Micro influencers share their rates for sponsored posts and explain how they avoid getting low-balled

Hi, this is Dan Whateley, filling in for Amanda Perelli who is on vacation this week. Welcome back to Insider Influencers, our weekly rundown on the influencer and creator economy. Sign up for the newsletter here.

This week, my colleagues Amanda Perelli and Sydney Bradley looked into what "micro" influencers — creators with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers — can earn from brand deals on Instagram.

These lower-follower-count influencers aren't as well known, with many only working part time as digital creators. But they're also a big draw for brands who can pay them less for sponsored content while still getting high levels of engagement on posts.

Setting the right rates can be tricky for these part-time creators. Some micro influencers told Business Insider that they're frequently low-balled when it comes to compensation. Brands will offer them "gifts" or free products rather than a paycheck in exchange for their content.

"I always tell my clients that when you are in negotiating with brands, you want to make sure that you aren't low-balling yourself," said Britney Turner, a micro influencer with around 27,000 Instagram followers, who is also a content creator coach.

Sydney and Amanda spoke with four influencers who had under 50,000 Instagram followers about how they set their rates when negotiating paid sponsorships with brands.

Read the full breakdown here.

A top WME agent walks through the process of negotiating influencer brand deals

Addison Rae Easterling is one of WME's clients.
Fanjoy

Sydney spoke with WME's Carolyn Moneta, who spearheads the Hollywood talent agency's "Digicomm" team, about how the agency negotiates brand deals for its talent.

The company represents top digital creators like Addison Rae Easterling, David Dobrik, and Lilly Singh.

Moneta said that most of the partnerships that come out of Digicomm are six- to seven-figure deals, with some even culminating in eight-figure exits for talent.

Here are some questions she and her team ask of brands and collaborators:

What are the broader career-driven implications of pursuing this opportunity?
What is the positioning of this brand in the product category? What are industry trends and historical context telling us, etc.? WME will discuss this with the talent and their manager (if they have one).
For digital creators, they need to evaluate why the brand is engaging. Is it because of who the creator is and what they stand for, or is it because of the measurability of their channels? (WME prefers the former when it comes to answers here.)

The city of Beverly Hills said it's 'investigating' the TikTok influencer mansion Clubhouse

Daisy Keech — Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for In The Know Experiences)

A representative from Beverly Hills confirmed to Business Insider that the city was "investigating" the popular influencer mansion Clubhouse after reports emerged that the house had recently held a large gathering.

The investigation was first reported in the Beverly Hills Courier on August 21.

Clubhouse, which was launched after cofounder Daisy Keech (6.1 million followers) left another popular creator group, The Hype House, earlier this year, is an influencer group and physical house in Beverly Hills. It's one several popular influencer content "collab" houses in the Los Angeles area.

Clubhouse rotates its members as a part of its business model. Keech and others recently left the group, and new members like influencers Katie Sigmond (649,000 followers) and Teala Dunn (3.3 million followers) joined.

Other LA-based influencers have recently caught the attention of local governments for throwing parties during the pandemic. Sway LA members Bryce Hall and Blake Gray were charged with a misdemeanor by the city, which alleged they had violated its "Safer LA" health order and its "Party House Ordinance."

A spokesperson for Clubhouse said that the group was working with Beverly Hills to resolve the situation, and said that they weren't "aware of any on-going investigations."

Influencers share which short-form video apps they're using, as platforms like Triller, Byte, and Instagram's Reels battle for market share

Instagram Reels
CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images

With TikTok's ownership status in limbo, competitors have been pushing hard to court its users in the US.

But TikTok remains the short-form video platform of choice among influencers, according to a new survey of 875 US-based creators by the influencer-marketing agency Obviously.

68% of respondents to Obviously's August survey said they were using TikTok. About half (52%) of influencers told Obviously that they were using Instagram's Reels. Those two were out in front by a wide margin.

Just 7% reported using Triller, and less than 5% named Byte, Dubsmash, and Likee as apps that they use.

See the full list of short-form video apps that influencers have adopted, here.