Influencer marketing is here to stay. In this article, we'll teach you how to set up branded content within the Instagram app as well as how to use the brand collabs manager, stick around. (upbeat music) Facebook has recently launched a tool called, the collabs manager and since Facebook owns Instagram that tool can be used for your Instagram branded content as well. Stick around to the end of this article.


 We're gonna teach you a fun and new feature that will allow you to find potential influencers and creators to partner with. So, what is branded content? Branded content is where the creator or publisher posts content and discloses that they have received compensation for that post. Branded content isn't optional.

 It's actually required by FTC regulations that you disclose if you are promoting content that you have in some way been compensated for. We should also point out that branded content is not an ad, sponsored posts are what you see when it's an ad content. Branded content or a paid partnership just means that the person creating the content had some sort of financial support. One of the advantages of using branded content and the collabs manager tool is that both the brand and the influencer get access to the insights to be able to see how that post is performing, so the brand isn'tReliant a hundred percent on the influencer.

 Let's talk about how you can actually set up your account to use branded content. We're gonna talk about tagging brand partners that I just want to clarify that this is different than how you would normally tag people in a regular Instagram post. So how do you do this? Go to your Instagram profile. From there in the top right corner, you're gonna click on the three-line button and then click on the settings tab down at the bottom. 

If you are a business profile, you're gonna click on the business button. If you're a creator profile, you're gonna click on the creator button. From there, you're gonna see a series of options, one of which is branded content. If you don't see these options available, it's because you're probably still a personal profile and branded content is only available to the business and creator accounts. There's an option to manually approve tags and you can just turn that off if you want to allow anybody to tag you. I highly recommend you leave this on requiring approvals for anybody tag you in branded content. You can see if you had any pending requests from somebody wanting to tag you or you can also see who your branded content partners are. So as the creator looking to add a branded partner and you're gonna type in the name of the account that you want to add. Once they have come up in search, I'm gonna tap on their name. It's going to add them to my list of approved accounts.

 So you actually need to now create a piece of content, tagging that account in the piece of content. So you're gonna go and create a new post. Best to do this as an actual feed post. The bottom you're gonna click on advanced settings. And from there you're gonna tap on tag business partner. Type in the name of the account that you want to partner with. When they come up, you will notice they're actually grayed out because they haven't given you approval yet. Tap on their name to send the request, a pop-up screen appears, and click send the request. So now as the brand account on Instagram, they will see that they have a tag request. And now that the brand account has approved, I can go in and create that content over on Instagram. Go to advanced settings, tap on tag business partner, search for that account that we have now tagged, and get requests from and now their option is fully clickable. I can tap on that and it will give you the branded content insights are shared. You can then go back and post as usual. 

When you do, you will see the paid partnership. If the roles were reversed and you are the brand and someone else can be the creator tagging you in their content, they'll need to follow these exact same steps from their account to set you up for tagging. So the next step is you actually have to set up the brand's collabs manager. And this is the best setup from a website, not from your phone. All right, so let's jump over here and you're gonna log into your Facebook account. Once you're logged into your account, open a new tab on the browser and go tofacebook.com/collabsmanager. It's going to default to the creator screen. Go look at your Instagram account and if you have a creator option under that settings tab, you're gonna apply for check eligibility under this creator account. So because I'm set up as a business profile, I'm going to click on apply as an advertiser and that's gonna change the screen and I'm gonna click apply as an advertiser. Facebook will present you with a list of the business pages you manage on Facebook. Select the page that is connected to the Instagram account you want to use and then type in your email address and choose the I accept terms and condition option and then go ahead and click submit.

 Okay, now that you're all set up in the collabs manager and you have your branded content partners set up through Instagram, you're ready to start creating branded content. We already talked about setting up your feed post. Now, let's take a look at how to create stories with branded content. You're gonna upload a story just like you normally would. Go to your Stories screen. Either upload an image or take a photo, then you're gonna click on the chain-link icon up at the top of the screen. You will see multiple options depending on your account features. But partway down, you'll see branded content and the option to tag a business partner. Tag the brand that you want to associate with and hit search. When they come up, you're gonna go ahead and tap that and you will now see them listed as a tagged branded partner. You can go ahead and hit the checkmark on that and then, finished editing your story with any doodles, filters, anything else you need, and go ahead and publish as normal. You'll see the paid partnership across the top of the story. 

That partner will receive a notification and they'll be able to see the post that you tag them in. They cannot however share that post to their own stories. You may think well, then I'll go ahead and at mention them, you can absolutely do that if you want to. It makes it easier for people who are viewing that story to easily navigate to that person's account, but that doesn't make the post any more shareable to their Instagram stories for that account. If you've been tagged in an Instagram story as a branded partner, you'll get a notification in your Instagram notifications, tap on that branded content and you can see the story that you've been tagged in. Go ahead and tap on that story. In the bottom right-hand corner, there's actually a three-dot button.

 If you feel like you were improperly tagged in that content and it wasn't actually a paid partnership, you can choose to remove me from the post and that will actually remove that paid partnership affiliation. Also within that story notifications, you'll see at the bottom an option to view insights. You can tap on that and open that Instagram story and see the metrics that are being produced for that story. And speaking of insights, let's head back over to the collabs manager and we can take a look at the insights for any content that you've been tagged in or any content that you have created as well. So now that you're in your collabs manager dashboard, you're gonna end up on the home screen first. This is gonna give you a bunch of suggested content to look at, but in the middle, you'll actually see your post-performance. You can go ahead and click on view all posts and that'll take you right to the insights tab or from the left side menu, just go ahead and click on the insights tab option. 


Now that you're in the insights dashboard, up in the top right corner, you can toggle through two options. One is published by partners where you'll see all the content that other people have created tagging you or you can choose published by you, which is all the content you have created where you have tagged other branded partners. As of right now, the metrics that you will see in this insights tab aren't super robust. They're very generic in terms of reach, impressions, and engagement, but it will give you some indication of how that post is performing. For any regular feed post, you'll be able to see the reach impressions and engagement as well as any audience demographics like age and gender. In contrast, if you look at Instagram stories, you will see under post break down, the reach and impressions. 

If you click on the story metrics tab, you'll actually seeps forward, backward, exits, and replies, so you get a few more metrics for that story performance as well. One of the fun features of the collabs manager is that you can actually see suggested content creators to partner with. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll actually see a list of suggested creators and one for suggested Instagram creators. If you click on view all creators, you'll get a whole list of potential brand partners for you to consider. You'll see some simple Facebook page data, which shows their cover photo, their profile photo. There are follower count and their average post engagement. So you can see how they'reperforming on Facebook.

 If you find a branded partner that you think is gonna be a good fit, go ahead and click on their thumbnail. You'll be taken to a page with much more information on their Facebook page performance. You'll be able to see other partners they've previously collaborated with. You will see samples of other content that created as branded content and you will see metrics for their Facebook page including their demographics that they target. Also from this page, you'll see a big contact button that will actually open up a pre-formatted form that you can send them a direct message in order to request a partnership with them.