Working with brands has become a huge part of being a blogger. Brands are recognizing that bloggers have a lot of authority and power over sales and marketing and a shining review from a blogger can go an awful long way. I’m not ashamed to say that working with some kick-ass brands is one of my favourite aspects of blogging. Don’t get me wrong, there are an incredible amount of things I love about being a blogger from having a creative outlet, to discovering other amazing bloggers to even doing my self assessment tax return at the end of each year brings me some form of weird pleasure. But working with brands is definitely up there among my favourite elements of blogging – probably because it’s something I never envisioned ever doing or ever getting to the point of being able to do.
However thankfully, I did get there and I am doing it and it’s taken a lot of years of hard work, a lot of adaption and a lot of hustling in this absolutely buzzing industry but I made it eventually. I’ve learnt so much along the way when it comes to working with brands and I’m still learning, almost daily. I’m a bit of a Hermione Granger at heart so I’m always up for learning more about something I love and enjoy!
I’m also more than happy to share what I’ve learnt with my readers and other bloggers because at the end of the day, we all started somewhere and it’s incredibly difficult to learn anything about a certain industry if no one is willing to share the information with you. Which I think is BS (seriously stop being cagey about where and how you get your brand work, it’s not MI5).
So here are some things which I’ve found useful when it comes to working with brands. Things that make it easier for the brand and things that make you more attractive to brands watching to potentially work with you! (And when I say attractive, I don’t mean your physical appearance – you’re all goddamn beautiful – I mean your only presence)
Have an email address in your Twitter bio
I’m not a PR but this is the main thing I always see them say is really helpful. And PR’s know what they’re looking for at the end of the day! If you’re serious about blogging and working with brands, brands want you to be easily accessible. So having your email in your Twitter bio is a really obvious place to start.
Have a clear email address and contact form on your blog
Similarly to the above, if they find your blog before your social media pages and decide they want to work with you from there, they still need a means of contacting you. If a brand / PR can’t find an email address on your blog or a clear contact form then it’s unlikely they’re going to scour the internet to get in touch with you. I’ve also heard that they prefer to use an email address over a contact form so whilst a contact form is a useful thing to have, a clear email address is necessary for brand work.
Keep it consistent over social media platforms
This helps you build up your brand image and certainly makes you look professional. It’s likely you’ll be keeping a roughly similar style over your social media platforms anyway for example, if you love pastel shades then it’s unlikely one of your platforms is going to be neon green but you get my gist!
Maintain your username / display name over social media platforms
Another really important way to make yourself stand out and look more professional is by ensuring that you keep your blog name / display name the same over your platforms. Unfortunately, when I created Twitter, I didn’t use my blog name as my handle but I have “Jenny in Neverland” as my display name, so people know it’s me. My Pinterest handle is “jeninneverland” and Instagram and Facebook are both “Jennyinneverland” as well.
Stay away from Twitter drama
Ugh. Twitter drama. I’ve sure seen enough of it this week! I don’t know about you but if I was a PR looking for bloggers to work with, I’d definitely be put off by someone slagging people off on Twitter, getting into arguments and generally just having a bad reputation. If you can (and you can!) try and stay out of the Twitter drama!
Have a media kit
Media kits are great because they’re basically a CV for bloggers with all your credentials in one easy to access place. Some brands might request to see your media kit, others might not but it’s always worth having one just in case. They look great and they look professional. I’m definitely no graphic designer so I wouldn’t know where to start with making my own media kit but there’s plenty of very talented bloggers who make them on Twitter!
These are all super easy things you can do to polish your brand and make your online presence a little more attractive to potential brands! If you have anything else to add to this list, I’d love to hear it!
