857. Influencer Marketing: How To Get Represented As An Influencer & How To Tackle Your Campaigns As A Brand feat. Ali Grant, Founder Of Be Social Group

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So if someone's really got a massive following on Instagram, like making sure you're doing more than that, there's so many different things that you can be doing and should be doing. Because if you think about it like if Instagram shuts down tomorrow, like that means your 2 million followers are now long.

Welcome to the Earn your Happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of Light Pink, best selling author, three time fitness world champion, and I'm a crazy, multi passionate entrepreneur. My journey has taken me everywhere from being a broke waitress, barista, retails associate and personal trainer with massive anxiety and no belief in myself to later becoming a multi multimillionaire in love with my life. In 2007, my husband and I lost everything. We found ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at rock bottom. We had no ideas and I had no education to fall back on. This is when I found personal development and learned everything I could about business. Not by choice, but because I realized no one was coming to save me. The conversations on this podcast are going to let you know that you're not al that we all feel like we don't know what we're doing. We're going to give you the tools to help you face your fears, take action, start your business, and grow those massive dreams that are keeping you up at night. It's time to create a life that you can't hide from and put so much on the line that your higher self is forced to come out, you're going to stop waiting for someone to approve of you and you're going to anoint yourself. Because I'm obsessed about building businesses that give women a platform, I want to feature you. So if you text the word podcast to 310-496-8363, you can get your questions answered on our Q and A segment along with a shout out. And if you rate, review and subscribe to this podcast, we're choosing someone every month to get coached and featured on our show. It just might be you. So let's get started.

Foreign.

Welcome back to the show. Today my guest is Ali Grant and I'm thrilled because she's been on the show before but so much has happened since the last time I talked to her and she launched B Social in 2012 as one of the first agencies with a hyper focus on executing influencer outreach and collaboration. And you guys, you know I'm so excited about this because of what I want to do with Light Pink and get it out into the market. Allie has recognized the power of digital creators and built a business harnessing their influence which is so vital now. Today the Communications Group is headquartered in downtown la, specializing in influencer media and events for brands and digital creators. We talk all about the importance of influencers and brands collaborating together, what that looks like and how to do it with Ellie at the helm. B Social has been named one of Inc's fastest growing businesses, spearheading digital Forward campaigns across influencers events and and editorial. So the firm supports and is partnered with the Freedom and Fashion nonprofit which uses the arts of fashion and beauty to empower youth, overcoming trafficking, homelessness and other injustices. B Social has recently been acquired by Dolphin Entertainment. So exciting. Putting the company alongside some of the entertainment's greatest. You can read the full story in Variety and Ali also hosts the agency's podcast Follow Me, which has been rated as a top 100 business podcast on itunes. So let's get started with the show.

Allie, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for coming back on the show.

I know I've been here before.

Been here before. You guys can hear the whole story. I will link up that show as well. But I'm so excited to have you back because there has been a whole world of things that has happened since the last time we talked. I was really watching a few women who are out in the world who I knew had like offices, brick and mortars, all these different things where people went into the office to work. And I kind of was watching just how through Covid, I was watching you, I was watching quite a few other people and just seeing how we were all navigating business and what that looked like. So I know that so many things were probably insanely challenging, but I also know that you came out really well. You ended up coming out really well. So before we get started, can you share with everybody what you do for people who don't know kind of how that started? And then we'll, we'll dive back into that initial kind of question.

Hey everyone, my Name is Ali Grant. I am the founder and CEO of a company called B Social and we are an influencer marketing agency. We do two things, we represent influencers and we also help brands with their influencer strategy. So we're really like 360 and we do two parts of the business, which is interesting and unique. I've been doing this now for 10 years, which is crazy. So kind of at the start of the whole influencer industry, I think at that time we use the word blogger, not influencer. And it's been such a great industry to be a part of. It's evolved so much and so many things change on the daily, quite literally. I love that.

This is such an interesting space for me right now, especially because I've been, I've just been listening to a lot of just ideas on how, what the new ad is.

Right.

