Instagram: When Marketing Agencies Start Coming out of the Woodwork

24,051 Followers

I seem to have hit a plateau with my instagram followers in the 24k range, but honestly I’ve been too busy to do much about it between a hectic few weeks at work and responding to requests for collaborations. I don’t work with everyone who requests to work with me (even if they offer to pay me) because I try to keep my content relevant to the technology audience and my aesthetic (e.g. I won’t respond to requests asking me to wear random t-shirts). If it’s something that’s interesting and I can fit into the Jones Does Life branding, such as something that I could put in an Instagram story but maybe not a native post, I’ll take that into consideration.

A Brief Overview of Who I’ve Been Working With and How it Happens

Eat Enlightened 

An ice cream company that focuses on “healthy” ice cream, sent me a magnificent number of pints and bars of some of their flavors.

They contacted me through my Instagram account, I responded and they sent me an email with more details, and then they sent me a survey to fill out

They asked me to to nothing, honestly, they just said they wanted to support women in tech doing their thing. I noticed a few other women on my feeds received similar packages. I posted a couple stories about all the ice cream but nothing more.

As a result, my freezer is full of more ice cream than ever before

Sphero

A robotics company that creates cool education robots for both individuals and classrooms.

They contacted me through a marketing agency via my email. It was very much a form letter that said “Hey, we have a client, would you be interested in trying out their new product?”and we followed up several times with the details. This particular engagement involved signing a contract, payment, and following up several times to share stats.

They asked me to post native Instagram photos, stories, and publish a blog post that all focused around their new product, the Sphero Bolt. No pre-approval process, just posting.

As a result, I got to play with a really cool robot that I wouldn’t have touched otherwise. Bonus: I can no longer say that I hate robots because my experience with this one was so great.

Woo.io

A company that matches developers who need jobs with companies that need developers

They contacted me through Instagram first, and then we move to email. They asked me about my audience demographics and how much a post would cost so I sent them my media kit for August.

They asked me to post a native Instagram photo that they approved (I asked about approval and they said yes, they didn’t bring it up first).

As a result, I found out about a hiring site that I will most definitely be using if I ever need a job.

Renzoe Box

A new company that’s working to simplify makeup for women in 2018. They take the brands (and colors) you love and put them into a nice, neat, interchangeable, package.

They contacted me through my email, and asked if I’d be interested in reviewing their product.

They asked me to send them all the details of my current makeup routine (no ask for a post).

As a result, this one (as I’m going through my drafts in 2025) never panned out – honestly I don’t remember what happened with them, but it’s easy for the ball to get dropped if one of the parties gets busy.

Other honorable mentions include groups like Capital One (who invited me to an all-day event for content creation) and Dutton Publishing who wanted to get the word out about kid and YA books focused on women in STEM.