We’ve decided to try a little experiment…the WHQ Insiders Facebook group is officially open for business! This is a completely free {pop-up} group that we’d like to host for the next few months to facilitate private conversations about working better with brands. We get so many direct messages and questions that we thought it would be beneficial for even more people to benefit from the answers, and we want to build community around this topic.
We know there are lots of Facebook groups out there so why join this one?
Mostly, because it’s very focused around a niche topic. We belong to several other groups designed for bloggers and business owners which are great, but questions about sponsorships and working with brands are sporadic and sometimes yield little response. This is mostly because there are so many other topics being discussed {navigating social media, link drops/shares, building a business, creating new revenue streams} that these specific questions can easily get lost. Plus, if others in the group aren’t at a similar stage as you or even pursuing brand partnerships, it simply just might not be relevant.
In our daily interactions with brands, whether we’re proactively pitching, responding to an inquiry about the influencers we represent, presenting strategic recommendations to a brand or executing a new campaign, there are so many times when moments arise where we think that influencers need to know about the conversations happening behind the scenes! And that’s exactly the kind of dialogue and real-time insights that we want to be able to cultivate with a smaller group that’s excited to share and learn from each other.
Who this group is for:
- Influencers or experts with an established online or offline presence {we won’t be teaching how to set up a business or grow a following, though we’ll certainly share best practices on how to make your audience/expertise more appealing}
- Those who have experimented with or regularly participate in brand partnerships
- Smart, strategic thinkers who are willing to learn and adapt to the landscape
- People seeking win-win, collaborative partnerships that are transformational rather than transactional
Who this group is not for:
- Brand newbies {we’ll be tackling intermediate to advanced topics and want the content to be relevant to you}
- People who want to just vent, shame or complain about brands {we want this to be a productive learning environment}
- Anyone who is completely inflexible to shaping partnerships or not open to new, alternative ways of thinking
Sometimes, it can be frustrating to hear comments in other groups/communities where people state you must demand x rate, never accept free product or otherwise just complain about how brands operate rather than seeking to understand where the other party is coming from and being able to find a common ground that moves everyone forward. While we encourage problem solving about situations that may not be working, this is a place that will encourage professional dialogue and interaction {not just “granola doesn’t pay my bills”…we hear you, but it’s not the appropriate response}. It’s about equipping you to be your own best advocate while being open-minded and a true partner at the same time.
We hope that you will value our extensive agency and brand experience as well as the time we spend daily staying up on trends plus interacting with both brands and influencers to help everyone come to the table for a winning partnership! We are so excited to give this group a test run and see how it goes.
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