Because the different costs of acquisition for companies, companies for anyone who has a message, who has a product, anything like that. And so much is pointing towards the fact that you need if you are a brand or an influencer, but if you're a brand that you're going to want to connect with influencers, with creators, with really trying to get that sometimes organic, sometimes not organic, but really getting eyeballs. And it's really going to be TikTok, Instagram, all of the different ways to get out there. So, okay, first I want to know how did you do, what did you do to pivot really quickly through Covid? I know we're so over this conversation, but I want to know how many people, you know, it's. That's just a representation of what happens in business. Like there's so many moments like this that you always need to be ready to look at the next thing. What was something that you did right away with your company in order to start pivoting?

Yeah, I mean that was such a very anxiety inducing time. Not only like personally but professionally. And I think owning a company, being responsible for so many people's salaries, like it was a really dark time for me. I felt a lot of pressure. I mean, I think the hardest thing initially was realizing we couldn't work in our office yet we were still paying a very large sum of money monthly for our rent, which is really stressful. So a lot of things, a lot of business very rapidly went away like overnight. So that was like March 2020. We had Coachella, we had Stagecoach coming up. Our company does tons of influencer partnerships at big events like that. So really overnight we saw six figure contracts just completely go away. So we saw a massive decrease in revenue. Events in general were a big part of our business. So that was very difficult for us. So we had to brainstorm. And one of the things we actually created during that time is something called brand Edit, which is a influencer mailer. So we started reaching out to different brands that typically would do like big events or gifting suites and things like that. And at the time couldn't do those things. So we contracted them all to be in this like literally massive box that went out to influencers and sort of was like the way to get in touch with influencers in a way that you would on a gifting suite, but through the mail. And so we started that line of business like completely new, from the ground up, built it and now to this day, two years later, we're still doing it. And it's actually a really big part of our business, which is exciting. And we've actually been able to turn it to in person events. So we do these showrooms now that kind of match what we're putting into these mailers and boxes that go to influencers. So that was like a huge pivot for us. And then another thing we really saw was influencers were actually kind of being treated more like models for shoots and things like that because a lot of brands couldn't do full scale productions or shoots anymore. And so we actually got a ton of work that way of like, hey, I'm a brand, you know, we're having our new line coming out. Can you shoot these in your home and post to social and give it to us to post on our E comm? And that was another way where we were getting different business. But it was a difficult time. Like I have to say, like our revenue plummeted. It was pretty hard. Like a lot of the ways that we were generating income with, you know, our brands and our influencers and events just, it really went away overnight. So luckily we're crawling out of that, so that's good.

So on the pod lately we've been talking so much about supporting the actual entrepreneur, like supporting the soul of the entrepreneur. And that's at the end of the day, like when moments like that happen, thrown into moments where you are managing so much uncertainty, like you kind of like get out of the strategy of the company and you're now in your body going, how in the hell am I going to handle this pressure and handle this stress? What were some of the coping mechanisms that you did when it felt like it was crushing?

Yeah, I actually at that time, like when Covid was starting to come in the news and all of that. I was like, I want to buy a treadmill. Like, I have this feeling that gyms are going to shut down or something. And that has always been like, my anxiety release is running. And so I ordered a treadmill, like, on Amazon, and it came, like, I don't know, the day we closed our office or something. And for me, that was literally a game changer. I think every day I. 30 minutes to an hour on the treadmill was like my absolute release because there was so much uncertainty and I had a lot of anxiety and I was just. You didn't know what was happening next. I think, like, I had mentioned that pressure of being responsible for so many people's income really, like, the success of this company isn't just affecting me. It's affecting our employees, our clients. It's more than just me. So I think that pressure was difficult and that it's also you're getting all this pressure, and personally, it's taxing. And then you also have to be creative and pivot and try and figure out new things. So, yeah, I'm glad we're getting out of this that time for sure.

Oh, my gosh.

Yes.

To the treadmill. I ordered a treadmill. I ordered a peloton.

Yeah, right.

Do all of the serotonin and dopamine, like, releasing that I possibly can for my brain. Just one more question around that for compartmentalizing your thoughts. Because for me, I'm finding, like, you had a lot of people's salaries. I have a lot of investors, like, trying to compartmentalize and manage those thoughts where it's kind of like, okay, allowing yourself to think of it or go to worst case scenario, but then be like, we're done. And then in order to, like, create that stuff space where you can be creative, because that needs to be like a very light. It can't be coming from a fearful space. So is there anything that you do to kind of or say to yourself in order to, like, switch modes or kind of like, let go or make peace with the stress and anxiety?

