Blog Takeover #002 – Laura Faloon – You’ll find her on Instagram as The HomelyHaven
“Finding your blogging ‘sweet spot’ and working with brands on Instagram”
Welcome to another installment of our Blog Takeover #002, here at Rapid Marketing. We are really excited about our new series of Blog Takeovers on the importance of Social Media for Businesses and Organisations in Northern Ireland! Our last blog was written by Francesca Morelli from dip (deals in places). You can read about her view on the world of start ups and Social Media’s integral role in the Brand Awareness of dip.
This week I am excited to welcome Laura Faloon as our guest blogger at Rapid Marketing. Laura has become a good friend of both Zoe and I over the past year or so via Instagram. Laura is a wife and mother to two boys, her Instagram account , @The HomelyHaven, covers a range of topics.
I have asked Laura to shed some light on ”Finding your blogging ‘sweet spot’ and working with brands on Instagram”
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Social Media my old friend.
You can use it to share photos of your kids or puppy. You can use it to earn a living from it or you can use it to help promote and grow your own services.
For me it all started out being creative around our newly built home. Then I saw how other “bloggers” where earning an income, and for me at that time extra cash sounded good.
I had a nice new house, I was creative and felt I could take a decent photo. …so of course I was going to have 50k followers and within months? Yeah that didn’t happen. I sort of lost my way. I began to watch what everyone else was doing and was being a copycat. Laughing cow cheese triangles anyone???
Now there is nothing wrong with watching the way other accounts work, asking for advice and trying to implement some basic strategies. Like hashtags, times to post etc, but you cannot copy someone and expect it to work for out for you. Well it didn’t for me anyway.
Be YOU.
I did the rounds of events, tried to fit in with a few “blogging” crowds, trying any way to “make it” in the blogging world. But I was just failing miserably. There wasn’t a set “group” that I fell into and I was just making myself miserable. I felt I wasn’t the true, real version of myself. I could easily have become a fake version of myself, and that’s just not what I’m about.
Seeing so many people on social media, and they are just clones and it makes me want to SCREAM.
Okay, so I love fashion, beauty and food. But just because other people are earning from it, doesn’t mean that’s the path I have to take. I stick to the things that fuel me and that I am passionate about. For me its home life and home management. Boring to some YES, eye rolling YES…but meh that’s who I am and since stepping UP and OUT with my workshops and changing my content, I have never been happier!
Making a huge pivot Sept ’18 after taking a little break over the summer, I started just sharing ME. For me that’s homelife and recently on trying to live a more sustainable life. I can also see strong organic growth across my social media platform. Along with growth, my links and opportunities with brands is increasing.
Everything you need to know: Brands and #ADs
So on that note working with brands. Personally, for me I want to work with brands that I already buy and use their products. I also tend not to do many paid #Ads as very few of the brands I like do them! I find that approaching brands directly, with a proposal for campaigns works the best for me. This way I have came up with the ideas and know that it will fall in line with the content/theme I have for thehomelyhaven.
Followers normally get their backs up when you post #AD, and this can be frustrating. Normally when I accept a paid advertisement, I have put hours of works beforehand on a proposal, researched the business and then spent time photographing and writing content. I’m not here for quick snaps or badly researched work, as in the long run this will affect other paid work. I have made lots of mistakes along the way and lost out to some paid opportunities. That’s okay, but it’s mainly down to nerves and being relatively new to this line of work.
If a brand has contacted you to work with them, be assured, they have been following you for a while, and already like what they see. So just stay confident and be you.
Everything you need to know: #GIFTED
With #gifted work, I’m going to give a little caution. I’m a busy mum, who manages about 4 different sides to my business. If I get a message about receiving a gifted product around £10, I need to factor in what my commitments I already have that week. Although the product is “gifted”, the business wants you to share it and provide content. It is highly important to value yourself in this scenario, and just be upfront with the brand re your time and their expectations. Being up front is always important, and in the long run it protect you and YOUR brand.
Lasting tips…
In conclusion, know your worth folks. If blogging or influencing is where you want to develop a career, please see it as a new kind of “magazine”. Then think about the how much money and hours a brand would put into an advertisement or advertorial. Think about the hours that you spend on providing content and the subsequent time you spend receiving messages about a said product. You also need to weigh up whether certain brands might actually adversely affect work you may need to do in the future! So as nice as the emails are that come in saying “hi we love your page and would like to send you some free stuff” just spend a moment to think of the longer game.
If you want to chat about anything I have written, please get in touch via my Instagram page The HomelyHaven or via email hello@thethomelyhaven.com
Laura J
Thanks to Laura for really laying out in depth blog. Great tips on how to navigate Social Media as a ‘blogger’ develop and maintain a relationship with brands online!
If you’ve read Blog Takeover #002 and would like to be a guest blogger please get in-touch.
james@rapidmarketing.co.uk
We would love to hear your story and feature you across our Social Channels and with our partners!
As always you can follow us on Instagram.
Thanks James
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