Since a lot of my writing stems from my personal experiences in the influencer world, I wanted to give you a fresh perspective on the industry. I had the chance to sit down with someone who has worked as an influencer for almost five years now and get some answers to a lot of popular questions! For the same reason that I have chosen to not disclose my boss's name (simply out of respect for their privacy), I'm unfortunately not going to share the name of my interviewee, but for confusion's sake, I'll be referring to her as Nicole. I'm still super excited to share with you guys, so here are some of the things we discussed:
Leslie: Hey Nicole! Thank you so much for meeting with me today. I'd love to dive right in by asking you exactly what part of the influencer world you are a part of?
Nicole: Hi Leslie! So, if I had to specify the sub-industry that I work in, I would say it would be fashion influencing, but I have a lot more freedom now that I've been doing it for a few years, so that has allowed me to incorporate new and different areas of my life into my work.
Leslie: How did you enter the influencer industry?
Nicole: I always find this to be such a funny question because I never really intended on entering this industry. At the time, I was just blogging on the side as an outlet from my corporate job and I became pretty invested in my writing. Then, as social media evolved even more, I started receiving more attention from my blog viewers on my social channel, and the rest sort of feels like history!
Leslie: What would you say is the toughest part of being an influencer?
Nicole: The toughest part would probably be the overconsumption of social media sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but I'm still human and being an influencer doesn't make me immune to insecurities or caring too much what others think. If anything, I think it makes you care more, which is great on a professional front, but you have to know your limits for your own personal sake and allow yourself a break every once in a while.
Leslie: What would you say is the best part of being an influencer?
Nicole: The best part is hands down the people you meet and the places you go! Although all of my content is posted from the other side of a screen, creating that content typically involves a lot of other (and new!) people. When you create all these new friends through one commonality, you all become one big family. That's what makes the crazy times like fashion week so exciting. You all get to experience this together. All in all, I'm just so grateful for the opportunities that I've had thus far.
Leslie: Do you think that there is a key, for lack of a better term, to your success?
Nicole: Hmm.. I think the only key to succeeding in this industry is your level of passion. I've seen a ton of people try to become influencers for the wrong reasons and I have to say, I think it always catches up with them. That being said,
Leslie: Is there any piece of advice you would give someone trying to break into the influencer industry?
Nicole: I think that there are a lot of people who don't really realize that being an influencer is essentially the same as running your own business. They see the fun stuff and final content but forget about a lot of the hard work that influencers put into their careers. So, like I said before, I think passion is essential to succeeding in this industry, as well as staying consistent! That's huge! And if you really are passionate about it, keeping at it shouldn't be too hard.
I had a great time sitting down with Nicole and really enjoyed getting a feel for her own personal experiences in such a rapidly growing field! I love being able to bring as much insight to the table as possible, so I'm hoping to get this same opportunity with more influencers down the line. Leave me a comment with any questions you would want answered in future Q&As!
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Monday, July 16, 2018
A Glimpse Into MY Influencer Feed
It's pretty easy to be all talk, especially on the other side of a screen, so I'm switching things up with this post by sharing my personal experiences while attempting to enter the influencer industry myself.
Note: Throughout this post, I'll be referring back to a couple of my previous posts, mainly the ones where I have given tips or "how-to's" regarding the process of entering the influencer industry. So, I'll be linking any previous posts that I feel could be helpful in understanding the reasoning or methods behind some of my decisions and actions during this process. Just click the titles that I'm referring to to learn more!
While I've spent a lot of time discussing the influencer world, I have yet to really explain where I stand in it. If you read the "About Me" section, you probably already know that I work under an influencer. For privacy reasons, I have chosen to keep her name private, but working under her has motivated me to dabble in the industry myself.
As I explained in one of my previous posts, "How to Become an Influencer," there are plenty of avid steps that you can take, steps that I myself have taken, to become an influencer. The very first things that I had to do were narrow my focus, choose my primary social channel, and create a visual style personal to me. My focus is mainly fashion, but since I grew up in a small beach town and now live in a major city, my fashion taste is unique enough to separate me from other common fashion and lifestyle influencers. After I identified Instagram as the most beneficial social channel for my purpose, it was important that my feed was cohesive and coincided with my style, as I explained in "Five Steps to a Better Feed." Although I've removed a lot of content in the process of cleaning up my profile, this is still a glimpse of what it looked like before:
There's nothing majorly wrong with this series of posts, but as you can see, the colors of the images are overall very different, as well as the edits. I also was not following a content cycle, which I explain the importance of in "Five Steps to a Better Feed" as well. The simplest way to describe my former feed is busy, which is something you want to, and frankly must, avoid in this industry. Now that a few months worth of content has been posted, this is a more recent idea of what my feed looks like:
I'll be honest, revamping my feed was harder than I initially thought it would be. However, following the same advice that I have given in past posts, I was able to conquer one of the biggest challenges: recreating my visual presence. Now, I use a content cycle and follow specific color schemes that are related to my own personal style, which includes the same (or at least editing tactics) for each post.
In this post, my main goal was to express the initial steps that I took to break into this industry, especially on the visual front. I plan to continue sharing my experiences with you guys in future posts as my knowledge and involvement grows, but there's something else I'd like to leave you with today.
Remember that being an influencer is technically a business. That being said, I no longer have the same privilege of posting whatever I want to post. This removes most of the personal aspects to my profile, which may not be a big deal to some people because it visibly comes with the territory of "influencing," but I'm pointing this out for a very important reason: things are not always as they seem! I had a deadline to post for a swimwear company in one of the images above and as far as my followers were concerned, I was simply frolicking along the beach that day. Little did people actually know, that photo was taken and edited days in advance and I spent the day of the actual posting visiting my grandmother in the hospital. Again, this may seem like a small price to pay or maybe even an overly personal anecdote to some, but it's important that I reiterate that others don't always get to see the big picture if you're in the influencer world.