Yeah. I mean, honestly, like, I still to this day, I think, struggle with that. I think you're so right that creativity can't come from a place of, like, your mind just has to be, like, straight and right to be creative. So it is difficult. I think for me, it's just like the balance of it all. And it is. You know, some people work this way, some people don't. But I feel like I turn on like a different part of me when I'm working. And then I try so hard to turn that off when I'm not working. Because I think a lot of the decisions that you have to make as a CEO of a company are often maybe not aligned with like how you are naturally as like a person, right? Like your business mind and your personal mind, like, are very different. And there's a lot of difficult decisions that have to be made in the best interest of the business and the future of the company. And I think that for me constantly is difficult, but it's still like separating the two in my mind. It's like when I come into my office first thing and have my coffee, I'm like, okay, I'm putting my business hat on and decisions must be made with that in mind. But that's kind of the only thing that really has sort of worked for me. But, you know, I mean, it's so difficult, right? Like, it really is because I think too with like a business that you started from scratch and has grown, it's like you identify so much with the company, like you're so personally intertwined with it. And it's like that separation is so difficult, but it has to happen for your like, own sanity. It really does.

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I so feel that it is something that's hard to explain like that, but it is kind of like, okay, I am now getting into this mode. Like I now have to be this person and really? Yeah, because it's not like we would choose to be having a lot of really tough conversations that we would rather not or rather avoid or rather be able to keep people on and make people happy. But that's not going to make your company thrive, you know, so. Oh my gosh.

Right?

I think sometimes it's just like the nicest thing as an entrepreneur knowing that other people are going through the same thing. So anybody listening is probably like, oh, I'm just so glad that I'm not alone in that. Okay, so let's talk about. You do both sides. You do the brand side and you do the influencer side. I can absolutely see why this could be such a massive benefit and probably a little bit stressful as well. Just it adds another layer to your business of focusing on two different things. But why don't we start just because so many people on here are either they either have their own business or they're kind of considering themselves as influencers or they're building, building a personal brand. So let's talk about what you do from the influencer side.

So that part of the business, we represent about 70 different creators. And when I say creator, that means like essentially someone who has like a big social print or following on really any platform. 80% of what we do is probably on Instagram though. But as we've seen TikTok take off, like we're looking to represent more creators in that space because brands are spending more there. They really are.

What the reason for that is, I.

Think it used to be literally 100% of the offers coming in for Instagram and I feel like now it's probably almost 50, 50 at this point. So if you're a creator and not on TikTok, you're certainly like losing out on opportunity and money. And I think the reason brands are spending there is the ability for content to just go more viral there. I think creating content there has the opportunity to reach more eyes when done thoughtfully. And I think too it's just a younger demographic. Like if you're looking to tap into Gen Z, that's kind of where you need to go. So I think that's the combination of those two things is why brands are wanting to spend more there.

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For anybody listening, I think even if you don't know how it works yet in your business or you don't know how to fit, like, it pays off so much to go and study it, especially if you are an influencer. And then we can talk about that from the brand side as well. So when you say that you represent influencers, what does that look like?

Yeah, so we're really like 360 involved. So most of what we do is the digital partnership. So say like a Maybelline reaches out and they want to work with Whitney Carson, who we represent. We'll, you know, negotiate that deal and then help Whitney see through the contract. So creating the content, the deliverables, getting it posted, analytics afterwards. So that's the majority of what we're doing, either handling the incoming inquiries that are coming through as well as approaching different brands and introducing our creators to them. I would say it's probably 50, 50. So 50% just inbound and 50% outbound of the work that we're like, actually outreaching to the brands or brands that are coming to our agencies for big testings and things like that. And then the other part of what we do is like ancillary revenue. So working on different things like creating a podcast or launching a brand or a product or things like that, just like different revenue streams to help the creator continue to monetize and make use of the social footprint that they have.

