Join’s influencer managers have frequent contact with influencers internationally. Quite the fun, but we also want our readers to get to know them! Therefore we have special highlights in which we interview our influencers. Up this week: Dutch influencer Jasper de Jong.
Jasper is definitely not just any influencer: with 140K followers on Instagram and over 4 million views on YouTube you could even consider him to be quite influential! Modest as he is, he doesn’t consider himself to be “famous.” However, he does mention that “with youths in the Netherlands and Belgium I’m pretty well-known.” Quite an understatement! Jasper de Jong, who are you and what do you do?
Interview
“My name is Jasper de Jong. I’m 20 years old and I study at the CIOS in Goes, Operational Sport Management. If all is well, I’ll graduate this year! Moreover, I have a number of social media-channels with a lot of followers. Considering that, you could also call me an ‘influencer‘.”
Busy life! You share a lot of updates and videos on your social channels and besides that you also take time to finish your education. When I ask Jasper how he became an influencer and what he did to do so, he responds with “I’ve had a lot of luck.” Interesting.
“In my previous relationship my brother-in-law got really famous on social media in no-time. His sister, and me included, got dragged into the world of social media and influencers. From then on, my profile grew massively.
So… just luck?
“No way, eventually it’s your own effort that makes your social media channels grow. You have to post regularly, that’s for sure. Besides that you shouldn’t be shy and you should let people in on your day-to-day life with a post in your story or funny content. It takes time, but it’s worth it.”
Right – being an influencer means working hard.
Campaigns
The fun part of having such a huge reach is that you’re regularly invited for paid campaigns. Jasper has once even been invited to travel to Canada for a brand! Jasper has been signed up to Join for a while, and has also received multiple campaigns through our platform. What was his favorite?
“I’m going to go ahead and say the collaboration with Ziggo. The campaign was for Ziggo Movies & Series, something that matches me and my content really good. I love watching series and talking about this with my followers. The collaboration went smoothly, and through Join I was in direct contact with a marketeer working for Ziggo. By doing so we could easily discuss what content I was going to make. It resulted in a number of Instagram-stories – and I also got access to the Movies & Series channel on Ziggo!”
Bingewatching all day long. What do your followers think about your paid collaborations?
“They’re completely okay with that – sponsored content is not a problem. Everywhere you look you’ll see people and brands using commercials. The important thing is that sponsored content fits you and your content, and you should always let your followers know when content is sponsored. Moreover, it shouldn’t be too commercial. That makes it less appealing to me, and definitely for my public.”
Example
Very important: making authentic content that fits you. Would you say you have an exemplary role for that?
“Definitely, when you have a reach like mine I think it’s important you behave. You can’t start posting inappropriate things. All influencers are in a way an example for their followers – it’s important to deal with that wisely.”
Jasper has a strong character – we noticed it immediately. To conclude, do you have any advice for other influencers?
“I think it’s really important that when people make or do something, they should do it their own way. Be confident and try to distinguish yourself. Don’t let the negativity bring you down and stick to yourself.”
