Instagram Influencer Spotlight On: Greg Baskwell @gregbaskwell

1) Tell us a little about yourself. What are you doing now and where do you come from?

I was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I moved back to Charlotte after graduating from North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC). I have been a lifelong swimmer, and after swimming throughout college, I now coach year-round for a club team. In my spare time I enjoy creating skits for Instagram which almost always feature my dog, and my people from all over the world have enjoyed watching the videos that I am able to create.

2) What are your topics of interest? What do you post on Instagram the most?

I don’t post about any one specific topic, but I rather almost always have the same "actress" in my videos – my dog. I tend to create videos that are more comedic in nature, and post mainly to Instagram and YouTube.

3) How did your Instagram name come about?

I started creating Vine videos, and then moved on to Instagram once they allowed 15 second videos. I was excited that I could go from making :06 videos on Vine, to :15 videos on Instagram. It seemed to really open the door for me and the content that I could create quickly started to expand.

4) What are some apps you use to edit your photos? Share with us your photo-editing routine!

I edit everything on my phone, with the exception being audio. I use Audacity for songs and sound effects, but have 5-6 apps on my phone that help with video editing. My go-to is "Videoshop", which is a one-stop shop for combining multiple clips. It has everything you need, but does lack a few important tools which is where the other apps come into play. "VideoGrade" is a great coloring app, that has in depth tools for changing brightness, saturation, highlights, etc. "Video Swivel" allows me to slowly tilt videos, in case my tripod is not aligned correctly, and "Vont" allows me to add text to videos – I mainly use this for my watermark.

5) Any Instagrammers whom you really like? Which Instagrammer inspires you the most?

I don’t follow as many people on Instagram as I did on Vine, but the content from the following users never seem to disappoint me.

Cody Ko – Funny entertainer who had a huge following on Vine.
Brandon Calvillo – Another user who got started through Vine. He is very witty and has a great dry sense of humor.
Senan Byrne – Posts quality content on a regular basis, all of which seem to be short skits with some of his friends.
Bo Burnham – Rarely posts on Instagram, but he is a great comedian. I seem to always look foward to his posts.

6) If there’s one thing your fellow Instagrammers just gotta try now, what’s it gonna be?

Putting a jacket on their dog, and then putting their arms through it. So it looks like their dog has human arms…It’s so incredibly easy, and some of the funniest videos that I have created are done by doing this. I laugh fairly frequently when creating videos, but watching something like this live is hands down one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

7) What’s your favorite part about being an influencer?

Seeing the enjoyment that can be produced by my content. I love reading comments from people who say how hard they laughed from watching a short 1:00 video. The power of social media is incredible, and I think it’s awesome that hundreds of thousands of people have seen my videos – which I’m hoping has resulted in hundreds of thousands of smiles.

8) What are some of your top tips to brands for running campaigns? How do you maintain authenticity?

Find someone who is creative. There are lot of "famous" users out there who have built a following for absurd reasons – like saying "Cash Me Ousside". While an account like this might get you the views, it will not get the engagement. You need to find someone who will spend a lot of time creating something that is very unique. These users aren’t always the ones that have 100,000 followers either, I know several creative Instagrammers who have less than 1,000 followers and they just haven’t been noticed yet.

9) What would your advice be on the importance of quality and original content?

I don’t post unless I have a strong likeness for the idea behind my videos. I want to post content that my users will enjoy seeing, which also explains why I have very few sponsored posts on my page. If I feel that I can create something worth being seen, I’ll do it. I’m not going to sell out for a quick buck if I think the content would be sub par.

Original content is hard to come by. With there being so many popular accounts out there who steal and post videos from other users, it’s hard to find the accounts for those who make that content that gets ripped off. Unfortunately, I feel as though I am one of those users who have had content stolen on a regular basis.

10) What do you like best about partnering with brands?

Feeling as if you are doing something important. Having a brand trust you with their product, is a great feeling. Creating commercials or blockbuster type movies would be an ideal future for me, and gaining experience with working with brands will only help me out in the future.

Topics:

• Animals & Pets
• Health & Fitness
• Humor
• Nature & Outdoors

Country:

United States of America