When you said, you know, we work with 70 big influencers, who is somebody that you are looking to work with? Like, what's the number? What does that mean? Like, who is someone that you can help monetize?

Yeah, and I think that's such a good question, because I Think and I used to think this too. It's like, oh, it just matters how many followers they have. Like, you know, they have 2 million followers. Of course that's a great client, but that is certainly not the case. You can have 2 million followers and make way less than someone with 50,000 followers. That is like super niche and creates great content and really brandable and commercial. So following count really doesn't matter. It really is kind of, you know, how unique is their content, what is the quality of their content, how engaged are their followers. And also we like to have these discovery calls with people who want to get represented by us and really learn like what they want to do, like what are their goals, long term objectives and things like that to make sure there's a fit and that we can actually help them. Because of course, yes, we can do the brand partnerships, but like beyond that, like what do they want to do? And I think too making sure that they are committed to creating content. And really like, obviously we all know this is a business, a very viable business and you really have to show up every single day and you have to be dedicated to it. So it's a matter of having your own strategy, be willing to create content, consistently engaging with your followers. So I mean we have people on our roster with, you know, 100,000 followers who are making tons of money, more than people with millions of followers, quite frankly, because they're doing it right. So the vetting process is, you know, really getting to know them, their goals and if they're just like a good person and easy and nice and good to work with, it's such a hands on relationship. We're texting with our clients, we're meeting with them or like talking every single day. So you really have to like the person and vice versa.

Say someone is not to that point yet, but they want to get to this point to be able to maybe work with you guys or come in and say, this is my overall goal, I'd like to find these few partners that would really be a great fit that I could create content for. Here's my goals, here's what I'm aligned with, my core values. That's at least what I'm picking up from what you're saying, but they're not quite there yet. What are some things that they can do to start maybe figuring out what their niches, putting themselves out there and maybe just testing some different brands and seeing what fits before they even get paid are those things that you would recommend is kind of like test across the Board some different ideas. Can you share some things that you would tell somebody if their next year goal would be to have a company or work with you guys in order to create different partnerships as well?

Yeah, I think if you're an influencer looking for management, I think when you do the reach out, one of the first questions will be like, what are your most recent partnerships that you've done and how much money did you make from that? So if you're not in a place to be, like, I've done X, Y and Z partnerships. I think you have to build to get there so you can sort of show that. And I think a really good first step is kind of like what you said obviously is like working on your content, your strategy, your focus, and then start introducing yourself to brands which you can Find contacts on LinkedIn or DM, the Instagram accounts of these brands, and start doing gifting and sharing that type of content. Ask to be like, you know, going to events and things like that, like just getting yourself out there as well as signing up for platforms like four Card or things like that where they have different brand partnerships going on and start like just drumming up that business on your own and have like a few case studies that shows you working with a brand and the success from that because really that's what the manager will be able to sell and they likely would like to have some history of that before signing you.

Do you recommend kind of going into something? Let's say there's a partnership that you have your eyes on and you're like, oh my gosh, this is like my North Star partnership. Would you start creating content for free and getting on their radar? What are kind of like those organic, get noticed but put the work in type of things.

Yeah, I mean, I even say that to people who have, you know, millions of followers and do tons of partnerships to this day, if they have that like brand they're dying to work with. And in most cases, unless you're super lucky, like they're not going to be like knocking down your door to work with you. Like, so I think the best next step is to reach out, get on their gifting schedule or go buy the product at Sephora and create content and get it in front of them. And that's how we have brokered these deals in the past is like, we're now like, hey, look at this content we've made. Look at, you know, the engagement on it. Like if you're doing any casting for partnerships, hello, we're here type of thing. So yeah, I think that's a really good strategy.

Okay, awesome. Can you tell me a little bit about. You keep talking about the gifting schedule. So this is when they send out different, you know, new gifts or things like that. Can you explain that a little bit more?

Yeah. So I mean, that's like basically an organic influencer gifting. And so a lot of brands do this. Many influencers you see like the unboxings and things like that. So essentially what brands are doing is sending out these mailers of products to influencers in the hopes that they will post about it organically, meaning not contractually, not being paid for it. And it's a way for them to garner awareness. And I think too, it's like a lot of these brands are developing these gifting lists of influencers to see, hey, who's going to like, you know, try our product, share about it organically and if they do, potentially moving them to like, hey, that's someone we might want to hire and pay for our next campaign. I think like I said before, like trying to get on those lists is like step one to get on their radar for sure.

