If you’re active on one of the major social media platforms of Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook or YouTube, you most likely know what it means to be an influencer.

An influencer is an individual that has valued reputation within a specific industry niche and uses this knowledge and experience to share with their dedicated audience of followers. For example, an influencer is someone who may be a fashion blogger, fitness enthusiast, tech guru or a lifestyle and wellness teacher. With a focus in their area of interest, these individuals have the skills and insight that allow them to impart their experiences and life endeavors onto their followers through means of visual, written or video content.

An influencer is someone who has been able to grow and develop a group of followers over time and can be micro or macro in size. While the number of followers is important, an influencer’s engagement and reach is the true measurement of success. For example, if an influencer has 200,000 followers but only receives 500 likes on their posts, they would be considered to have poor engagement. Yet, an influencer with the same number of followers but receiving 2,000 likes and a handful of comments would be considered to have better, stronger engagement.

With the introduction of algorithms to our social media platforms, engagement and reach have been thrown off a bit within of social sphere. Since, no one is quite sure how the algorithms work, it leaves a handful of influencers with the question of how to continually work with their audience and create a strong relationship and sense of community. The basis of an influencer- follower relationship is to give organic, trusted recommendations on products, services or concepts that have been tried and tested by the influencer.

It is often noted that we trust the opinions and recommendations that are given to us by our friends and closest confidants. Although you may not personally know an influencer you follow, over time you will feel more connected to their content and message they are producing on their platform. This developed interest in an influencer’s content is what allows them to give their audience trusted feedback and advice.

A great example of influencer recommendations can be seen on YouTube, when creators take the time to talk about and review a specific product. Whether it be in the realm of technology, photography, fashion or beauty, if you have a vested interest in the influencer’s personal experiences, their positive opinion on a product could ultimately lead you to purchasing it for your yourself. This kind of recommendation driven consumerism is what ignites the influencer and brand relationship.

As brands have begun to take notice of the impact influencers make on consumer purchasing decisions, they have shifted their focus to developing contacts and partnerships with influencers within their niche. In this new environment, brands’ advertising efforts have transitioned into a space where organic recommendations and people driven relationships are the top priority. Influencers can now be seen as tool to place a product or service in front of a large audience without having to employ unsuccessful and forced initiatives that could potentially deter or weaken buying behaviors.

Noticing that brands are eager to work with influencers, companies and agencies have developed to nurture and grow the influencer-brand experience. One company that is focused on connecting brands through both free and paid opportunities is InfluencerBox. The influencer subscription service is a newer concept in the social media world, but has started to make an impact in the way influencers develop relationships with new brands and partners. To give you some more information on what the service offers and can provide for influencers, we have crafted a detailed breakdown for you. Let’s talk about InfluencerBox: 

What is an InfluencerBox?

The InfluencerBox is a subscription based service that connects influencers with specific brands. Influencers sign up via the InfluencerBox platform and have the ability to receive free gifts and offers as well as participating in paid campaigns. The service is completely free for influencers to use.

The boxes are gifted products and sponsored campaigns that will be delivered right to the door of the influencer. The shipping is always free, and the gifts and opportunities have a value from $75 to $200+ per month. At InfluencerBox, you have the opportunity to receive 1-4 boxes per month and the chance to participate in sponsored campaigns where the fees offered will depend on the brand, your personal reach and engagement.

The InfluencerBox is a relatively new concept but has already been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, Business Insider, Daily Mail, Farfetch, The New York Times, The Coolist and USA Today.

How It Works

Here is the breakdown of how the InfluencerBox works as described on their website:

Step 1: Apply to Join InfluencerBox

Fill out the required fields with your social profiles and reach, your categories of influence, where to ship your products, and have the criteria with which to match you to brand offers and gifts.

Step 2: Maximize Your Chances to Get Gifts + Offers

During the registration process, we have a variety of optional questions you can choose to answer which will enable us to match you with significantly more Sponsored Box Offers and send you more Box Gifts. Still, the choice is yours.

Step 3: Get Notified of Offers, Accepts the Ones You Want

Once accepted as an InfluencerBox member, you will begin receiving notifications when there are sponsored campaign offers for you. You’ll have the opportunity to review each offer, the payment amount, the brand, the products and the campaign posting or action requirements. You may then choose to accept or reject each campaign.

Step 4: Receive Influencer Boxes and Enjoy the Products

Influencer Boxes will arrive either as complete Gift Boxes with no expectation of posting or any actions required, or they will arrive as Offer Boxes if you have chosen to accept an offer. We require that you simply confirm receipt of each box delivery via our website, email confirmation link or SMS reply. Each box will contain information about the products, reminders about the offer accepted (if any) and other useful information. Enjoy and have fun!

