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Ambassadorships & Sponsorships

All right, guys, last lesson number nine lucky number nine, we're going talk about ambassadorships and sponsorship. So this again, this is not something that you're going to do walking out the door on your first day and your craft career. I think this is something again that you're just like with crowdsourcing, you have to build up a bit of a fan base. People need to know who you are a little bit, and that doesn't mean that people need to stop you on the street and say they recognize you, but within your community, your email list, your facebook page, whomever you need toe have you need to have those people on your court. This is my friend mar labored she's, the new spokesperson for red heart yearns, but she really hustled. She was how she got there. She started a podcast called the yarn thing and she's been doing it for years, and now she has, like over a million downloads, and she started they're getting sponsors for her podcast. From there, she parlayed that as she's also designing ...

and writing and doing all those things, and now she's worked all of that she's created this fan base, and now this big company, one of the big three companies in our industry, has hers their face. Okay, so what is a brand ambassador? So a brand ambassador, it could mean it could mean a few different things. So it's an influencer who's hired to use a specific brand and tell the world about it so that's it as as its base? So I'm the urine arts ambassador for clover, needle craft, eso all that means, and that is what I what that duty calls for for me, may not be what any company massive, you it's a very loose, and it totally depends on what brand and what company you work with, but it could just mean that you're blogging for them, it could mean that you're doing videos for them. It could just mean that, or it could mean that you're only using their products in any of your classes, media, et cetera. You're basically out there to, like, jazz, hand their products say, I love that I'm using it on whatever the block, that's, all that is, um, and then they pay you for it. Obviously, how that differs from a sponsorship is a sponsor will just give you money to advertise their stuff on your own products, so I believe that korin said earlier that should they were out there hustling for sponsors for their videos, that means that she would say this episode of threat bangers sponsored by geno me will be a bubble blah, blah, blah, blah. You have a little tag line, but then she's going on to make your own project she's probably using their machine, probably, but that wouldn't always directly apply, but they've paid for that ad spot. It's an ad spot. But someone could also sponsor a trip for you. They could sponsor so you can go to xto, halt summit under there for their company, pass out information on them also represent them, or or just even blogging about them. There's. A lot of different ways that sponsorships can work and really it's fluid. Just pitch it, pitch it, there's. No rules here. The's air. Just a few of the sponsorship or ambassadorships that I have done. This was years ago. This is I was the celebrity spokesperson for karen yarn, and so they decided to put me into an ad campaign. They were really trying to target young moms because this particular yarn is affordable and it's washable. And so they wanted to utilize me and my daughter she's. Now six and a half. This was quite a long time ago to show that, you know you can still have fun and be a mom, and so beginning and crushing this is just my block banner for clover my daughter's name is also clover gets very confusing the company on the spokesperson news clover s oh that's just the banner that they created again I'm just an ambassador for them not just but I'm an ambassador for them which is different than a spokesperson because I'm not out there speaking on their behalf necessarily I'm using their products for different things and then blogging for them and then this my my biggest spokesperson giggles for what turned any inspirations that started as karen and thank karen got bought by another company and all of those companies were housed under your inspirations and so I was there international spokesperson which meant that I was sort of in one way or the other the face of their five brands of urine and so I did a ton of product videos for them I was out there at conventions using their products teaching other people how to use their products I was designing with their products providing content for them for me my job also included a little more I did a lot of consultation work for them to social media and whatever so all that to say there's not a definition but in one way or another it should be symbiotic you should be getting something from their brand helping to rise up they should be getting something from you from your phrase from your audience and if it's done right you're both getting that it's an ebb and flow okay, so to round that out um before we do our last questions I can't believe we all who can't believe we got through all this way of another call to action so go ahead pick a brand one of your favorite brand and start making things with their products you probably idea but this is important to take pictures of it don't ever craft anything without taking pictures of it let me tell you if you're using something because if you can document on social media and I think we kind of touched on this earlier if you can document on social media that you've been using their products you're creating this visual paper trail right and so that that when you want to pitch them you could say look, I've used your products before and this is what it looked like look, I have posted this I tagged this I got this money like so I got you have that done for you already um before I move on to the next thing let's take questions just on ambassadorship kristen and as you would say, my jam is you do have youtube channels unit and I'm at the point where I'm focusing on these brand deals, sponsorships and pitching my selves to mainly craft pot craft and yarn companies have, um maybe it's all of the above but as an individual creator what's the best way to get yourself in front of them in a professional way um social media direct e mails letters well for you since since youtube is your jam that I think probably a combination of social media and email but well first do you mind telling me how what your numbers are like why haven't you to polish? Sure so I have I'm getting close to thirty seven thousand six followers I acknowledge I'm getting close to two point five million views solid ok that's what you use lead with that yes stopping that's wonderful that my friend is your currency okay? So lead with that so when you're sending now, obviously you're not going to tweet that to somebody like that's blame you know, but if you're pitching yourself to a company if you're looking on their website and you found a contact info on you, you pitch yourself include those stats because that's that's money right there and right now that's that's collateral companies companies are trying to figure out how to work in this wild west of the interwebs, you know, and they're really influencers that air getting that kind of traffic that's a lot of eyes that their products could be on so where that where that badge with pride and pictures thank you you're welcome anybody else? I guess