Influencer marketing is all the rage these days. Bloggers have upgraded to a new breed called influencers. While bloggers were content creators, influencers are content creators AND a force in influencing our buying power – or so brands like to believe. I took part in many projects involving influencers and the first question that a marketing person always ask is “how many followers she/he has?”. Obviously, the pictures have to look great, but few brands, in reality, care about the engagement generated by these influencers. And by engagement, I don’t mean a percentage. I actually mean looking at who and how people interact with these influencers. Are they only liking the posts? Are they commenting with emojis? Are they girls in their teens? Are they asking where to buy these pants? I guess if you are a brand you will be more interested in the latter. Just like a blogger, the term influencer will evolve, but meanwhile, I want to have a proper look at this term.
Nowadays being an influencer means having a significant following on social channels, impacting on people’s spending power and bringing awareness to a brand. Though this definition is correct, I think it is limiting and limited and explains why some consider “influencer” a dirty word. In the dictionary, to influence is the capacity to affect the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself. If we follow this definition influencers always existed, it’s just that digital and influencer marketing weren’t yet a thing.
I am a class 87 meaning I belong to this generation that saw the last Minitels and the beginnings of the World Wide Web. When I grew up influencers weren’t online, they were in magazines, books and on TV. No insta story could tell me what they were up to, what they were eating, drinking or wearing on an hourly basis. The only way I could get to know them was reading articles, interviews and watching shows featuring them. These people I was looking up to weren’t called influencers but had a profession involving having a huge fan base. Actors, singers, writers, artists, activists etc.
Fast forward to 2018 and the influencer that interests me the most is not a blogger but an editor-in-chief. There are exactly three of them: Refinery29’s Christene Barberich, Instyle’s Laura Brown and Teen Vogue’s Elaine Welteroth (who is leaving soon her position). If a nice-looking feed is a requisite on Instagram today, few are the fashion influencers interesting me. But these three women running fashion publications are not only stylish but share more than one sentence, emojis and promo codes in their Instagram caption. They have opinions and a personality making their followers interested in their personal and professional life. If their life looks even more glamorous than one of a blogger, the way they deal with Instagram is different from bloggers.
I believe Instagram profiles are becoming more and more similar nowadays, especially if you are a fashion blogger, hence why I thought to look at these three editor-in-chiefs Instagrams to see what make them so unique, therefore give you some inspiration to improve yours. So without further ado, let’s start!
Elaine Welteroth, the millennial
Followers on Instagram: 200k
Condé Nast made the best decision ever when they decided to promote beauty editor Elaine Welteroth to Editor-In-Chief of Teen Vogue back in April 2017. And it is not only because she is the second African-American to hold such a position at Condé Nast. Every article talking about her appointment mentioned that at 29, she was the youngest editor ever hired at the mass media company. And the detail has its importance as, up until now, no millennial has ever been appointed to such a position. When Anna Wintour, Franca Sozzani and Emmanuelle Alt became editor-in-chief, they were respectively 39, 38 and 44. In today’s world where internet is everything, hiring a millennial to held a printed publication like Teen Vogue means a lot. Elaine is an adult, but she is not so old that she cannot understand teens and the way they communicate.
Like any editor-in-chief, you see her hanging out with the coolest people in town, going to fashion events and all that jazz. Like a fashion blogger you see her in the most beautiful outfits – always casual chic though, she is never over the top – wearing her signature white boots, 70’s style glasses and a big ‘fro. Like any millennials, you see pictures of her family, her boyfriend or her with her best friend and best friend’s baby.
So far ‘nothing special’, but scrolling through her Instagram feed when she was still a beauty editor at Teen Vogue you can feel Elaine stayed the same. And I went deep down 2014 to confirm it. She is a committed young woman loving her job and family. Throughout the feed, you see quotes and captions about the causes she is now fighting for as Teen Vogue editor-in-chief: diversity and inclusiveness. And the more you scroll, the more you feel she climbed the ladder. Whoever follows her, teens, young adults or people in her age range like me can relate. And I think that is what is making her Instagram special. Yes, she sits in one of the most coveted fashion chairs but even when she announces she won’t be sitting in that chair anymore, she appears approachable and relatable. Something arguably palpable for some bloggers out there. So if there is one Instagram lesson to take from Elaine Welteroth, I would say something cheesy but spot on: stay true to yourself even when reaching the position of your dream and keep on sharing your achievement to inspire people around you.
Laura Brown, the funny one
Followers on Instagram: 176k
Hailing from Australia, Laura Brown became Instyle Editor-in-Chief in 2016 after spending eleven years at Harper’s Bazaar. If she reached that position around the same age as Anna Wintour, she is definitely different from the generations of EIC before her. She isn’t mysterious like Anna Wintour nor discreet like Emmanuelle Alt. On top of her EIC role, Laura also took part to fashion reality TV shows such as The Fashion Show in which she was a judge on the panel alongside supermodel Imaan and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. So Laura is not your average EIC. A whirl of energy and humour, you can feel she is that way both at work and in her life. Having a look at her Instagram, you will see many funny references to her being Australian, but above all, you will see a woman who doesn’t take herself seriously.
So yes you see the glamorous side of fashion and pictures with celebrities, but it is all mixed with memes, fun captions and images and short videos of the Dirty Laundry. It is a bi-weekly series – available on Youtube – in which she interviews celebrities in her own way, i.e. with a lot of humour (the Hari Nef video where she’s throwing Gucci clothes at Laura has to be my favourite). I think in her feed if every single post makes her personality shine, the Dirty Laundry should be considered her trademark. A picture and a caption aren’t necessarily enough to show off how she is, so videos are the best way to show her followers how witty and funny she is. Â Many bloggers use Insta stories to show what they are doing or where they are, but few are as transparent as Laura on the grid. Because too focused on posting perfect pictures so here the Instagram lesson I would take from Laura Brown is: don’t apologise for being who you are and use your most distinctive trait of character to create a cool Instagram.
Christene Barberich, the curator
Followers on Instagram: 68.4k
Unlike the EIC aforementioned, Christene Barberich is the Editor-In-Chief and co-founder of an online publication. Refinery29. Two points differentiating her from Elaine Welteroth and Laura Brown. If we look at her from this angle, Christene Barberich who co-founded Refinery29 back in 2005 was a pioneer as well as a new breed of EIC. Nowadays, her role has become familiar, but I wanted to have a look at her Instagram because she is not a digital native, she is 48, and yet her Instagram feed is a real source of inspiration.
When you arrive on her page, you can feel she has a great sense of style. Not because of her clothing but because the palette colour of her feed is consistent. Christene is a red-haired woman who likes wearing colourful prints. If she is not posting an #OOTD in front of her mirror, you can feel her style just by looking at the colour palette of her feed which is bright just like her personal style. On top of showing what the life of an EIC looks like, Christene’s Instagram is the definition of having a stylish lifestyle with pictures of interior design echoing her love for beautiful spaces and again, reflecting her personal style. Lastly, her feed is permeated by feminism through portraits of women she pays homage to and her socio-political stance on issues touching America. So her Instagram feels like the curated life of a stylish intellectual New Yorker. When I visit a blogger’s Instagram, I don’t read the captions because often they don’t teach me anything but going on Christene’s makes you understand that Instagram can be a vector of written thoughts too. Hence why the Instagram lesson I would take from her is: curate your feed to have people read your caption.
