Social Media Influencer Contracts, etc..
Discussion
My daughter is an avid knitter. For the past few years, she's been designing her own patterns of various cartoony type characters and selling the patterns via Etsy and similar. It's not her day job but is getting close to the point where it needs to transition into a formal business - albeit a sideline one but that's a different matter!
Her latest project is knitting a life sized Thanos!! A few pics..
She posts regular updates on her Social Media platform which has grown exponentially. (close to 10m views, 220k followers, 2m likes, etc..)
If you're the slightest bit interested; search for Wooly McWoolface.
This has placed her in the realms of influencer. To date, this has mainly been manifested in suppliers of yarn sending her free wool to use in return for displaying and hashtagging this in her posts.
However, she has started to receive more serious offers from various agencies offering seemingly more complex and potentially lucrative collaboration - news agencies, product placement companies, etc.
I normally know my round an opportunity, deal and contract but these are well outside of my immediate sphere of insight so would be immensely grateful for any pointers and pitfalls to watch out for from those better versed in such things.
Her latest project is knitting a life sized Thanos!! A few pics..
She posts regular updates on her Social Media platform which has grown exponentially. (close to 10m views, 220k followers, 2m likes, etc..)
If you're the slightest bit interested; search for Wooly McWoolface.
This has placed her in the realms of influencer. To date, this has mainly been manifested in suppliers of yarn sending her free wool to use in return for displaying and hashtagging this in her posts.
However, she has started to receive more serious offers from various agencies offering seemingly more complex and potentially lucrative collaboration - news agencies, product placement companies, etc.
I normally know my round an opportunity, deal and contract but these are well outside of my immediate sphere of insight so would be immensely grateful for any pointers and pitfalls to watch out for from those better versed in such things.
mmm-five said:
If it becomes more 'commercial' than 'hobby', will you then have to worry about getting licences for using cartoon/comic/film characters from Disney & such?
Yeah - she's been looking at this. No issues at the moment but certainly something that needs consideration. She's not selling the Thanos pattern (partly because i think it would need a rainforest to print!!) and not yet decided what to do with it when it's done. She's had a few offers from people to buy it but she's thinking of donating it to a charity for auction.jeremyc said:
What does she want from becoming an Influencer?
Money, freebies, work?
Is she prepared for the potential pressure having to produce new social media content might bring?
The arrangements she has at the moment relate to simply using the product companies provide her - which isn't a big deal as she would be using those brands anyway. She's happy to expand on those arrangements as it doesn't really impact additionally on what she's doing at the moment.Money, freebies, work?
Is she prepared for the potential pressure having to produce new social media content might bring?
Where it's ramping up is related to her Thanos project which at the moment is just a one-off. The enquiries she's getting are mainly to do with content - in other words doing what she's already doing but providing it for inclusion elsewhere from which she gets a cut of the fee.
But your question is partly the reason for me enquiring because she doesn't want to get sucked into obligations that would impact her 'proper' job - who are well aware of what she's doing and fully supportive (her boss's wife is a regular buyer of her patterns!). I've only seen one agreement that seems on the face of it to be fairly straightforward and acceptable. But the devil is in the detail and we're not 100% certain on what we need to be looking out for.
StevieBee said:
Yeah - she's been looking at this. No issues at the moment but certainly something that needs consideration. She's not selling the Thanos pattern (partly because i think it would need a rainforest to print!!) and not yet decided what to do with it when it's done. She's had a few offers from people to buy it but she's thinking of donating it to a charity for auction.
The charity idea would be great, and could help with the social media awareness/promotion nicely.My daughter is an influencer.
Started off as a "Dad can I go public now I'm 18" as I was dead against it before that. She is now on circa 30k followers and there are parcels arriving through the post pretty much every day! Not bought a piece of clothing for over 3 months now as companies are lining up to give her shoes, clothes, contact lenses, teeth whitening, perfumes, watches and even a car rental company offering her a Phantom with a driver the next time she is going clubbing in London - all in return for a simple post tagging the company and saying thank you. Some of them have even paid her to do this!
