From an Influencer: The Content Creation Process

By Kenidy Springer, Account Manager @ Foodie Tribe

Being a micro-influencer and an Account Manager at Foodie Tribe, I’ve gotten to see both sides of what goes into a successful campaign. For this blog, I wanted to speak from the influencer side of things to shed light on the work that goes into creating the beautiful content you see while scrolling through Instagram or TikTok.

Typically, all campaigns start with backend work that no one sees - sourcing influencers that are the right fit, handling contracts, and more. What kicks things off after the final selection is sending out a campaign brief. Before we dive into what comes after the brief, I want to give a quick recap of what a campaign brief is. In one sentence, a brief is a guideline set by the brand for an influencer campaign. It outlines the following:

  • Deliverables

  • Visual Guidelines

  • Copy Guidelines

  • Personal Links/Codes

  • Payment terms

This helps give the influencer a better understanding of what the brand is looking for in terms of content and captions. So now, what comes after the brief? Until you are immersed in the world of content creation it is hard to fully understand the time and effort that goes into creating a beautiful image or video. For example, one of the recent campaigns I participated in took me a little over two hours to create a 30-second reel. Yeah, you read that right, TWO hours!

To dive deeper into what goes into content creation, I break the process down into 8 steps:

Develop a unique take on the creative concept provided by the client:

Ask yourself these questions:

  • What type of content performs best on your feed?

  • How can you make your content stand out from the rest?

You want to make sure you stay on-brand with what the brief is asking for while being sure to add your own unique spin on the idea. This will help set your content apart from other influencers in the same campaign.

Pick a shooting location:

This can make or break your campaign content. Most brands will have an idea of the content they are expecting to receive. If a brand has more of an outdoor vibe you will want to find an outdoor setting that matches the brand aesthetic. This will help increase your chances of:

  • Being featured on their Instagram page, giving you more exposure

  • The opportunity of a repeat partnership

  • The brand repurposing your content across multiple marketing channels

Hype yourself up:

Let’s face it, no matter how experienced you are, being in front of the camera is hard, especially if it’s you and a tripod. Don’t even get me started on the nerves I get using a tripod. Here are a few ways I help hype myself up pre-shoot:

  • Listen to your favorite songs at high volume. This puts me in a good mood!

  • Look in the mirror and tell yourself “I look amazing”. When you feel like you look good your confidence shines through.

  • Drink a coffee! As someone who loves a good cup of coffee, this helps me have energy throughout the shoot.

  • Ultimately the goal is to have fun with it. This will shine through in the images and video you take.

Shoot the content:

This is the part when you make the magic happen. Ideally, you want to use a camera, but if you only have your phone make sure you are shooting in the highest quality, for example:

  • Video - set on 4k at 60-120 frames a second.

If your budget allows, hiring a photographer is a great way to get high-quality photos and it gives you the opportunity to be featured on their feed, increasing your exposure.

Whether you are using a camera or your phone, a tripod is a great investment to set up your own shoot. This gives you the freedom to shoot your own content whenever you are available, eliminating having to coordinate schedules with another person.

Edit the content:

This is personally one of my favorite parts of creating content. There are many different ways to edit your content. From Lightroom to apps like VSCO. Things to keep in mind when editing:

  • Your feed theme

  • The brand’s feed theme

  • The product - You want the colors of the product to appear as they would in person (so don’t over-edit!)

Come up with creative captions:

The campaign brief is your best friend for this step. Going back to our handy brief, this will be filled with key messaging and facts about the product. Giving you all of the tools you need to develop a caption. Be sure to add in your own personal touch, this will give a genuine feel when your audience reads your caption.

Submit for Review:

With the progressions of influencer marketing, most campaigns now require you to submit your content for review. Here are a few tips I’ve learned from working on the Account Manager side of things:

Submit high-resolution images. This is important if the brand does plan to repurpose your content.

Add story copy to the images/videos prior to submitting for review. This will show the brand exactly what to expect when the content goes live.

Label each piece of content as Post 1, Post 2, Story 1…etc. This helps speed up the review process by eliminating excess emails asking what image/video is for what.

Post!

The most exciting part, after all of your hard work, you get to publish your content!

Now that the content is created and posted, we all know how it feels to work hard on a piece of content and it not receive the engagement you would like it to. So I wanted to share a few tips on how you can support other influencers as well:

  • Take the time to watch a reel or TikTok from start to finish and read the entire caption of the post.

  • For Instagram, save, comment, and then like the post, this will help play into the ever-changing Instagram Algorithm.

  • It’s important in the creator community to support one another because we do all know the work that goes into the content.

The Foodie Tribe team is proud to have a group of hardworking influencers who create amazing content for our brand partners! Want to work with us? Let’s chat!

ResourceKaty CoffieldComment