Setting your rates for Social Media
By Ryan Chipperfield
One of the most common questions we experience as a Talent Agency is ‘what do I charge?’. Whilst I would love to write you an article that clearly articulates this - there are too many things to consider. At the end of the day, it is all about choosing a rate that works for you rather than receiving a cookie cutter answer from us at Blue Chip Talent.
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Just kidding, let’s help you figure out a rate! The best way to start this is by looking at a rate guide which shows the market trends for what Influencers are charging. For example:
Less than 10k following: Up to 100 dollars per post
10-40k following: 400 – 1200 dollars per post
40-100k following: 1200-3500 dollars per post
100-250k following: 3500 - 7000 dollars per post
However, these numbers are purely a guideline of what industry rates are at the moment and much more needs to be factored into your quoting for brands. Consider the following:
Are you comfortable with that amount of money? Will receiving it make you feel happy and satisfied with the work you have done and not make you feel like you received under your value? If you believe you are worth much more, then simply charge that – if brands choose not to pay that is their decision. The flip side is you will just have to be comfortable in the fact you will miss out on a few campaigns with brands that are not able to finance that rate sufficiently or do not believe that the pricing is fair market value. The positive to missing out on some campaigns is you will not have ‘polluted’ your feed as much for other brands and less partnerships makes them feel more genuine to your followers.
Is Social Media your primary place of notoriety? If you’re an Athlete, the reality is for most, that Social Media is not your primary place of influence. Rather, your fame comes above the line in Print/Radio/TV etc. As a result your audience on Socials may not reflect your actual audience. Consequently, you need to be charging higher rates because you will have sponsors that are paying more and out of respect to them you must keep your pricing structures fair for those that are backing you in for success. Athletes tend to always have high engagement rates also due to the nature of their lifestyle and professional images so this can be factored in when explaining a price to your lead. A lot of the time new athletes’ sponsorships get picked up by the media and this can be mentioned as an added, non-guaranteed bonus for your customer.
What is the workload required to produce this content? If the brand stipulates that you must do several things, examples including travelling to a shopping centre, sending drafts for approvals, attending an event etc. Then your pricing structure needs to value you for your time as well. The best way to work this out, is by having a ‘day-rate’ in your head for what you would expect to earn in a day over 8 hours and then by doing a pro-rata of how much time from that is required and adding that to your quote for the post itself. You should be paid for your time.
If you are looking for more long-term relationships and less one post stands, then you need to reward loyalty. This can be done by offering a discount if the brand you work with opts to share multiple posts. For example, $300 per post or $250 dollars per post for 3, if booked in advance. Producing content for a regular brand customer is much easier and by you rewarding loyalty, your brand you work for will see benefits also as your followers will build familiarity with them. Three posts are the perfect way to get them more traction with your audience and guarantee more success in a return on investment capacity.
Finally, is the product/service an actual fit for your following? If you know something could be seen as a paid promotion by your following, then you want to make sure you are getting well rewarded for it. The posts where people know it is a sponsored one always effect your analytics, so it is important you are compensated for this. The more ‘salesy’ the post is the more your rate should increase. To do this, put up your rate by 50-100% and being prepared to sit it out if they do not meet the rate is the best way to be.
As an agency, we take care of the ugly side of negotiation for our Talents so that they can sit back and relax whilst hustle. We always paint them in the best light, so we can play bad cop and make sure they get the right deal whilst respecting that we have two key customers: the talent and the brand. 20% is a small price to pay when you are getting what you are worth and having someone else take care of the hassle for you. From a brand perspective paying an agency gives you the comfort in knowing 1.) you will get the work you paid for 2.) it will be delivered on time and 3.) it will fit to the specified brief. As an influencer it also gives you peace of mind that you are not going to face any adversity in the contracts/paperwork etc. As an agency we also invoice for our Talents and take care of the financials, so they can just sit back and get the money straight into their account. If you do work with an agency, make sure you stipulate with them what their expectations are about being paid for deals that didn’t come through them - all agencies have different views on this. Ours is that if we didn’t do the work, we cannot expect the rewards. But we respectfully ask our talents to pass on their incoming correspondence to make sure it is handled the right way and if they do, they get a much lower commission rate from us as a thank you, we also pay a commission to them if other Blue Chip Talent’s get selected as a thank you! Some of our talents earn hundreds of dollars each month passively for just passing their correspondence on to us.
Be brave and know your worth. Get what you deserve for your troubles on Social Media and remember that the worst thing that can happen in a brand discussion is that they pass on the rate you have set. Truly a first world problem so keep calm and back yourself in to get the right result.
Good luck,
Ryan Chipperfield
Managing Director – Blue Chip Talent
