For some influencers, in front of the camera might not be the ideal spot to sit. For others, it’s everything they’re about. Let us tell you this: if you’re not creating video content, then you’re missing out on a gold-mine of growth opportunities online.
Given that social media videos generate 1,200% more shares than text and images combined, why not take advantage of that? And why not have a lot of fun while you do it, through video collaboration? What’s more fun than hanging out and collaborating with another influencer like you? And not only is it a good time, you can get in front of 2X the audience by collaborating with another influencer.
Not only that, by collaborating, you create something brand new, which can translate into greater virality and video views. You need to create content anyway, so why not collaborate on a video and enjoy greater results for your efforts?
Learn How to Run Efficient Collaborations
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Video Collabs Done Right
In this Good Mythical Morning video, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal team up with Zach King to play a 6 Second Game in which Zach tests Rhett’s and Link’s knowledge as to what actually happens within a 6-second timeframe. Whereas Good Mythical Morning’s last 15 videos averaged 994,000 views per video, the collaboration with Zach attracted close to 8X the interest, with more than 7.5 million views. (Collaboration ROCKS!)
“Doctor Mike” has a popular YouTube channel, but his video stats are quite different if he’s going solo vs. collaborating with other influencers. Whereas his last 15 videos averaged 745,000 views per video, his “Ask Dr. Mike” series, in which he features a fellow influencer, averages between 1 and 2 million views each. When he collaborated with fellow influencer Gabbie Hanna, for example, video views passed 700K in just 3 days, and flew past 1.1 million within one week. Yowza!
Video collaboration works for Rhett, Link, and Zach. It works for Dr. Mike and Gabbie. Now, let’s talk about how you can make video collaboration work for you, too!
Find the Perfect Partner
The very first step is to find someone with whom to partner. Good news – Perlu is your place to network with other influencers and find those who are the right fit for your collaborations.
If you haven’t already, sign up!
Then, check out relevant Perlu Packs, which are groups of related influencers (e.g., foodie bloggers, European travel, hairstyle vlogs, fashion trendsetters, etc.). Join Packs that interest you most, or create your own Packs for any topics you’re passionate about.
Then create a Collab by selecting from a list of templates, entering details about your needs and goals, and publish it to your favorite Packs. Many of the recommendations we’ve listed here can be included in your Collab setup so that you can engage the best potential partners and they clearly understand your goals and needs. Once your Collab has been published, you’ll start getting applications, and you can choose partners that fit best.
It’s fast. It’s easy. And it will help you get started like a pro (and pain-free).
Establish Goals
Before you start shooting, make sure that everyone is aligned on the goals and objectives of the collaboration. Ask yourselves why you are shooting the video, and what you hope to achieve through the collaboration.
The video will need to be a little more than hanging out with an extraordinarily cool person in front of a camera, but if it’s just to have a seemingly spontaneous good time to entertain your followers and increase engagement, great. If it’s to bring in some extra expertise on a subject you’re passionate about, awesome. If it’s to raise money for charity, cool. If it’s to get out of your comfort zone and try something completely new, excellent.
Just make sure you both are on the same page and excited to partner on the initiative.
Describe Success Metrics
Following from your goals, determine how you will measure the success of the collaboration. You may be looking at how many views the video achieves, but go beyond surface level metrics and list several key performance indicators that will constitute success.
Are you looking to gain a certain percentage of new fans and followers? If so, specify the numbers. Are you hoping to drive engagement? Cool, but define the specific types of engagement you would value the most (Sharing? Commenting? Questions? Likes? New Subscribers? Etc.) and define the volume of engagement that you would consider a success. If you know specifically what you are trying to achieve in a measurable way, it makes it easier for you to focus on what will make a difference.
Too often, influencers engage on a video without any clear success metrics established. This leaves the results completely up to chance, which is risky and obviously not an ideal way to push your career forward.
Define the Audience Segments
Your video will not appeal to everyone. You know you have an audience, but you probably have multiple audiences, as will your fellow collaborator.
In other words, a foodie may have an audience of other foodies, but the “How to Cook the Best Prime Rib” video will not appeal to the vegan foodies. You may think you and your co-collaborator both have a general audience of people into fitness, but one video may not appeal to both the yogis and the crossfitters. Segment those audiences so you can better define who you both are speaking to in a given video.
