Influencer - Brittany Hennessy

When you enter on your Instagram and see Digital Influencers posting pictures of amazing places, receiving wonderful products you probably think: "Why could not someone pay me for me to live this life too?". Brittany Hennessy explain in "Influencer" how to become a digital influencer and get all their advantages.

Digital Influencers, as the name itself suggests, are people capable of influencing others through social media. They are responsible for producing content and for keeping their audience engaged.

The author is responsible for hiring and managing the Digital Influencers to promote Hearst digital brands, and she teaches in her book what to do to build your personal brand.

Got interested to learn about influencers and brands? Stay with us in this summary!

About the book "Influencer"

The book "Influencer: Building Your Personal Brand in the Age of Social Media" (2018), was written by Brittany Hennessy and contains 272 pages. On it, you'll learn how to build your personal brand on social media like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and even blogs.

It is an easy-to-read book that contains insights from Influencers, anecdotes about what not to do as Influencer and the author's vision for its construction. Brittany shows you how to become a content producer from scratch.

About the author Brittany Hennessy

Brittany Hennessy has a major in journalism and is the first Senior Director of Strategy for Influencers and Talent Partnerships at Hearst Magazines Digital Media and co-founder of Carbon.

She created the blog: "ChiChi212. com", which was considered the best blog about nightlife by Paper magazine and became Influencer of Bacardi, Popchips, Svedka and Gap.

When Brittany was flown to Germany as the American ambassador for Nivea just to hang out with singer Rihanna on a cruise ship and tweet about it, Brittany Hennessy knew it was time to move from journalism to social media.

To whom is this book indicated?

This book is suitable for anyone who wants to become a digital influencer. It is also suitable for those who wish to know more about how this profession works and to learn about social media.

Main ideas of the book "Influencer"

• Companies pay Influencers for two things: how much their talent costs (or output) and the size of engagement of their network (or distribution);
• [Likes + Comments] / Followers = engagement rate;
• The Influencers must be paid for the value they bring to the brand;
• Distribution Fee + Talent Rate = How much you should charge for the post;
• Being a Digital Influencer is not just about how many followers you have, but how you generate content to increase and keep your audience engaged;
• Brittany proposes a ratio of 70/30 when accepting sponsorships, that is, 70% of your content must be organic and 30% must be sponsored.

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Overview: "Building Your Community"

The Feed

Initially, Brittany Hennessy suggests you choose a username that is consistent. It begins by emphasizing that it is not necessary to have an account on all platforms and that you should have only those that you can manage.

The author advises to have the four largest platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. She explains the advantages of having each one of them and what to do and what not to do in each one of them.

In addition to these platforms, she suggests that you have a blog, because it is a platform on which you can have control. Since in others, your profile can be deleted at any time without warning or prohibit you from promoting your other channels.

The author lists 5 insights for those who want to divulge their personal brand:

• Post often;
• Be inclusive;
• Do not be negative: If you advertise a product or service that is not so good, know how to express it carefully, do not let your audience know that you are disappointed;
• Don't be too positive: In the event that you advertise a good product or service, do not be exaggerated like: "This is the best product I have ever seen;"
• Go to the next level: If you are a makeup blogger, of course you are posting makeup pictures. However, you should produce other content to post as well.

The Audience

When an Influencer publishes content that involves sponsorships, their followers see that and believe on it. The number of Influencers is increasing to advertise a product or service, as advertisers want to have access to their public.

Advertisers will not hire you to advertise their product or service, if you do not influence people, do not post creative content or do not have a loyal audience.

The author points out that she does not need to have a huge amount of followers to generate influence, but she will use the number of 100, 000 followers as a guide.

From zero to 2, 499 followers

Test the contents. Start doing this with the help of your family and friends, so they provide you with feedback and suggestions.

The author gives tips on joining Facebook groups that addresses the content you are testing, publicize them and ask for feedback.

From 2, 500 to 4, 999 followers

In this part, the Brittany Hennessy gives hints of putting hashtags in your publications to attract strangers to your content. Brittany recommends using 5 to 7 hashtags in each post.

From 5, 000 to 9, 999 followers

At this stage, the author recommends that you follow the pages that offer similar content to yours. For this, you can find these pages through the hashtags.

The other tip she gives you is to follow the pages that have fewer followers than you, since they will end up following you back because they do not want to lose a more influential follower. Brittany points out that you should not use services that use likes, followers and comments as a medium of exchange.

From 10, 000 to 24, 999 Followers

At this level, the author recommends that you begin to follow what the other Influencers are doing and continue to do what you were already doing on the other levels.

From 25, 000 to 49, 999 Followers

This is the stage where you begin to connect with other Influencers. By this way, you will get a new audience, ensuring more followers. She emphasizes that you should explore the figure of other people, like your friends or family members in your publications.

