How to Write Instructions for Shoutout Requests

Good shoutout instructions ask for the recipient's name and pronunciation, the occasion, one personal detail, and anything to include or avoid. Keep it to five focused asks the follower can answer in a few sentences at checkout, so you can record the correct personalized video without guessing or a round of follow-up. Personalized Videos let a follower pay upfront for one personalized video for themselves or someone they care about: you set the price and the delivery time, then record it on your schedule.

This guide explains what makes a Personalized Videos request usable, using the fixed details Brillay already asks followers to provide at checkout. If you have not enabled Personalized Videos, start with how to set up Personalized Videos on your link in bio. To evaluate the offer for your audience, read the full guide to selling personalized video messages as a small creator. There is no follower minimum or platform gate to start offering Personalized Videos on Brillay, so the instructions can be written for the followers you already have.

Why does the instructions field matter?

The instructions field is where the follower's brief is collected, so it decides whether you can record on the first take.

With Personalized Videos, the follower submits the brief and pays upfront as a guest; you record and deliver one video later. A Personalized Videos card goes live with a fixed price, a creator-set delivery time of up to 5 days, and a connected payout account. At checkout, Brillay collects the occasion, recipient name, instructions, tone, sender details, and other request information before you record. You can share Personalized Videos alongside Paid Questions, Custom Work, Tips, Goals, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries from one Brillay link.

Personalized Videos are delivered as one video of up to 10 minutes. Keep the brief focused enough for the length and style you sell, but treat five asks and a 60-second target as optional creator guidance rather than Brillay limits. Brillay's how-it-works page explains that followers pay upfront without creating an account and creators deliver later (Brillay, “How it works,” step 4 of 5). Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request. A refund dispute is hard to undo once you have delivered, so your safest move is to decline unclear or out-of-scope requests before delivery.

A weak prompt can leave you without enough information to record, so collect a complete brief at checkout. Collect the necessary details before you record so you can deliver within the time you set or decline the request before doing the work. On the personalized-video marketplace Cameo, the Site Terms of Service state that a talent user “has up to seven days or longer” to fulfil or decline a request, with an optional faster tier “such as 24 hours” (Cameo Site Terms of Service, last updated May 7, 2025). Brillay's own cap is tighter, at up to 5 days, so a request that arrives missing a name or an occasion can consume a large share of the window you promised. The video request lives in your own bio link: one tap from the post they just watched takes a follower straight to your page, not to a marketplace roster.

A prompt such as “Tell me what you want” leaves the follower to decide which details matter, so ask focused questions that map to decisions you make while recording, and drop any question whose answer will not change the video or its delivery. That is a recommended Brillay creator template, not a proven conversion rule.

Four numbers a shoutout brief has to fit:

• 5 asks. Use this five-part creator checklist: recipient name and pronunciation, occasion, one personal detail, an include-or-avoid note, and the sender. It is guidance, not a Personalized Videos platform rule.
• About 60 seconds. If you sell a roughly 60-second video, ask only for details you can realistically use in that time; this is your offer boundary, not a Brillay limit.
• up to 5 days. Brillay caps the Personalized Videos delivery time at up to 5 days, and you record from the brief collected at checkout.
• 48 hours to 7 days. Cameo's Talent Terms of Service tell a talent user, “While we hope you will fulfill a request within 48 hours of receiving it, you may have up to seven days or longer (at Cameo's sole discretion) to complete and upload the CAMEO Video,” which is the delivery time expectation the category has set.

What should shoutout instructions ask for?

Ask for five things: the recipient's name and how to pronounce it, the occasion, one personal detail, anything to include or avoid, and who the message is from. That is Brillay's recommended creator template rather than a platform rule, and each ask maps to a decision you make while recording. If asking followers to pay feels awkward, describe the offer as a clear custom video request with a fixed price and delivery time instead of apologizing for charging.

