How to get your first travel collaboration – Instagram Q&A 

Ooh, we do enjoy a Q&A. Genuinely love hearing from you guys and answering as many questions as I can (apart from when a random Geoff asks me to sell my worn underwear and socks). Ain’t nobody got time for that. So below are a few things you guys have asked me recently, including how to get your first travel collaboration.

Let’s do this…

Where do you get your ideas from?

• Follow people that inspire you – unfollow people that make you feel sad/blergh/unmotivated or annoyed (in real life and online)
• Save other people’s posts that you find inspirational/ utilise Pinterest 
• Scribble down things as you think of them. My best ideas come to me when I’m in the bath or about to fall asleep which is handy *eye-roll*. The notes section on my phone is an archive of my deepest darkest thoughts – lol jk it’s mostly hashtags, stupid puns, or restaurants I’ve yet to eat at

Do you reach out to brands or do they come to you?

• Defo a bit of both
• Don’t be afraid to pitch – most brands have a media/PR contact on their site for collaborations or if not you can reach out over DM
• Make sure your email is in your bio so brands can contact you easily (and just not in the click-through) as PR’s can’t scan this

You have a few Instagram’s now – how do you have time for them all?

• Yes, so there’s mine – @behindthefalselashes
• Bear’s (my pup if you didn’t know where have you been) – @excusemypom
• My home – @behindthefalselashes
• I guess it’s just planning content in advance – try and take a batch of photos at the weekend or when you have time, then it’s just a case of getting them posted 
• Don’t overcommit (lol bc this is my worst trait) finding a posting schedule that works for you is key, so if that’s 2 or 3 times a week then fine if it’s more then great but if you overcommit you’ll be more likely to throw it out the window in week 2

How did you get your first collab + how do you secure a brand or travel collaboration?

• It was actually from Twitter – look out for the hashtags #PRrequest #bloggerswanted #journorequest as brands/PRs often use these for outreach
• Don’t be afraid to reach out to brands – if you love a brand and frequently post about them, tag them, @ them and put yourself out there

How do I get my first travel collaboration?

• Do you post about travel? If not, change this. I kept banging on about wanting a travel collab but only ever posted about fashion and nights out – more on this here 
• Make your travel content useful – do you have any tips on restaurants, which room to pick or which sunbeds to avoid? Include this in your content
• Don’t be afraid to pitch – what makes you different? Why should the brand or hotel pick you? If you have examples of content you’ve already created within this niche include this in your pitch. Make each pitch personal and give them no doubt why you’d be the perfect collab
• The same goes for any niche if you want more ice-cream collabs – focus your content on ice-cream and make it relevant 

How do you grow an engaged following on Instagram?

• Create great content – do you love what you’re posting or are just posting for the hell of it… 
• Ask the audience – who wants to be a millionaire vibes here – ask the people that follow you why they follow you/ what they like- create more of that 
• Respond to your comments – I always try to respond to my comments or at the very least like them, if someone has taken a min out of their day to ask me something it’s only right that I try and give a response. There’s nothing more annoying than seeing people constantly air questions like hun just tell them where your £10 New Look skirt is from and get your head out of your ass
• Don’t get disheartened if your engagement is up and down – you’re worth more than a few bloody hearts on Instagram

How do you improve your engagement?

• Look at your stats – what do people like/ what performs best?
• What hashtags are you using – are they super specific to the image and not above usage of 500k each? If you’re tagging simple words like “jeans” and “dog” which have millions of hits, you might as well y’know not
• To build an engaged following you have actually engage with others- sounds simple but leaving genuine comments and interacting with other people’s content is key to building an engaged audience (and I don’t mean leaving the word “wow and the heart eyes emoji” under every single person’s photo – that shit is not genuine and will get on people’s tits real quick 
• Write interesting captions – take good photos – be useful. Give people a reason to like, comment, or share your content.

Any tips for getting noticed in 2020?

• Call yourself Corona. Nah I’m kidding – that bitch is getting noticed for all the wrong reasons
• Be authentic
• Show your personality
• Be consistent
• Engage with your audience

Do you ever doubt yourself?

• Oh, all the bloody time. And It’s ok to have a meltdown now occasionally as long as you don’t unpack and live on meltdown island  
• Comparison is the thief of joy and all that. There is literally no point in comparing your beginning to someone else’s beginning, middle, or end. God, I sound like I’ve unintentionally swallowed a self-help for dummies book. Apologies…
• Keep turning up & keep creating stuff you love

How did you make your website and where is it hosted?

• I’ve written a whole post on this + the pros of cons of going self-hosted so will link that for you here 

Any top tips?

• Moisturise
• Delete his number
• Check your spam
• Do less with more focus (this is one for me) bc I’m always doing 310 things at once and it’s just not helpful…
• Stop banging on about: the algorithm/ your engagement/ begging people to like your posts. It’s boring, no-one logs on to their socials in the morning to be begged for likes. Trust me on this one. 
• Keep going, stick at it and be consistent… you’ve got this honey boo boo 

Hopefully I’ve helped a bit with how to get your first travel collaboration and you’ve found this post useful. If there are any questions you have feel free to drop them in the comments xo

More blogger tips:

• Why gifted campaigns are stopping you getting paid 
• How to find your niche: Blogger tips 
• 7 blogger truths I bet you never knew

*AD ~ Katch Me. All clothing featured in this post was gifted in exchange for blog content.

——————————————————————-

Links and sizing  for what I’m wearing below

Navy & White Check Flannel Shirt – Size 10

Cream Teddy Fur Cropped Hoodie – Size 10

Black Belted PU Cigarette Trousers – Size 8