Why Every Creator Should Look at Themselves as a Brand with Tom Boyd

As a content director and digital strategist who’s been in the media world for over 12 years, Tom Boyd knows a thing or two about being a creative. He believes that Creators Are Brands — so much so that it’s what he named his podcast where he shares the stories of how storytelling creators are building audiences online. That's exactly what he's done on his own personal platforms garnering an audience of over 68k.

He saw what it was like to have a creative career from many different angles after spending a chunk of his life in the music industry, so there’s a lot of truth and experience in his content. And that content has brought him some incredible opportunities with brands that some of us dream of working with. 

Today we’re answering all of the questions you have about being a BRAND as a creator. How can you stand out to brands with unique concepts? How can you position yourself in a way that will appeal to your audience and fulfill you? How can YOU be a trusted brand as a creator? 

Listen to Episode 24 — Apple | Spotify | YouTube

Find this episode’s guest:
Tom Boyd
Instagram | TikTok | Creators are Brands Podcast

In today’s episode, we discussed:

• Partnerships on Instagram is rolling out

  • I first knew I had the feature because I got a popup on my home feed one day that said “Get discovered for more brand deals on Instagram”. I clicked “Learn More” and it brought me to the Branded Content page.

  • In Branded Content, it allowed me to “Get Started” registering for discovery for brand deals on Instagram.

  • I had to provide my age, gender, and location first.

  • I also had to allow access for brands to see my total followers, details about accounts engaged, accounts reached, and impressions.

  • It then told me about how the process will work. “Brands may see your profile when details about your audience match their criteria for a partner. This includes age range, location, gender, and interests.” These are all things brands can filter creators by.

  • It then informs you that “Partnership messages from eligible brands will go into a new Primary tab folder, instead of Requests”.

  • Then you just accept and you’re finished! All of this for me can now be found in “Branded Content” in Settings. I can change settings there and choose “preferred brand partners”.

  • They gave me a huge list of brands to set as “preferred” or not. There were brands like Amika, Simple Human, Dr. Denniss Gross, Elf Cosmetics, and more.

• Instagram is working on the ability to add multiple links in your profile bio

  • You can choose which to “Make primary”

• Instagram has officially announced the ability creating polls in groups

• Instagram has been working on the ability to Remix photos

  • Remember the Remix feature for Reels that no one really uses? 😅

  • This feature will allow for people to “remix” your photos in-feed

  • “Anyone inspired by what you post can create a Reel that includes your photo and download it as part of the remix.”

• There’s a new way to filter messages on Instagram

  • Andrew noticed a new feature when in his DMs on Instagram. In the top righthand corner of the DM screen, he could click “Filter” and those options had changed to:

    • Unanswered

    • Unread

    • Flagged