Georgia Tappy – Social Media Strategy

It’s the main way for influencers to make money in 2026, yet I see so many great content creators get stuck on this.

Some quick advice:

• Have your email and location in your Instagram bio. Make it easy for brands to find and contact you.
• When starting out, focus on targeting brands that you are naturally aligned with
• In pitches, lead with your unique value proposition.

Pitching & Outreach

Don’t wait for brands to come to you — pitch the ones you want to work with. I find the most effective approaches are:

• LinkedIn over email. In my experience, a short, well-written and personalised LinkedIn message to a brand manager cuts through far better than email pitches, which often get buried. Keep it simple and brief: who you are, your audience fit, and ask who handles partnerships.
• Make example content first. Create a sample video for a brand before you even reach out — you don’t need the product, just demonstrate what you’d like to do. This can dramatically increase response rates.
• Start small. Target smaller, local brands that you have a genuine affinity for over large multi-nationals. Better response rates and more flexible budgets.
• Check their ad library on TikTok and Meta before pitching so you understand the type of content they’re already investing in. This is also a good chance to scope what kind of influencers they’ve worked with in the past.

What to Lead With

Focus on the value (your USP) you can provide, not your follower count.

“I can create three videos showing your product solving X problem for Y audience” will ALWAYS outperform “I have 100K followers, want to collab?” every time.

Organic content that drives real sales is gold — track and share those results with brands. Save screenshots and campaigns you’re proud of for your portfolio.

Your Materials

Put together a media kit including your social media stats, audience demographics, past work, and rate ranges. Focus on shares, saves and watch time over following.

I also love when people include a short “video resume” or demo reel — similar to what videographers use. It puts a face to a name and can make you significantly more approachable.

Pricing

Avoid fixed rate cards. Instead, ask for a budget range first, then offer content packages within what’s feasible. Rates will vary based on campaign goal (awareness, conversion, UGC for repurposing, etc) and size of company.

What Brands Actually Look At

Follower counts matter less than average views per video. A creator with 1 million followers and 2,000 average views will be valued lower than one with 10K followers and strong, consistent engagement. Brands want to work with people who have a loyal, engaged community. 

Timing

Brands plan campaigns months in advance — Q4 budgets are often allocated in Q2/Q3. Write professional, grammatically correct pitches (the bar is so so so low), and follow up politely if you haven’t heard back within two weeks.

These are my tips for making the most of your brand deals. Forbes has an excellent article here breaking it down further.

Georgia Tappy