Collectively is a full-service social influence company connecting brands with the most creative voices on social media. We help brands navigate the ever-evolving social landscape with the best tools, talent, and ideas to deliver impact across the entire customer journey, and we help creators build the space to be authentic and have their voices heard. We’re a part of You & Mr Jones, the world’s first Brandtech™ group.

Collectively was founded in July 2013 by Ryan Stern and Alexa Tonner, two women who have spent the past 15 years ideating and executing creative initiatives between brands and independent content creators. After working at media companies and ad networks—like Conde Nast, Federated Media, and Mode Media f/k/a Glam Media—they combined their years of experience into an innovative agency model to better support the rapidly-evolving social media content landscape. In August 2020, we were acquired by You & Mr Jones, the world’s first Brandtech™ group and joined forces with theAmplify.

Collectively welcomes any and all digital creatives who are dedicated social media content creators, and interested in collaborating with brands. We often call our community members “creators” or “collaborators.”

We do not provide representation services for creators but we can refer you to management companies we recommend and trust.

Creators of all sizes are welcome to apply, and we do not have a minimum audience requirement to join or be selected for brand partnerships. More than anything, we look for quality content and authentic audience engagement. That said, we do find that many brands like to see a total digital audience of at least 10,000 when considering talent for paid partnerships.

Total Digital Audience is the sum of your followers, fans, and subscribers across all of your active channels and platforms. For example, monthly blog unique visitors + Pinterest followers + Twitter followers + Instagram followers + YouTube Subscribers + Facebook fans + TikTok followers.

Creators can join the Collectively community by signing up on our website. The sign-up process includes sharing more in-depth information about themselves, their personal brand, and their areas of interest. Our Community Team reviews each submission and responds within 3-5 business days, on average.

The majority of creators who apply are accepted into our community. If a submission is declined, it is most likely because the creator’s content is inappropriate, defamatory, or lacks active development/posting frequency.

Collectively partners with a variety of brands, from global household brand names to independent or startup companies you’ll be excited to discover first. Our clients span many consumer lifestyle categories, including Fashion, Retail, Beauty, Home Decor, Parenting, Tech, and Health. Our project concepts have ranged from sharing style inspiration and trends for Converse through TikTok, videographers sharing their travel experiences with Delta, and tech junkies sharing their skills with Adobe.

We’ve seen hundreds of influencer marketing campaigns over the years, so we know there are countless approaches to brand collaborations—from sponsored blog and social media posts to events, photoshoots, video shoots, focus groups, product sampling, and much more. We’ve developed all of these types of partnerships for various clients at Collectively, and our opportunity bar is set high. Partnerships must be creative, thoughtfully approached, appropriate for social media, offer value for both brand and creator, and be budgeted fairly. We don’t waste time with programs that fall short of our expectations or make unreasonable requests.

Our creator selection process varies for each campaign. Each brand has unique and specific needs, and each initiative varies in terms of goals and performance indicators. Just because an influencer has a large following or engaged audience doesn’t mean they will be a fit for a campaign. Based on our latest research, we found that “brand fit” is the number one consideration for marketers when it comes to choosing influencer partners. Criteria such as geographic location, active social platforms, hobbies, values, and content aesthetics can help determine a good brand fit. To learn more about our selection process, check out our blog post on our Casting Process From Start To Finish.

Yes, creators are paid for their work. Most often, this is in the form of cash payment. From time to time, compensation may be offered in the form of goods or services. For example, we may offer a full-size product in exchange for a post. For any gifting campaign where cash payment is not offered, we make sure that the value of the product or service being offered is adequate and respects the value of the creator. We are clear about the compensation on a per opportunity basis so that creators can decide whether to apply or not. Standard payment terms are net 60, and payments are made via PayPal at the end of the month.

Compensation varies from project to project based on a variety of factors, including: scope of work and volume of deliverables, content production requirements, usage, exclusivity and category sensitivity, past performance, product value, audience size, engagement rates on platforms where content will be published, and the campaign timeline. We are open to negotiating compensation on a project-by-project basis, but are held to an overall budget provided by the brand, which can affect the rates we’re able to offer. Payment terms are agreed to prior to participation in an opportunity.

When Collectively is recruiting for a project, we send an email notification to creators who we think might fit the specific profile. Creators can respond to the opportunity by signing up, or ignore it if they're not interested. Our team reviews all program applications to identify creators who meet the requirements and fit the brand's criteria. We share those creators with our brand partners who make the final selections and approvals. If approved for a campaign, you will hear back from a Collectively representative within 1-2 weeks after signing up.

Each opportunity has its own unique assignment. If you’re chosen for an opportunity, Collectively will provide a detailed description of what is required. Collectively manages the entire partnership process from start to finish, providing clear instructions and briefs, and acting as a resource for guidance and assistance. We take care of the little details so you can stay focused on generating your most creative content and ideas.

Collectively designs custom campaigns that often have complex and nuanced casting criteria. If you're not selected for an opportunity, it doesn't mean we don't value your time or your content—it just means that the particular program wasn't the perfect fit.

When signing up for a campaign, we recommend that creators provide additional information as to why they meet the program criteria so we can highlight that context to the brand. Typically, brands look for partners who are passionate about the opportunity, have strong engagement metrics that show their audience is tuned in, and have a compelling story to tell that aligns with the campaign theme.

You can log in to our Creator Portal to update all of your information, and verify your active social media accounts. You will not be able to see open opportunities or apply for campaigns through the Creator Portal, but you can manage your account information. Everything you need to know about logging into the Creator Portal can be found here.

We love hearing your ideas for collaborations, and we’re certainly open to them! If your idea is relevant to a current project or to one of our brand partner’s campaigns, there may be an opportunity worth exploring, however, we cannot guarantee that an opportunity will arise.

There can be many different reasons why you haven’t been selected for a particular campaign. The reasons vary from project to project, so we encourage you to continue raising your hand and not to give up! Additionally, the more information we have about you the easier it is for our team to match you with upcoming campaigns, so we encourage you to update your information in the Creator Portal and authenticate your social accounts.

More often than not, our brand partners require that creators participating in their programs have authenticated their social media accounts in order to verify their audience demographics and integrity, and track campaign content more effectively. For example, by authenticating an Instagram Business or Creator account, we can monitor Story content with the campaign hashtag automatically—which means no screenshots! Having authenticated social accounts will increase your visibility for more programs with Collectively. You can authenticate your accounts in the Creator Portal. For a more detailed tutorial on authenticating your social platforms, check out this guide.

We strive to make your experience a positive one, and we welcome your comments, concerns, and questions at any time. We also get excited to hear about your life updates, as they can help us better match you with opportunities. Our Community Team is your dedicated resource for all questions, concerns, and feedback. You can also reach out to any team member you’ve worked with before, however, she or he may connect you directly with our Community Team to best answer questions or manage updates!

Yes. Collectively does not require exclusivity from creators. Collectively is not a media company, and does not represent any banner or display advertising services for creators. However, we strongly encourage any creator to review any contract they have signed with another company to be absolutely certain they are not precluded from working with Collectively in any capacity.