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What do you you get asked the most from the influencer side? Let's go with first. Like, maybe before people come into your company, what do you get asked the most? And then let's just say for people who are with you but want to go to the next level, maybe a question that they start asking.

Yeah. So for the first one, I think I get asked a lot. Just how do you introduce yourself to a brand? Like, how do you get on their radar? So some of the things we just talked about, posting about them, sharing content about them, DMing their Instagram account, finding the influencer or marketing manager on LinkedIn, getting their email, and then just sending an introduction email, literally, right? It's like sales 101. This is who I am. This is what I can do. Here's the type of content I can create, and here's a little bit about my following, you know, and that's literally it. I mean, granted, they get tons of these emails daily in a role like that, but that is truly step one. And if you can't contact someone via email, try DMing the Instagram account, because whoever's running the Instagram account probably runs the influencer program. So now you're getting like, literally straight into their DMs. So that's a question I get a lot. And then I think for the influencers we represent, have been working with for a long time, I think it's, you know, the question of, like, how do I take it to the next step is always there, as well as, like, how do I pivot to more luxury brands or how do I pivot into a space that I'm, like, not in right now? Like, I only post about beauty, but I want to do more fashion. I think that's kind of the question we constantly get. And if the answer is quite simple, right, like, if you want to be attractive to fashion brands, post about fashion and start doing more of that. And I think too, it's also creating, like I said before, case studies of, like, how you can work with these brands and what you can deliver. And I think ltk Reward style is a great option for that. So get on ltk, start creating links, like, prove what you can drive and like, the types of sales and clicks and things that you can drive for these brands and use that data to then sell to them, do a brand partnership. So I think that's super important as well.

Oh, I love that. I mean, that's so good for you as the influencer, to know, like, what is hitting with each brand, because then you have control to go in, obviously, and negotiate more, which I love ltk, but cutting out the middleman and being able to go directly so that you can. Can get that, that's really cool. What have we not covered on the influencer portion that you want to share about before we move into the brand portion?

Yeah, I mean, I think another question too is like, diversifying your platform platforms. So I think that is something I constantly push. So if someone's really got a massive following on Instagram, like, making sure you're doing more than that. So we talked about TikTok launching a podcast, a YouTube channel, being super active on the LTK app, or starting a blog. Like, there's so many different things that you can be doing and should be doing, because if you think about it, like, if Instagram shuts down tomorrow, like, that means your 2 million followers are now lost. So let's try and like, string them around to other places and get them on a newsletter. Like, what else are we doing with that following? And what else are you providing to them as well? So that's probably the biggest thing I really try and focus on with the clients that I work with.

What about real quick for when the influencer is creating their content for the brand specifically, is there a set of questions that you kind of say, hey, when you're creating content, think about X, Y and Z or what does the brand want? What are the selling points of the brand? Or what are the things that really made you love the brand? Are there certain things that you're like when these get hit on? This is normally what we see work well.

Yeah. So when working with the brand, usually they provide, like, a very strict brief. So with like, all the talking points, they want the influencer to hit with the promo code, et cetera. And I think the best brands, the brands that do it right, are the ones that are more collaborative and. And they're willing to be more flexible. So, for example, I just did a campaign with a beauty brand, and they really wanted the influencer to focus on one particular product. But after receiving the whole bunch of products, she realized that wasn't actually her favorite one. And we sort of pivoted and asked if we could talk about different products because it felt more natural and organic. To her. So I think when you do get in these partnerships that is important to relate to the brand. Like these are the things that work on my channel and this is why. And like try and be collaborative with them because otherwise I think these partnerships become so salesy and ad like that it's like an infomercial and it's really just like not doing anyone justice. Right? Like not your following, not the brand and not you. So I definitely encourage you to speak out and be like, I don't want to do it this way and I want to do it this way for X reason.