Two of the 5 asks are load-bearing on every personalized-video platform, not just Brillay. Section 2 of Cameo's Site Terms of Service defines a booking as a video “personalized for you or a third-party that you identify as a recipient,” so a paid request must name exactly 1 recipient before anyone records. Section 2 of Cameo's Site Terms of Service also states that the talent user “has sole discretion to determine how to fulfill your request and the content of the CAMEO Video created, and may not follow your request exactly,” which is why the include/avoid ask should be worded as a request rather than a script. If your audience feels small, treat the first version as a low-friction offer for existing followers; Brillay has no follower minimum.

The completed video is delivered privately through Brillay, and the follower receives an email when it is ready, so the checkout brief can stay focused on details that help you record and deliver the message. Ask only for details that help you record or deliver the requested message.

Five rules, each stated once:

1. Name exactly 1 recipient per order, because Section 2 of Cameo's Site Terms of Service defines a booking as a video “personalized for you or a third-party that you identify as a recipient”.
2. Keep the brief to 5 focused asks when that fits the video you sell; five is creator guidance, not a Brillay limit or a proven conversion rule.
3. Collect the brief up front, because the follower pays upfront without creating an account and you deliver later.
4. Ask nothing you will not use, because Article 5(1)(c) of the UK GDPR — the third of the 7 data protection principles — requires personal data to be “adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed,” per the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO, “Data minimisation,” UK GDPR Article 5(1)(c)).
5. Write the include/avoid ask as a request, not a script, because Section 2 of Cameo's Site Terms of Service gives the talent user “sole discretion to determine how to fulfill your request” and warns that they “may not follow your request exactly”.

What shoutout-instruction examples can you copy?

Use one of the three checklists below to decide what a usable Personalized Videos brief should contain; Brillay’s checkout questions themselves are fixed. Each asks the same five things in one paragraph a follower can answer in about three sentences, no essay required, and each is a Brillay creator template rather than a platform requirement.

General-purpose instructions

Tell me: (1) the recipient's name and how to pronounce it, (2) the occasion, (3) one personal detail I can mention, such as an inside joke, hobby, or nickname, (4) anything you want me to say or avoid, and (5) who the message is from. A few sentences is plenty.

Birthday instructions

Who is celebrating, how old are they turning, and what should I call them? Give me one detail I can mention, such as their favorite show, a running joke, or what they are into right now. Tell me who the message is from and whether there is a phrase you want included word for word.

Pep-talk or encouragement instructions

What do they need encouragement for, such as an interview, a hard week, or a big decision? Include their first name, how I should address them, one personal detail that will make the message specific, who it is from, and anything I should avoid mentioning.

Each template is deliberately short so the follower can give you the details needed for the video without writing an essay; adjust the brief to the length and style you sell. Section 2 of Cameo's Site Terms of Service warns that a talent user “may not follow your request exactly,” so a template should collect the facts you need rather than hand the follower a script to write. Focused questions define the expected answer more clearly than “What should I say?”

What should you leave out of shoutout instructions?

Leave out anything you will not use while recording or delivering: phone numbers, home addresses, social handles, essay-length prompts, blank “anything else?” boxes, and invitations to scripts you would decline. Brillay delivers the finished video to the follower in a private message, so the checkout brief can stay focused on details that help you record and deliver the video.