A useful exercise is building out a persona. Put thought into the ideal audience you’d like to reach, and write it down. Begin describing this audience as if it were one single person. Give this person a name, an age, a job, and maybe a gender. Write down this person’s hobbies, the motivations behind what they do, and their aspirations. Having this in mind as both of you create your video will enable you to squarely hit the mark on the specific persona you’re trying to engage.
Propose Roles & Responsibilities
Will one of you be hosting the video shoot, while the other needs to travel to the location? Who will actually shoot the video of you? Who’s taking care of lighting? Sound? How about meals during the shoot?
Who will document the storyboard or any scripts?
How are you making introductions within the video? Will one of you be a “guest”? Who’s responsible for the title? How will you write the attribution in the video description? Who is going to respond to comments?
What kinds of promotion and how much promotion will be done? What are the expectations, and how can you ensure that it will get done to both of your satisfaction?
All that fun stuff.
Propose a Cost Sharing Arrangement
Who will pay for what? Will it be 50%-50%, or will one of you be footing the entire bill, but then retaining the full rights to the video, or an arrangement in between? Much better to talk through all this upfront, instead of fighting about it later on…
Storyboard!
This is the fun part (of pre-production – the shoot will be fun, too). Together, brainstorm some ideas and develop the concept for your video with your audiences in mind. Then, lay out your road map on paper. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy and it doesn’t have to be set in stone, but it is so necessary.
The storyboard is a reference for planning and communication, and without it your project may result in wasted in time, energy, and money. Here are some basic steps to get you started:
- Draw a series of rectangles on paper, or Google and print a free storyboard template.
- Number each rectangle.
- Sketch out the story.
- Write notes under each rectangle with lines from the script,
- Make a shot list.
We’re not saying that you have to have the entire thing planned out to the Nth degree, but a little high-level planning can help to ensure your collaborative video is something you’ll be eager to share.
What to Wear?
Ideally, you’ll be color coordinated to enhance the visual appeal of the video. Know the environment and background of the scenes, and agree on what to wear, both in style as well as in colors to be worn. (Agree on any styles or colors to absolutely avoid, too!)
For those of you who have little experience on camera, here are some tips to consider.
Determine Where the Video Will Live Online
Will the video be published on one of your YouTube channels? On both channels? Shared on Facebook? Instagram? Hosted on your blog?
Where else will it be published? Do you want to pitch a TV show or website about doing a special project, where they foot the bill but then they also host the video?
Chat through your publishing and distribution plan with your fellow collaborator before you shoot, as the details could affect the content, length, script, and many other factors of the video.
Develop a Promotional Plan
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as an influencer is to spend all of your time focused on the production of the video and to barely spend any energy on distribution and promotion. Talk about each of your methods for promotion, learn from each other, develop a plan, then make this video come alive.
Looking for help promoting your joint video, try asking for help from your fellow Perlunators through a Perlu Collab!
How to Get More Bang for the Buck
As long as you’re entering into a joint video with another or several other influencers, you might as well ensure that you’re getting the biggest bang for the buck, so to speak. For all the effort, it would be hugely disappointing if the video lacks the type of traction you had in mind.
To give your project a better chance of succeeding, consider generating more than one video from the footage on the day of the shoot. If you capitalize on the shoot time to generate more than one video, you’ll be saving time, energy and resources – and you’ll have back-up plans.
For example, instead of just a 2-hour shoot, you might want to block off the day, and then collaborate with your fellow video star on the production of three, four, or five videos. Or, one main video, but then a series of quick, mini promo videos for social media.
Alternatively, create a video series, broken up into different episodes.
Or, create complementary footage that you can share in your social channels and your blog.
Or, if you’re looking to get more bang for the buck monetarily, then maybe pursue gated content or video content that you can charge for.
The possibilities are endless! Perlu is here to help you collaborate like a pro, so if you’re ready to take the next step, plan your project, find potential partners, publish your Collab, and select from the list of applicants. You can then agree on all the details and create your work of magic! After your next video collaboration, be sure to point us to the final video and let us know how it went.
