This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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My sponsored posts have low engagement. That's what we're gonna talk about today. Sponsored posts are often part of a blogger's income or anybody doing Instagram, trying to make money on Instagram, other social media. Sometimes you have to disclose that there is a sponsorship or a paid ad behind it. And this British blogger has a problem.
The sponsored posts she runs typically have much lower engagement than her organic posts. So what can be done? Basically, we're looking here is at how do you balance authenticity with monetization? Hannah from London has a food blog. She's been noticing a dip in engagement on these sponsored posts.
And she's like, am I losing my audience's trust? So interesting problem here. Let's talk about it. Welcome to "Side Hustle School." My name's Chris Guillebeau. After the break, we'll dive into how to keep your audience engaged without compromising on your income source.
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Hi, this is Hannah, calling from London. And I've been running a food blog for three years with diversified income from sponsored posts, ads and affiliate marketing. After a recent sponsored post with a kitchenware brand received noticeably lower engagement, I'm concerned I'm losing my audience's trust. How can I balance authenticity with the need to monetize? I don't want to stop having sponsors, but I don't want to lose my audience even more.
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Hannah, the first thing to know, the most important thing to know, perhaps, while it is the first and most important, it is natural for sponsored posts to have lower engagement compared to organic content. Almost everyone is going to see that. Famous celebrities, Instagram influencers with millions of followers, they see that, they experience it. So just know that it's going to be different. It really only becomes a concern if you notice a persistent trend of diminishing engagement across all of your posts, or perhaps explicit audience feedback indicating mistrust.
That's what you want to be on the lookout for. But generally speaking, I think as long as you are mindful about these things, as long as you are trying to post lots of content that is well received, that is organic and truly helpful, valuable to your audience, then you don't have to worry so much. Most people these days tend to understand that a food blogger or really anybody who's trying to build a business online, they're going to have a revenue source. And it's your challenge to make sure that your communication is authentic and that you are selling authentically or promoting something authentically. But that doesn't mean you have to not promote anything at all.
So I think make sure the brand or product aligns, but otherwise don't worry about it too much. You only want to worry about it if your overall engagement is dropping across all your posts. So it's just expected, it's normal, just focus on what you can control. I really wouldn't worry about it too much unless there's some other data point or something not mentioned here in this brief analysis. Okay, Hannah, good luck.
Listeners, good luck, excited for all that you're doing. Let me know what your projects are, what you're working on, what's going well and what's challenging. Of course, much more is coming up. New episode every day. I very much enjoy this conversation and I appreciate you.
That's all for today. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