Entering such a new and already overly-populated industry poses plenty of challenges, but I still am so happy that I took the leap! Leave me a comment with any questions you guys might have or with anything else you may want to hear about as I continue my journey!
Note: Throughout this post, I'll be referring back to a couple of my previous posts, mainly the ones where I have given tips or "how-to's" regarding the process of entering the influencer industry. So, I'll be linking any previous posts that I feel could be helpful in understanding the reasoning or methods behind some of my decisions and actions during this process. Just click the titles that I'm referring to to learn more!
While I've spent a lot of time discussing the influencer world, I have yet to really explain where I stand in it. If you read the "About Me" section, you probably already know that I work under an influencer. For privacy reasons, I have chosen to keep her name private, but working under her has motivated me to dabble in the industry myself.
As I explained in one of my previous posts, "How to Become an Influencer," there are plenty of avid steps that you can take, steps that I myself have taken, to become an influencer. The very first things that I had to do were narrow my focus, choose my primary social channel, and create a visual style personal to me. My focus is mainly fashion, but since I grew up in a small beach town and now live in a major city, my fashion taste is unique enough to separate me from other common fashion and lifestyle influencers. After I identified Instagram as the most beneficial social channel for my purpose, it was important that my feed was cohesive and coincided with my style, as I explained in "Five Steps to a Better Feed." Although I've removed a lot of content in the process of cleaning up my profile, this is still a glimpse of what it looked like before:
There's nothing majorly wrong with this series of posts, but as you can see, the colors of the images are overall very different, as well as the edits. I also was not following a content cycle, which I explain the importance of in "Five Steps to a Better Feed" as well. The simplest way to describe my former feed is busy, which is something you want to, and frankly must, avoid in this industry. Now that a few months worth of content has been posted, this is a more recent idea of what my feed looks like:
I'll be honest, revamping my feed was harder than I initially thought it would be. However, following the same advice that I have given in past posts, I was able to conquer one of the biggest challenges: recreating my visual presence. Now, I use a content cycle and follow specific color schemes that are related to my own personal style, which includes the same (or at least editing tactics) for each post.
In this post, my main goal was to express the initial steps that I took to break into this industry, especially on the visual front. I plan to continue sharing my experiences with you guys in future posts as my knowledge and involvement grows, but there's something else I'd like to leave you with today.
Remember that being an influencer is technically a business. That being said, I no longer have the same privilege of posting whatever I want to post. This removes most of the personal aspects to my profile, which may not be a big deal to some people because it visibly comes with the territory of "influencing," but I'm pointing this out for a very important reason: things are not always as they seem! I had a deadline to post for a swimwear company in one of the images above and as far as my followers were concerned, I was simply frolicking along the beach that day. Little did people actually know, that photo was taken and edited days in advance and I spent the day of the actual posting visiting my grandmother in the hospital. Again, this may seem like a small price to pay or maybe even an overly personal anecdote to some, but it's important that I reiterate that others don't always get to see the big picture if you're in the influencer world.
Entering such a new and already overly-populated industry poses plenty of challenges, but I still am so happy that I took the leap! Leave me a comment with any questions you guys might have or with anything else you may want to hear about as I continue my journey!
Saturday, July 14, 2018
What Makes WeWoreWhat Different
Some people may say that they don't pick favorites, but cmon, we all have favorites. It's only natural! That being said, I have a few favorite blogs of my own. At the top of that list is Danielle Bernstein's blog, WeWoreWhat.
I initially started following Bernstein's primarily fashion-based blog years ago, so I've seen it evolve in many ways since. She has always given insights into daily outfits, style trends, where to shop, etc., but, I just noticed a new feature on her "OOTD" (a.k.a. outfit of the day) blog posts: a list of similar articles of clothing underneath the image displayed.
This feature may have existed for a while now, but it's the first time that I have seen it and it really stood out to me. You can visit Bernstein's series of OOTD blog posts yourself if you'd like, but to give you an idea, this is what it looks like:
Notice the series of clothing at the bottom. If you visit her blog and click any of those items, it will take you to a different website where you can shop the specific item. The idea is not only very clever, but very helpful to her followers who are inspired by her daily looks. I took it upon myself to comment on her most recent post:
I stand by my comment and believe that these small features are part of what makes Bernstein's blog so successful, and as I mentioned, so appealing.
I would also like to add that this also serves as an example of the role that commenting can play. Comment sections exist for feedback and not only do bloggers or influencers encourage it, but they strongly benefit from hearing directly from their readers and followers. Feel free to leave me a comment on what you want to hear about next!
I initially started following Bernstein's primarily fashion-based blog years ago, so I've seen it evolve in many ways since. She has always given insights into daily outfits, style trends, where to shop, etc., but, I just noticed a new feature on her "OOTD" (a.k.a. outfit of the day) blog posts: a list of similar articles of clothing underneath the image displayed.
This feature may have existed for a while now, but it's the first time that I have seen it and it really stood out to me. You can visit Bernstein's series of OOTD blog posts yourself if you'd like, but to give you an idea, this is what it looks like:
Notice the series of clothing at the bottom. If you visit her blog and click any of those items, it will take you to a different website where you can shop the specific item. The idea is not only very clever, but very helpful to her followers who are inspired by her daily looks. I took it upon myself to comment on her most recent post:
I would also like to add that this also serves as an example of the role that commenting can play. Comment sections exist for feedback and not only do bloggers or influencers encourage it, but they strongly benefit from hearing directly from their readers and followers. Feel free to leave me a comment on what you want to hear about next!
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