Yeah, I love that. Even from like a consumer standpoint, when I can see an influencer is super passionate about something. And yeah, yes, they might be getting paid now, but in the beginning maybe they weren't. I love even hearing about it. Like the other day Lauren Bostic was talking about something that I was like, I would buy this immediately because of how passionate you are about it. I love that it's actually enter it becomes entertaining also for the consumer. And then we do what you want us to do, we buy the stuff. Let's talk about the brand side. Well, first of all, what's your opinion on brands, advertising or needing influencers?

Obviously a little biased, but I mean influencer marketing works like it really does and like we have the data to back it up. Whether that's through, you know, swipe ups or conversions or promo code redemption, it really does work. And when you're talking about an organic gifting program, the cost and barrier of entry is like pretty low. Right. Like you might be paying an employee to handle it or paying an agency to handle it, but it's not too expensive. And then when you go into the partnership side of things, yes, like obviously very costly it can be, but beyond, you know, just getting the awareness, it's like the credibility. And then you also have the ability to drive people to your website and conversions and think about how expensive creating content is. Right. Like if you're to get these, this beautiful content from an influencer, from a partnership, like that has value in itself for reposting on your socials, using it on your website, etc. So I feel like there's tons of value in influencer marketing beyond just driving sales, which people typically think that's the only thing going on.

How do you fit together the brands and the influencers? Is there like a trial period? What does that all look like when a brand comes, comes to you and is like, we're really looking for a perfect fit. How do we Know, we don't want to throw all this money out right away.

Yeah, I do know the drill. And I think for brands that are, like, getting into influencer marketing, it's, like, very overwhelming and it's quite confusing. And, like, you hear so many different things. There's so many articles you can read about influencer marketing. So there's just like, a lot going on and it's sort of like still a little bit the wild, wild west, right? Like, the pricing scales are all over the place, engagement rates are all over the place. It's difficult to navigate. But I think the best way to start and get your feet wet in influencer marketing is just doing product seating and gifting to start and see how that goes depending on, like, the cost of your product. Like I said before, like, it's not too expensive to do this program. So say you start with like, 30 influencers and start gifting to them. I think that's the best way to figure it out at first and see, like, who posts, who likes it and when they do post, what list do we get to be at anything. Like, you know, did we get more followers? Do we get traffic? And then from there, building out a paid partnership program. And really, I think it's either hiring someone in house who understands influencer marketing. It's a specialty. Like, you need someone who knows what they're doing, who knows the right influencers, who has worked with influencers, has the relationships, knows how to gauge the analytics and how it converted in the roi. Or hire an agency who really has it all figured out and has a team that can do it for you on your behalf. But I think just trying to pull an influencer program together with existing staff who don't quite understand the world. I don't know how successful that would be. Yes.

Where would you say you see brands going wrong and where do you see them going right with influencers?

I think for the most part, brands A are probably not like, really utilizing any sort of software or program to run these partnerships. And so they have no sense of, like, the data behind who they're hiring. I mean, I've seen it firsthand as we will get approached by a brand who's like, like, hey, we want to pay your influencer X to do this partnership without doing any research of their own, really. So it's like, I think that step one is looking at, like, the analytics and demographics of the influencer, and there's great software that you can do that with, like Tribe Dynamics or Creator iq or it's simply just like asking the influencer, hey, can you send me a screenshot of your demographics, your story views, your story swipe up so I can get a sense of like what it looks like to partner with you. And I think digesting that information and then coming up with who you want to work with through that is like key. And I feel like some brands just look at maybe the photos the person posts or whatever it might be. But I mean, I guess at the end of the day it depends on what your like KPIs are, right? If you just want beautiful photos, of course just hire the person with the beautiful photos. But if you're looking for sales conversions, really tapping into your key demo, then you need all this analytics. I highly suggest investing in some sort of software. And they're not cheap. Creator IQ is I think five figures plus. It's not cheap, but it really helps you with list building and casting and analytics and program management and housing it into one place is, is really nice.

If you were a brand right now, what would your game plan be for launching or for scaling? Let's do for launching and for scaling. As far as influencers, I think about.