It all seems like harmless fun (no slutty posts and no bikinis etc) and a good way for her to drum up an audience in preparation of launching her own brand of clothing at some stage (she is doing fashion design). Her engagement levels are insane and she is gaining around 100 followers a day.
Started off as a "Dad can I go public now I'm 18" as I was dead against it before that. She is now on circa 30k followers and there are parcels arriving through the post pretty much every day! Not bought a piece of clothing for over 3 months now as companies are lining up to give her shoes, clothes, contact lenses, teeth whitening, perfumes, watches and even a car rental company offering her a Phantom with a driver the next time she is going clubbing in London - all in return for a simple post tagging the company and saying thank you. Some of them have even paid her to do this!
It all seems like harmless fun (no slutty posts and no bikinis etc) and a good way for her to drum up an audience in preparation of launching her own brand of clothing at some stage (she is doing fashion design). Her engagement levels are insane and she is gaining around 100 followers a day.
PrancingHorses said:
My daughter is an influencer.
Started off as a "Dad can I go public now I'm 18" as I was dead against it before that. She is now on circa 30k followers and there are parcels arriving through the post pretty much every day! Not bought a piece of clothing for over 3 months now as companies are lining up to give her shoes, clothes, contact lenses, teeth whitening, perfumes, watches and even a car rental company offering her a Phantom with a driver the next time she is going clubbing in London - all in return for a simple post tagging the company and saying thank you. Some of them have even paid her to do this!
It all seems like harmless fun (no slutty posts and no bikinis etc) and a good way for her to drum up an audience in preparation of launching her own brand of clothing at some stage (she is doing fashion design). Her engagement levels are insane and she is gaining around 100 followers a day.
Wow! Good on her!Started off as a "Dad can I go public now I'm 18" as I was dead against it before that. She is now on circa 30k followers and there are parcels arriving through the post pretty much every day! Not bought a piece of clothing for over 3 months now as companies are lining up to give her shoes, clothes, contact lenses, teeth whitening, perfumes, watches and even a car rental company offering her a Phantom with a driver the next time she is going clubbing in London - all in return for a simple post tagging the company and saying thank you. Some of them have even paid her to do this!
It all seems like harmless fun (no slutty posts and no bikinis etc) and a good way for her to drum up an audience in preparation of launching her own brand of clothing at some stage (she is doing fashion design). Her engagement levels are insane and she is gaining around 100 followers a day.
I take it these are all informal arrangements - no contracts or the like?
I'm also curious to know at what point do gifts become a taxable benefit. I get the impression that this is something that HMRC hasn't exactly caught up with yet!
StevieBee said:
Wow! Good on her!
I take it these are all informal arrangements - no contracts or the like?
I'm also curious to know at what point do gifts become a taxable benefit. I get the impression that this is something that HMRC hasn't exactly caught up with yet!
Mostly informal arrangements via Instagram messages. One company sent her a 4 page contract which she threw away and didnt respond to as she was scared of the level of wording in it lol I take it these are all informal arrangements - no contracts or the like?
I'm also curious to know at what point do gifts become a taxable benefit. I get the impression that this is something that HMRC hasn't exactly caught up with yet!
Not sure how gifts can be a taxable benefit as they are small value gifts valued at around £5-25 a pop. HMRC are on the ball and they have caught many instagrammers dodging tax as far as I am aware but until she is has around 1M followers and is posting "Paid for partnerships" every day I don't think there is anything to worry about. She is a student anyway.
PrancingHorses said:
Not sure how gifts can be a taxable benefit as they are small value gifts valued at around £5-25 a pop. HMRC are on the ball and they have caught many instagrammers dodging tax as far as I am aware but until she is has around 1M followers and is posting "Paid for partnerships" every day I don't think there is anything to worry about. She is a student anyway.
I'm not sure students are exempt from taxation but she will have a personal income tax allowance of £12,500 to use up. I wonder if BIKs count towards that or something else?
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