I just have a quick question just about youtube with them you know if if you're creating your own videos and posting them when you create your channel would is it a good idea tohave playlist with other people on there that are kind of brand relevant? I think so I think so I think I mean I'm all about the village kitchen hadn't so I think that any I think that if we all help each other rise that it's going to be great for everybody, right? And so I that's funny that you should say that that's sort of like a next step for me if you could create a favorite play list of all of your friends that may be so you're going to get more eyes seeing you that would have seen you before it's also nice if your friends will do the same for you but I think absolutely because what you're doing is you're curating curation is a big thing right now right look att I mean look at pinterest that's big yes is a bulletin board but it's just curated personally curated material for everyone right? Great cross great question because that's something that you can build constantly and that doesn't require a tenant work all right anybody else? Yes we have a question from donna see big box online this is the biggest question I get from clients how do I pick a name for my business that way any advice about that and, you know, registering ah diligence yeah, I can tell you what not to dio do not pick a name that you have to spell out every time you say it happens a lot a lot um and also so I always tell this funny start well two things that I could start a company that's company mamma roma thinking how that's cute it's for moms or whatever nobody knew how to spell it was it eminem? Was that m o m a what if you had and this is before hashtag or anything but if you have to explain it that's tough my girlfriend jennifer her um jewelry line used to be called or her jewelry business used to be called ninety secretary club because she used to because she used to be a secretary and so she would on her like lunch hour whenever she could she would create all her jewelry. Well, the problem is is that if you take the club off not a secretary dot com is a web site so you have to think big picture like that you have to think big picture but what's really important right now is that you look and see if the other handles are available, so if you're looking for a dot com make sure that all the acts are available to so for whatever you're deciding to use twitter, facebook, uh pinterest instagram because there's nothing worse than like you know at viki howell one two three you know you want to be able if possible to have one handle it won't always work it drives me nuts though all of minor advocate hell but I couldn't get it for pinterest so it's at I am vicky how so? I usually just don't tell people about because I like to have that clean so if you can before you secure that, make sure that you've got at least two solid social media platforms that you just grab him it doesn't even matter and that you've got a name that people can spell and understand it's great to be clever, but if it's some weird like portman to where you've mixed two words together and nobody can promote pronounce it uh that was a good word, right? Uh then it's not going it's not going to you right? If you have to spend most of your marketing time explaining your name, then you've chosen the wrong name so just given a lot of consideration I know a lot of people are really into lists eso if you start working on lists of all the things that you're selling, the the overall look that you want the vibe that you're creating just write down all the words and as you delve deeper and deeper into that list, maybe some cool names and cold words will come up and that's what you'll find some ideas, but just because, you know, awesome jewelry dot com has taken that doesn't mean that you can't add my awesome jewelry and change your name just a little bit or if you're starting a podcast just because awesome jewelry dot com has taken, there may not be awesome jewelry podcast I probably still wouldn't choose that name because I wouldn't want there to be any confusion, but if you look at that another site and it's just like it's just, you know, individual person who happened to have that for their blogged and they're never going to be a marketing conflict for you, I might go ahead and just still do you that so there's a lot of factors to it, but but that's where I would start to have any more before I move on to the west. Okay, s o for I just wanted talk about social media that I feel told I would feel totally remiss, not mentioning it. All of the marketing that I do has to do a social media I interpreted into every aspect of my life, so I just wanted to give you my top five social media quick tips so number one, choose two to four to start with the social media platforms to investor time and you want it don't try and do all of them at once, you need to do them well okay, you don't need to do a lot. You need to do fewer well if you have your name all over the place but you're not keeping on top of all of it, then you're running in circles, so just start with a couple when you feel like you're in a good place where there's a nice amount of growth happening, then you could move on. Creative types do best on the excuse me creative types do best on visual and community based social media s o that's like facebook tumbler, instagram, pinterest anyplace where there's pictures because people want to see finished stuff if you use sites and acts like pick monkey can va and words swag, those will do you right graphically, you don't have to have any graphic artists experience and you can create graphics either on your computer on your phone tio have constant visuals you have to have visuals for social media embrace video we've talked about that ad nauseum so I won't bring that to you but just you got you just gotta hug it, bring it in hug it in video is a thing now you have to have video on and then I recommend reading this book this book really changed marketing for me this is the art of social media by guy kawasaki and peg fitzpatrick they are brilliant, they have actual tactical takeaway knowledge and I still refer to them all the time, and I actually I follow peg and I've taken her. I took her skill share class on, uh, pinterest, too, but just if you have to. If you read one book on social media marketing, this should be the book it's, a quick read. I actually recommend getting the e book because you can click on the links in there directly to and then before we, uh, before we sign off. I just want to leave you with this. Remember that you are the architect of your own glass ceiling, so that means that the only barriers to you having a successful craft career or if you don't want to craft career monetizing your craft, the level that makes you make it work for you, you're the one that creates that ceiling. It's not there, so build it high. We're friends bill that high. All right, thank you so much. This has been super awesome if you want to follow me on social media at viki hell. Except for the pesky pinterest at I am vicky. Hell, or everything my hub is vicki, how old dot com. And so, if you want, you can find me everywhere by just going there on dh moving on. And I'm going to be starting a podcast soon. So make sure to tweet about that and post on facebook so that we can have more conversations, because, for me, our community is the most valuable part of being creative person.