"Patience truly is key" with Sharon Cancio
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Photo Credit: Sharon Cancio
Sharon Cancio is a 23-year-old full-time content creator known as “Just Sharon.” She is a YouTuber that is most known for her text pranks, reactions, period videos, and revealing secrets videos. She has over half a million subscribers on YouTube and is also active on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok. On TikTok, she is known for her Marvel Movie date nights, where she makes drinks, desserts, and meals based on Marvel Studios movies.
How did you become an influencer? What inspired you to go down this path?
I started watching youtube videos when my older cousin showed me parody videos as a preteen. I immediately fell in love with the idea of creating content to make people happy, laugh, and share with others. So I asked my cousin to sign me up for YouTube and teach me how to make YouTube videos on Windows Movie Maker. My first ever video was a Jonas Brothers picture slideshow with random images I pulled from Google. I really just did this for fun, didn’t take it too seriously until I was 15 and YouTubers were really starting to become a source of entertainment amongst my friends and people our age. My best friend at the time and I really enjoyed watching a collab channel together and we thought they were so cool and we wanted to be just as cool as them so we started making our own YouTube videos. Our first videos were challenges that were popular at the time like the cinnamon challenge, hot sauce challenge, and more. I genuinely just wanted to be cool.
What markets do you serve?
YouTube is my main platform, I’m also active on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram, in that same order by usage and preference. My audience is mainly females in the United States, ages 18-24. Right behind them are females in the United States ages 13-17. My audience is 93% female!
How do you grow your following/readership?
I think the best way to grow is to shake things up. You can’t expect things to change if your content isn’t. I like to follow an 80-20 rule, where 80% of the content I make is content that I know my audience likes. The other 20% is content I’m experimenting with. This can also be reversed as well, just depending on how adventurous one is feeling. Whenever I make a video that I see has been very successful with my audience, I try to replicate it to an extent. For example, let’s say I make a video titled “Embarrassing Things Girls do but Won’t Admit” and it was a hit! I’ll go ahead and make a video with a similar topic, but still different on its own, maybe like: “Things Only Girls Understand.”
How do you secure sponsorships?
I am signed with an agent, so my agent is responsible for finding me sponsorship deals and negotiating with brands on my behalf. Before I signed with an agent, I used a lot of influencer platforms but didn’t really enjoy them because there wasn’t much room for negotiating and you had to apply, it was always “this is how much we’re paying, we want x, x, and x from you.” Obviously, I don’t want to lowball my work, but sadly if I won’t do it, there is someone out there that will. I’m hoping platforms are a lot different now but I never bothered with them after finding an agent. If I were to find my sponsorships, I’d reach out to brands via social media! Either through Instagram or Twitter DMs and be directed in the right direction if need be. Also finding PR emails on their websites too. I’d say something about how much I love their brand, how I’d love to work with them, and if they’re interested in working together. I’d ask for their email, then send over my media kit and rates!
How do you come up with rates?
Since I have an agent, I don’t have to come up with rates myself. Before I was signed, I genuinely didn’t know how to come up with rates and still struggle with it to this day -- definitely something I’m constantly working on though! When I was in college, I had a professor that shot commercials on the side and he told me to charge $500 a minute. That’s what I used for a while but I wasn’t getting too many deals to begin with, which is why I sought out an agent in 2018 and signed with one then.
What are some ways you measure the success of brand campaigns?
I measure success by how many reactions I get to the brand campaign, meaning how many people are in the comment section actually interacting with it like “oh I love that brand too”, “I gotta try this product!” One thing I do know for sure and hate when brands request is a minimum of views is required. Views do not at all equal a successful campaign, I could have 100,000 people watch my video but only 10 actually sign up or purchase whatever it is that I’m promoting. Going off of that, I don’t like when brands ask for a minimum of sales as well. These are things a creator can never guarantee, every time you work with an influencer you’re taking a gamble -- just like you would with Facebook ads, a billboard, flyers, a commercial, whatever else. They don’t guarantee anything but exposure!
Do you work with talent management? If so, how did you find the right manager/agent?
I found my agent through a mutual friend that is also a creator. I knew this friend was receiving a lot of sponsorships from a lot of reputable and “trendy” brands so I asked for a meeting with her agent and signed with them not too long after. I’ll never forget when my agent and I first spoke, they were so shocked by how little money I was making just because I didn’t know how to negotiate on my own. At the time I had maybe about 300,000 subscribers but my wallet definitely didn’t reflect that.
How do you weather slow times?
Luckily a lot of my content is subscriber-based and I have a very active relationship with my followers. For example, I have a series on my channel where I read secrets or stories from my subscribers anonymously. I’ll give them a topic and they’ll submit their stories and I’ll share them. With that, comes a lot of video ideas and video requests. That also gives me the ability to post multiple parts of the same topic, but with different submissions. If it’s a slow time, I’ll pull a “fan favorite” and ask for submissions! Some are so successful that I upload the same topic every month, once a month -- specifically my Period Horror Stories series.
What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?
As easy as it is to have an agent, I think my biggest mistake was signing with anyone. In a perfect world, I am in full and total control of everything I do, including negotiating and handling brand deals. The only reason I have an agent is that they have a skill that I lack, but once I have the skill then the need for an agent is gone. This is also a mistake I can work on though, it’s not something I could never fix. I do regret not learning how to do this sooner though!
The only other thing I would definitely consider a mistake is undercharging for sponsorships. It was a struggle to really and truly understand my worth, especially when there really isn’t an “industry standard” for influencers quite yet. For some reason, I used to feel bad charging a higher price for my work, which is crazy because if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that: brands have a usually very high budget and will always lowball you at first. Unless you’re working with a really small business or mom-and-pop shop then that’s a different story. That being said, shoot your shot. The worst thing a brand could say is no, so then you simply negotiate and find something that works for the both of you.
Just don’t settle and don’t sell yourself short! Not only are you creating content, but you’re also editing it and promoting it. On top of the effort that goes into setting up whether it be clothing needed, products you’re using, going out to shoot locations, even writing the copy for these posts. Demand every penny for that work.
What advice do you have for aspiring influencers?
Make sure it’s something you actually want to do and something that you are genuinely passionate about. If you don’t love it, it will be a long road. Also don’t expect too much, you could make content for a week and go viral, and be set for life. You could also make content for 10 years before you get a “big break.”
Patience truly is key. Also, find a niche for your content but don’t be afraid to experiment as well! Social Media is a lot of trial and error, just keeping trying until something sticks. It’s not going to happen overnight (unless you’re lucky) but that’s the beauty of it! Another thing is, be genuine and be yourself. The internet and social media are already full of a lot of fake things, and people have gotten really good at noticing what’s fake and calling it out! You’d be surprised how many people genuinely enjoy you for just being you, I never thought someone random would ever care about what I’m doing or what I think, and boy was I wrong.
Which books and/or celebrities have influenced you the most?
Honestly, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen comes to mind first. It was one of my favorite movies when I was younger and still is to this day. I definitely feel I resonate with Lindsay Lohan’s character, Lola, in the sense of loving to be the center of attention. I always thought she was super cool and I wanted to be just like her when I was younger! She also taught me a very valuable lesson -- fake it ‘til you make it! LOL
How can our readers get in touch with you?
You can get in touch with me through the following channels: