Be Careful Who You Collaborate With

I posted my first Instagram "Collab" this past spring. Cool, my first collab, I thought. But was it really? By working as an affiliate, perhaps I had already been doing a type of collab for many years.

Collab is short for collaboration, which is defined as "the state of having shared interests or efforts (as in social or business matters)" by Webster. This term has been used on social media for quite a few years now, with or without an official feature for it. Seeing popular creators join forces to make collab videos on YouTube is probably where it first appeared.

The Collab feature on Instagram is relatively new. It allows 2 to 4 users to share the same post. So instead of the users each posting the same image and caption separately, one single post is shared amongst them. With this the users also combine their audiences. All reactions (likes and comments) go to one single post.

While my recent Instagram Collab was the first one I've been apart of on that platform, most of us have actually done plenty of collaborating on the Internet over the years. Re-tweeted something on Twitter? That's collaborating. Embedded someone else's YouTube video on your website? That's collaborating. Shared a news article on Facebook? That's collaborating.

Wait, if I didn't put any work into the content, how is that collaborating? Isn't it just sharing? Sure, but when it comes to online content, sharing is collaborating. It took some effort to click that "retweet" button, didn't it? Even if you consider that negligible, you certainly must believe that it took some effort to build your audience of followers that you shared it with, right?

As affiliates, here's why it matters to us: one of Webster's top synonyms for collaboration is affiliation. If sharing is collaborating, and collaboration is like affiliation, then you're kind of acting like an affiliate of someone when you share their content. Have you ever thought about it like that? If not, I doubt you're a successful affiliate.

Ever shared an affiliate link or banner? That's also collaborating.

To be a successful affiliate you should believe that every single action you take on the Internet has value. If you sit there posting any interesting thing you come across to your feeds, you're probably just making other people rich (particularly the owners of the social media platforms). You might gain a few followers but, will those followers care if you ever start posting your own content? You should have a personal or financial attachment to everything you post.


Don't do work for free! Affiliates should look at social media differently.

Many affiliates don't have that attachment to their posts, and this is why they get lost on social media. I see them delete their account one day without any warning. The problem was they didn't understand what they were doing in the first place.

In my recent Instagram Collab, I took photos of the person I was collaborating with. So, we both have a personal attachment to the content. In affiliate marketing, you're promoting products and services and paid a commission. So, both you and the affiliate program have a financial connection to the content. If you're posting a photo of what you had for lunch, you're telling the world that you will work for free; In this case for the restaurant and social media site. That diminishes your perceived value.

Be careful what you share! Don't just post random stuff because it might get a few "likes". Focus on building your value. It will pay off in the long run.