This daily because I'm like, okay, if this was actually my money that I was spending, like what would I do? So I think first off, having some sort of event with influencers is like a great starting point. So the investment obviously is finding a location, you know, food and drinks and things like that. But I think the value of getting say like 30 influencers in one room with your product and your brand is so valuable, there's nothing better than that. You're getting to gift them, introduce it in person, they can test and try it. And for whatever reason, influencers are much more apt to be posting at events and in person than if you're gonna go and like mail something to them. So typically the impressions are really high. I'd also do some sort of mailer and it would be a creative mailer, like something very interesting, eye catching to be delivered to say 30 to 50 influencers. And I wouldn't be blind sending this, I would be sending a note, making sure they actually want to respond, receive it, and could be interested in creating content around it. Of course you're not going to be like, hey, you have to post it or I'm not sending it because that's kind of a no, no if you're not paying, but just making sure, like, hey, like this is a brand you might be interested in. Like, I see it could fit in your content in a few ways. Just like making sure we're aligned, sending that out. And then I kind of take a month off and look at all that data and figure out who posted and what the lift was on those posts and then kind of recalibrate and figure out what's next from here and probably build some sort of ambassador program where I have maybe five to 10 people that I'm constantly working with to help me create content, to do takeovers on my socials, to come to events that we have and really be integrated into the brand. And depending on what type of brand or product, this is another approach I would work on too, would be developing some sort of capsule collection with the influencer, a particular influencer, someone who I feel like really hits my target demographic and really resonates with the brand and creating, say we're talking about fashion, like maybe they create their own colorway of a swimsuit or something that fits into the collection because those are really powerful and that you basically get someone coming into your brand to create tons of content. The investment is high. Yes, but I think you get a lot more than what is contracted, like on paper. So we've seen those be super successful. But yeah, and then just like ongoing gifting, like really just like having someone focus monthly on gifting products, seeding products, scouring the Internet, listening on social media, seeing who posting, engaging with their content, and also investing in micro influencers who are beautiful content creators. To get content for my own social media feed would be another approach too. I would have tons of things going on and I have endless money with this brand that I've created.

I love really tangible, like you gave good numbers, so you gave away completely tangible things for people to be doing. You know, you didn't say I'd start with 500 influencers. You're like 30 to 50 and then you kind of narrow it down. And I actually love that you had mentioned sometimes it's so easy to think we need to do everything all at once. But I love that you keep going back to let's try this, let's get the data and then let's build like what you want more permanent from this. So I love, love, love this approach because it's really easy when you have a brand or, or when you're an influencer to like get really overwhelmed and think you need to do it all at once. And it's just like you're just throwing so much shit at the wall and you just feel like a psycho and.

The data surprises you. I recently we did a campaign with a nail Polish company and we had hired, she's a nail artist. She creates beautiful nail content. Like everyone who follows her is into nail art and nail polish. And then we were like, okay, let's also try a lifestyle influencer who kind of posts like broadly about so many different things. And she converted. The lifestyle influencer converted so well, sold so many nail polishes. And it's just so interesting. It's kind of not what you would have expected. Right? And so that's why, like I always say, like, let's take a beat, like let's look at the data. And I think it might surprise you on who works and who doesn't.

Oh, that's so interesting. And I guess that's why it's so important to invest in some of those softwares because otherwise you just, just, you really won't know where it's coming from. Right. It's probably easy to look at that money and be like, oh, well, we could invest this in this other big influencer. But it's probably better to like invest and know where your numbers are coming from, especially if they're coming from more either niche or micro or just different places. So that's really powerful. Okay, what are some things that we need to know? If we're a brand and then if we're an influencer, we want to come in and work with you.

So essentially, for a brand wanting to work with a company like B Social, obviously having some sort of budget, I think working with an agency, there's a lot of sticker shock. I think people don't understand how much it costs. So I would say like a good starting point for working with an agency might be around like $3,000 a month, like at a minimum, where some can charge up to $30,000 a month for services, kind of ranges on what they're doing, obviously. So having a budget in mind, having an understanding of like your KPIs of what you want to do and achieve with working with an agency and then making sure you have inventory, I think that's like the biggest thing that we get is like a brand will come to us and oh yeah, I want to do influencer marketing. And then we kind of get down to it and realize they don't have enough inventory to even have a successful influencer program. So I think that's a big piece of it too. And realizing it, you know, it takes time, right? Like month one, we're doing discovery and strategy, then we're doing seeding, and then we're doing analytics and all this stuff. So it's not overnight success like many people might think. You will have like your one off hits where you guys talking to someone yesterday where this tiktoker just randomly bought her product and showed it on her TikTok and she literally sold out of Ulta like overnight from this.

