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Thinking about becoming a social media influencer? Then you better have a media kit ready to go when sponsors, advertisers and potential collaborators come calling. Simply stated, a media kit is a brief document that explains who you are, what you offer, and what types of sponsorship or advertising packages are available. There are several reasons why it’s so important to have this media kit.
Reason #1: It simplifies the process of interacting with sponsors and advertisers
Have you ever received an email message from a blogger, influencer or vlogger that seemed to be cut-and-pasted from all kinds of different places, with fonts that don’t match? That doesn’t look very professional, especially if you are trying to land a major sponsorship deal. Not to mention the fact that it’s pretty time-consuming assembling all the same information, over and over again, any time someone contacts you. Far easier to have a professionally designed document saved as a PDF file that you can send within seconds.
Reason #2: It allows you to explain the value of a new partnership
One key question that any potential or sponsor will have basically boils down to, “What’s in it for me?” If they are paying you the big bucks, they will want to know what type of audience reach you have, what types of people watch your videos, and what kind of engagement you are getting on social media. They will also want to know exactly how much it will cost for each new type of sponsorship. For example, how does the pricing for a product review differ from the pricing for showing up in a few Instagram photos? By working out a pricing tier in advance, you will be forced to think about your core value proposition, and what you can really offer to a brand or company.
Reason #3: It shows that you’re serious about delivering value to sponsors
It’s one thing to tell a brand that you have a blog or a YouTube channel, it’s quite another thing entirely when you can back it all up with statistics and data. For example, you can detail that YouTube views are up 100% over the past month, or that your blog gets 1,000 unique visitors each day, or that your videos and blogs get re-tweeted, mentioned and picked up by other social media influencers. All of these help to demonstrate not only your reach, but also your command of the digital media space. Most likely, a brand or company contacting you has a very specific niche or demographic in mind, so don’t be discouraged if your reach numbers can’t compare with those of a Kardashian – a local restaurant in your hometown might be plenty interested in a young and upcoming foodie blogger, for example, who can help to publicize some of their unique dishes.
Even if the initial process of creating a media kit sounds a bit daunting, the good news is that plenty of templates exist online to help you put together all of your stats, press clips, and customer testimonials into a very unique offering that you can then send along to anyone who is curious about a potential partnership, sponsorship or collaboration.