From 50, 000 to 100, 000 followers

In this last stage, you're ready to start getting brands closer so you can advertise. You can do this by delivering a raffle of the product or brand service that you know your followers enjoy. For example, if you are Influencer of makeup, make lots of makeup palettes. Since the most important thing to gain followers is to keep them.

Brittany gives other tips. One is if you see haters comments on your post, you do not have to be afraid to delete them and also to block people. This is best for your own sanity and the public you are building. And she still stands out: don't buy followers and likes.

In 2014, Instagram deleted the fake accounts causing many people to lose thousands of followers. If this happens again, it will not sound good to your image.

Overview: "Creating your brand"

Stand out

From this part of the book "Influencer", Brittany Hennessy explains that there are many influencers and if you want to work for the best brands, you will need to stand out. To do this, you must engage your audience, possess special skills, or produce high-quality content.

The more you stand out, the greater your chance of being hired and well paid. First, you must know how much your audience is engaged with the content you produce.

The author says that the engagement rate for each post is calculated as follows:

[Likes + Comments] / Followers (at post time) = engagement rate

Once you have discovered the engagement rate, you should seek out more about the profile of your followers: How old they are, their gender, and their location. You can check this through Google Analytics if your platform is YouTube or blog.

If your platform is Instagram and your profile is commercial, it offers you this information too.

With all the information, it's time for you to devote your time learning how to pose for a photo, how to talk in front of the cameras and develop other skills.

The First Impression

Whenever you contact someone, your name appears in the inbox, the first thing they will do is search for your name on Google. That is why it is essential that one of the first search results has something very good of yourself, containing all the information about you that will make the brand want to hire you.

Overview: "Monetize Your Influence"

Money

Once you've created rich content and publicized your name, brands will be looking for you to campaign for them. That way they will make you a proposal. How to trade it? What price should you charge?

First, you must respond to all emails containing proposals, even if you are not interested in them.

Brittany says the formula for you to give your price is:

Distribution Fee + Talent Rate = How much you should charge for the post

The "distribution fee" is how much it costs to be displayed on your profile or channel. It is based on 5 factors:

1. How many followers you have;
2. The engagement rate;
3. The quality of your content;
4. Your skills;
5. The profile of your audience.

The "talent rate" is how much it costs you to produce the content. These costs come from: your photographer or photo editor, the place you paid to produce the content, the purchases you made, including the clothes you had to buy for the campaign.

So you need to take into consideration how much you charge per hour. If you are writing a blog post, producing a photo or a video session, these things take time and time is money.

In every campaign you should include the time taken to: Negotiate with the cast agent (one hour), read the campaign summary and search the advertiser (two hours), observe and book the places (two hours), create panels for the filming (two hours) and shoot the content (up to 10 hours).

Brittany points out that many Influencers charge a very high value, and she leads to reflection:

"If we erased the internet tomorrow, would anyone know who you are? If the answer is no, act like a normal person. There is a reason why you can shop without being attacked and it is because you are not so important. It's just the internet."

But what if they offer products or services in return for your work? Is it worth doing? Brittany advises reflecting on 3 questions:

• Is it the company of your dreams?
• Will you travel?
• Will they promote you?

Any other opportunity that they offer you with the lower price you charge, you should always reflect if it is worth doing, since it can be a great way for you to increase your network of contact.

The contract

When you decide to do the campaign, you should calmly analyze each of the items it may contain. The author further emphasizes that you should never sign a contract without reading.

The Agent

You may be wondering how your favorite Influencer records all these campaigns while still finding the time to create incredible content. The short answer is, they do not. They probably have a team of people helping them.

However, there are many things that an agent can do that endanger your career, so it is very important that you choose the right one. Brittany brings some tips you should follow if you are looking for an agent:

1. Look at the full list of customers they have;
2. Know your agent in real life;
3. Ask to speak with other clients;
4. Ask to see their contract;
5. Look up their work history.

What do other authors say about it?

In the book "Influence", author Robert Cialdini deepens the idea of personal marketing by providing tools on how to influence people from your ideas, which in a negotiation is of utmost importance. In this way, the book is based on 6 psychological principles that influence the customer's buying decision.

In the book "Launch", author Jeff Walker presents a guide on how to sell products on the internet, considering all the challenges and difficulties of doing an efficient digital marketing.

Finally, deepening the law of solid foundation, which advocates the importance of gaining people's confidence to thereby influence. In the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People", Dale Carnegie brings a series of teachings on how to excel in personal relationships.

Okay, but how can I apply this to my life?

You can use all of Brittany's tips that have been exposed here to start building your personal brand. Remember what the author points out to attract strong and profitable brands you do not have to have thousands of followers.

You must have a great engagement with your followers, produce great content, develop photo and video skills, among other techniques that you should study through courses.

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