Step 5: Complete Offer Campaign Requirements

If you have chosen to accept a campaign, please complete the agreed-upon campaign requirements. This may be a post, an Instagram Story or other action (This is always explained clearly and previously agreed by you before the shipment occurs). Once completed, basic reporting requirements will be clearly explained and available within your log-in area.

Step 6: Give / Get Feedback

Each time an influencer received a box there is an opportunity for them to leave feedback for each brand whose products have been included. Each time an influencer completes a Sponsor Offer, there will be an opportunity for the brand to leave feedback (only visible to us) on your work. Likewise, you’ll have an opportunity to leave feedback for the brand (only visible to us, unless you choose the option to “show brand my feedback”).

Step 7: Get Ready for More Offers and Gifts

Now, just sit back, relax and wait for more offers to come your way and more gifts to show up on your doorstep.

How to Get Accepted with InfluencerBox

Once you have signed up with InfluencerBox, the review team will verify your account, engagement and other details to make sure that your account aligns with their brand guidelines. Influencers that have profiles with real information, are free of offensive content and have true followers, engagement and influence are the best candidates to work with InfluencerBox. The quantity of box opportunities available to an influencer is dependent on the size and engagement of your audience.

InfluencerBox has brands that will work with various types of influencers. The sponsored box campaigns will require a certain minimum follower count or engagement rate. For example, some brands will be more interested in micro-influencers while others may be looking for an influencer with a large following. As you grow within your social media platform, InfluencerBox will update your statistics and adjust the potential for appropriate box opportunities.

Sponsored Boxes Versus Gift Boxes

At InfluencerBox there are two types of opportunities for Influencers: sponsored boxes and gift boxes. Here is their breakdown:

• Sponsored Boxes are sponsored opportunities from brands that give your free product and pay for you to post. A sponsored box opportunity will require a posting requirement that you will need to review prior to accepting and viewing the compensation you will receive.
• Gift Boxes contain fun, new and cool products from a variety of brands that are complementary and are given to you without the expectation of posting. Brands that provide free gifts are always appreciative of influencers who do provide exposure to them as it’s a great way to thank them. This exposure could also lead to the potential of paid campaigns.

How Much Money Can an Influencer Make?

InfluencerBox is completely free for influencers. Not only will you receive free products, but you can have the opportunity to make money through posting on your social media platforms. The amount you receive and the number of opportunities that are available to you are dependent on the individual box sponsor and your audience reach and engagement.

According to their website, “Brands we work with have paid anywhere from $50 per post to $5,000 per post, so the range varies widely. The amount of compensation an influencer receives depends on the Box Sponsors, your interests, your Audience reach and Engagement and how many opportunities you’ve accepted. Every time you receive a sponsored box opportunity, the details of the compensation and posting requirements will be outlined clearly for you to accept or reject. InfluencerBox handles all payments so you can rest assured that as long as you have met the agreed upon posting requirements, you’ll be paid promptly as agreed.”

Influencer Impact

InfluencerBox also prides itself on being a company that wants to make the world a better place. They encourage their influencers to use the tag “#influencer impact” when they receive a package.

Each time they send an InfluencerBox to a member, they include an update on the current philanthropic efforts they are pursuing, such as nonprofits they are supporting, new issues, challenges and solutions the world is experiencing and how you can make a difference. Just like the influencer gifts, there is no obligation to post about what they send for their giving-back component. Yet, if you feel compelled by the causes they are supporting, they can give you information and tools to become involved in their efforts.

Should You Sign Up With InfluencerBox?

After reviewing the services and opportunities of InfluencerBox, I concur that the subscription based company could be an interesting and positive experience for influencers. As their website does not offer any examples of brands that work with them, it is unclear which kind of influencers would receive the most opportunity based on their niche. The fact that the program is a free service but also offers opportunities that are paid such as sponsored campaigns can be an effective way for influencers to discover and develop new brands they may not currently work with or know.

Since every offer you receive needs to be reviewed and agreed upon before the product is sent to the influencer, there is no harm in signing up for the service to see what it is all about. As there is an application process, you may or may not be accepted to become a member of InfluencerBox. If you are accepted, using a service such as this may award you new projects and contacts that will help continue your journey through the influencer network.

How Do You Get Started?

To get started with InfluencerBox, you can reference their website and click the button located at the top of the home page to sign up. They will ask for your name and email address before moving on to the application process. In the application, you will need to fill out your current social media statistics and declare the industry that falls into your scope of influence.  

For more information you can visit their website, Instagram or Facebook page.