• Essay-length prompts. As a recommended creator template, five short asks are more scannable than a dense paragraph and can usually be answered in a few sentences.
• Questions whose answers you will not use. Do not request a phone number, home address, or social handle “just in case.” Brillay sends the finished video to the follower in a private message, and the checkout brief supplies the details needed to record and deliver it.
• Unnecessary personal information. The UK Information Commissioner's Office states that data minimisation — the third of the 7 UK GDPR data protection principles, at Article 5(1)(c) — requires personal data to be “adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed” (ICO). The same ICO guidance states plainly, “You must not collect personal data on the off-chance that it might be useful in the future,” which is the test to apply to every field you add to a shoutout form.
• A blank “Anything else?” prompt. Replace it with a bounded question such as “Is there anything you specifically want me to avoid?”
• Promises you cannot consistently keep. Do not invite complex scripts, impersonations, or sensitive topics unless they fit your offer and stated boundaries. Cameo's Community Guidelines tell users not to “post or solicit content that is (or incites or encourages) illegal, abusive, harassing, hateful, racist, derogatory, or harmful to someone's reputation,” and an open-ended prompt is what invites those requests in the first place (Cameo Community Guidelines, last updated August 1, 2024). Clear instructions can prevent many unusable requests, but they cannot catch every inappropriate or impractical order, and the right to refuse one is standard: Cameo's Site Terms of Service give the talent user up to seven days “to fulfill or decline your request,” and Brillay's how-it-works FAQ says you can decline a request (Cameo Site Terms of Service, last updated May 7, 2025 and Brillay, “How it works” FAQ). For refusal criteria and sample language, read how to set boundaries for custom video requests.

One video delivery completes a Personalized Videos order. That one-video, one-delivery rule is what keeps scope creep and re-record requests from turning a shoutout into an open-ended project. A revision decision should follow the applicable order details and your stated boundaries rather than an assumed automatic re-recording rule.

How do you set up the instructions field on Brillay?

In Personalized Videos settings, set your card title, description, fixed price, and delivery time. Brillay’s built-in checkout collects the occasion, recipient name, instructions, tone, sender details, and other request information. No separate form builder is involved, because the instructions field ships with the Personalized Video offer itself. No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. When you price, factor in the platform fee and the separate card-processing fee so your rate still works for you. If you are unsure what to charge, start with a price you can deliver profitably inside your delivery time instead of undercharging for a longer or more elaborate video than you want to make.

To offer Personalized Videos, set your fixed price and delivery time and connect your payout account; Brillay then collects the occasion, recipient name, instructions, tone, and sender details through its built-in checkout form. You can edit the card title, card description, price, and delivery time whenever you enable Personalized Videos, while Brillay supplies the built-in request questions. Payouts are available in 41 countries through Brillay's connected Stripe payout setup.

Use this setup sequence:

1. Open Shoutouts settings in your Brillay creator controls.
2. Review the fixed request details followers will complete at checkout, including the occasion, recipient name, instructions, tone, and sender details.
3. Use the checklist above to decide whether an incoming brief gives you enough information to record.
4. Confirm that the prompt asks for a name, occasion, personal detail, inclusion or avoidance request, and sender context.
5. Save your card title, card description, fixed price, and delivery time, then review the published Personalized Videos offer from a follower’s perspective.

For the complete enabling and configuration walkthrough, read how to set up Personalized Videos on your link in bio.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum a follower should type before paying?

Enough to identify the recipient and the purpose: a name, an occasion, and one or two useful personal details, which fits in a few sentences. Section 2 of Cameo's Site Terms of Service defines a booking as a video “personalized for you or a third-party that you identify as a recipient,” so naming exactly 1 recipient is the floor across the category. The five-ask template is Brillay creator guidance, not a mandatory Brillay minimum.

What should I do if a follower leaves vague instructions?

Use the brief submitted at checkout to decide whether to record or decline a Personalized Videos request. If the request is inappropriate or outside your offer, follow how to set boundaries for custom video requests.

Should I request the recipient's phone number or address?

No. The finished video is delivered through Brillay, whose documented workflow ends with the creator delivering the video and getting paid, and the checkout brief provides the details needed to record and deliver it. The ICO's data-minimisation guidance on Article 5(1)(c) of the UK GDPR requires personal data to be “limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed,” which rules out collecting a phone number you will not use.

Is a requested change always a revision?

Not necessarily. A change may result from unclear original instructions, a recording error, or a new request from the follower. Personalized Videos cover one custom video delivery per order. One video delivery completes the order; a materially different request requires a new order. See how to handle revisions for personalized videos.

Create your free Brillay link, set clear expectations in your Personalized Videos card description, and use the checkout details they sent to record or decline without pre-delivery back-and-forth.