Instagram stream again. If you look at the packaging in plastic bags of the “coconut chips, flosame shells, mulberries and cranberries”, you can only put these bags striking the camera and reduce and destroy the value of the whole Instagram stream. What you have built up over years, you destroy yourself for 40 EUR with coconut chips.
Even if you have a “small” Instagram stream, under 1,000 real, active followers, prices of at least 50 EUR per picture are a minimum payment for bloggers and Instagrammers in Germany, too. With just 13 EUR per picture, we are well below the amount and the note “if all conditions are met” and you have placarded your own stream with cheap advertising, you may order again. That a notice should be attached to the image with “Sponsored / Advertising” etc., is of course not communicated (and then probably leads to exclusion next month…) #JustThinking.
Mattress startup – without budget, but run TV ads?
No less interesting is the request for blogger collaborations of a mattress company, which provide bloggers with a free mattress and explicitly point to their own large Instagram and Facebook channels before the cooperation.
What is of course immediately noticeable, with now 22,000 Facebook followers, there are between 6 and 20 likes for interesting postings. If you look a little closer then the followers, so you could XXXX mattresses only write a nice email and express congratulations for the success in the regions. Finally, as a blogger, one was explicitly asked to take a look at the social channels of the companies once.
The result of this mattress manufacturer, which is currently also very active advertising, but for bloggers apparently has no money and assumes that you can pay rent, health insurance and other running costs also simply with a mattress, of course gives interesting insights:
Out of 20,000 followers, at the time of the email 6000 followers came from Egypt, over 2700 from Algeria, over 2100 from Tunisia, 1800 from Morocco, even 1600 from Iraq, over 1100 from Syria, 700 from Jordan, Libya 600 followers, Palestine 300 followers and even in Sudan still over 200 fans….
If you deal with it every day, of course, you could only congratulate and the response from the company, of course, accordingly. One felt probably a little with the strategy to Blogger co-operation caught.
One should not believe as a company, all bloggers are stupid and fall on such fake numbers purely. The Instagram numbers for a new company with lifestyle and interior images of course accordingly. 10,000 followers and at the time of the email 40 likes…. – now the account (see graphic) has grown to 14,000 and is just falling again seriously. Apparently not everyone likes mattresses after all?
The risk, which arises for Blogger with such Blogger co-operation naturally then also immediately: how are the left characterized? Even if the own links are marked with No-Follow, you can absolutely no longer be sure that elsewhere not consciously with Do-Follow marked links were purchased. Google subsequently penalizes (as some examples in 2014, 2015 show) all blogs that have placed the product on the page.
The ultimate “health food” will have to do!
Why don’t you try our new nuts, our new chia seeds and other products and write a detailed review about it on your blog. Of course! I also have nothing else to do and my opinion about the popular Chia seeds should be known long ago – I am still looking for the special effect and taste. About mulberries I have also written before and there my opinion was no different.
Of course, there is no money for bloggers for this, because you need food anyway and you run the blog only as a hobby. “For Blogger Kooperationen” we have of course no money and we are still quite fresh on the market. If it works out well with a blogger cooperation with you, we can maybe pay something in the future once.”
Is of course clear – elaborate packaging design, countless product shipments, large online store – but bloggers are worth nothing. The confirmation then follows a few days later, with extensive commercials at the best broadcasting times (among others, on Deutschland sucht den Superstar, Heidi Klums – Germanys Next Topmodel, etc.). Do you think bloggers are partly so naive and stupid? The product test should already have 400 – 500 words for a bag of nuts and a few dried berries and contain a link directly to the products and of course at least one link to the main page of the online store. Of course, these links do not have to be marked with “no-follow” and “advertising”, since you “voluntarily” test the products and write about them and it is a service for your own readers. Stationery – postcards and a pad for two Instagram posts? After the experience with the drugstore I actually thought it could not get worse, three postings on Instagram with label for 40 EUR were in retrospect but a good deal, because in the last few days there was still a request of a stationery for two Instagram posts with mention of the brand and the hashtag. In return, one should receive a “surprise package”. Whether you know how I love surprises in blogger collaborations? If you take a closer look at the online store of the blogger cooperation, you realize quite clearly, here it will be difficult to get the 40 EUR for an article or a fair payment for blogger cooperations and social media influencers. Postcards for 2 EUR, a block for 8 EUR – it would have to be a huge XXL surprise package. Will it really be a trend in 2016 and people try to pay for Instagram postings with URL and @ tag with a small surprise package. If you think about this more closely, some bloggers will apparently be able to pay the rent, etc. only in kind in the future.
CONCLUSION – Bloggers are probably stupid and naive? Blogger Cooperations
At least it seems to become a new trend again and one has “of course” always quite closely with the blog and the valences. One just does not check what value an Instagram post has with the corresponding account. There are countless tools on the Internet that determine the value of a single Instagram image.
If you look at the Instagram world today, Kendall Jenner or Gigi Hadid get between US$125,000 and US$300,000 for a single “promotional photo” on Instagram, where they advertise an outfit, a new piece of jewelry, or a sunscreen. The value of an active and old Instagram channel with a good like/follower ratio without purchased followers is often between US$300 and US$400 (per picture!) for 50,000 followers. A small fashion blogger Instagram account with 10,000 real followers and interactivity with their own followers often already gets over US$100.
If you compare these blogger cooperation values with the offers of a drugstore, a stationery store or a dried fruit supplier, you can quickly see how stupid and naive companies consider bloggers and Instagrammers to be.
If you take the XXXX mattress provider, which on the one hand advertises with its own purchased followers and actively asks bloggers to take a close look at the channels and then offers a mattress in return, for a blog post, the value is not right here either.
I have already written a few months ago ironically “Blogger do not have to be paid” and there also published a table where bloggers can look up what you can take approximately for a blog post or should charge.
Above all, I always find it important that people meet on equal terms and that the blogger and Instagrammer are also considered fairly by the counterpart and the company. It is certainly not about the last 10 US$ – but it is about the general interaction with each other.
I will also present in the future again some blogger collaborations, which are simply outrageous to bloggers. At the same time, this is always discussed very successfully in the blogger group on Facebook.
Whatever you decide, make sure that your blog does not degenerate into an advertising platform with blogger collaborations. There are some blogs that I used to enjoy reading, where only an accumulation of advertising is presented. In addition, it is often (if at all) only apparent to the reader at the end that it was an advertisement. This means that as a blogger, you not only lose your own credibility – but in the long run, you also lose your loyal readers…