Oh my God.

Just one tick, one TikTok post. So you will have those like one off hits and we've totally done that before where the brand is like oh my gosh, so and so posted like we have to work with them more now. So you will have those things. But I think with like just starting with the seating and things like that, it's trying and seeing who works and kind of taking that data from there. So yeah, I think that's kind of kind of it. But like typically an agency will have you know, two or three people in your account working on your behalf and really utilizing their relationships. The softwares we use and just like our approach and strategy behind it. And of course yes you could hire someone in house to do this work and that often works really well. But it's an investment, right?

Yeah, there's definitely, there's pros and cons to both sides and even just some of the things that you had talked about with your agency, they probably already have all of the software probably already put all of those things in that you don't think about. So sometimes agencies are a great place to start. Sometimes, you know, it just, it really depends. I've just found sometimes it can be a great starting point if you don't want to make all of those investments. Not just starting point but also scaling because you have so many great relationships as well. And that's huge too. Like that's just one thing that I want to point out is, you know, because we're always going back and forth with in house and agencies for all that we're doing and there's so much to be said about just figuring out what relationships those people do have. So if that's something that you guys are thinking about, working with the social group is that you know, there's so many incredible relationships like looking who's on the roster, looking at people who've worked with them, like so many things like that. So for the influencer side real quick, for people who, who want to see if they're a fit, want to potentially get involved, what is that process again? They go and fill out, it's just.

On our website, just an email, it's representsocialgroup and really just send your media kit information about yourself and Then from there we would have a discovery call if it's the right fit, just to learn more about each other.

Okay, amazing. And I just want to touch on the fact that you sold this company and you're still working there and you're still growing it and you're still. But that's like so exciting because the conversation we're having a lot here as well is a lot of people don't know that sometimes we start companies and you can have the ultimate goal of selling your company. Totally always the goal.

Or no. I like honestly didn't even know that was like a thing. Like of course I knew, like Coca Cola buys beverage companies. But I think when you're like thinking in the world of like agencies and like the service industry, I don't know, it just didn't really cross my mind. So no, I was not thinking about that. But what I was thinking about at the time that these different companies started talking with me was like, what is my five year plan? Like, what does it look like from here, right? And I think if you own a company, it's like unless you have some sort of acquisition or exit strategy, it's like, well then you're kind of doing this forever, right? So when I was thinking about that deeply, I was like, huh, an acquisition is kind of interesting, right? It just depends. I think people sell their companies for various reasons. For me, like, I'm still at the beginning of my career. Like I'm not ending my career anytime soon. So for me it was about, you know, resources and investments and things like that to take the company to the next level and, you know, helping me like develop a five year plan from here. Right? And like helping me better hone in on what's next for be social and what we can continue to achieve. So congratulations.

That's so huge. It just gives us more options, you know, I love that you brought this into our realm and shared that because it really gives people more options and also realizing like this isn't your last rodeo, like there's. There can be a lot more when you go into things thinking like this, like starting something, especially if you're someone who loves to start things, ideate, get teams going and then do it again. That's so I'm like, okay, so what comes next? So thank you so much for being on you guys. We will link up everything so that you can go and check it out. Definitely just go check out her company, go check out her social because it is such a great guide, such a good North Star. If it's something that you want to start doing and aiming towards or start working with her now if you really want to start scaling and getting into those brand partnerships. So, Ali, where's the best spot for us to follow along?

Yeah, I am on Instagram. Just Ali Grant Be social is too. It's just B social group and pretty active on both of those for the most part, so that's probably the best place.

Awesome. And you guys, you know, the biggest thing that we can do for our guests is to tag Allie and let her know what your biggest takeaway was from this podcast. It's always so much fun to see who is listening and what you got out of it. Ally, you have one l, right?

Yeah. Ali. Ali.

Until next time, earn your happy.

Bye, everyone. Sam.