Consciously or unconsciously, social media influences so much of what we do in our lives. Need to buy a new foundation, bikini or thinking of what hotel to stay at on your next holiday, there’s more chance of you taking the advice of someone you follow on social media than anyone else. This is how the term ‘influencer’ has become one of the most powerful positions in 21st century media. A ‘genuine’ endorsement is worth its weight in gold.
Through strong engagement and steadily building her fan base over the last few years, our brand owner and founder Tammy Hembrow is an expert in this space with over 7.7 million followers on Instagram alone. In the social media age, sharing is an extremely natural way to communicate. From people with millions of followers to your grandma who might only have 24, everyone has a story to tell and it’s the way people connect with you that matters.
We definitely have the inside scoop with Tammy on our team, and she manages her own social media so we wanted to share her insight on what’s trending and how to utilise the diverse range of platforms on the social media spectrum.
Authenticity and transparency
We get a lot of feedback from Tammy’s audience saying that they love how ‘real’ or ‘down to earth’ she is. This is something that she has been passionate about since day one. The original intent wasn’t to become a social superstar, but to share her fitness journey with other women and mothers that were on the same path as her. This resonated with the public in a huge way and as a result her popularity catapulted. Tammy soon realised that this ‘non-strategy’ was her best strategy to retain her followers, promote more growth and keep people engaged so she has retained her relaxed and open approach. Obviously her lifestyle began to change but she remained open and honest, shared her family, struggles and triumphs, making people feel like they were with her along the way. If you feel comfortable sharing your real self with your audience, this strategy might work for you too.
Promotion across different platforms
While Tammy’s highest following is on Instagram, she still uses other social media platforms to promote her brands. By tailoring a message across multiple platforms, you are reaching a wider base of people and also reiterating your message to your fans in different ways, therefore amplifying the message. Tammy posts on Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter while Saski Collection is on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn and there are different approaches for each platform. Our followers on Instagram might be interested in seeing behind the scenes footage from our latest collection photoshoot, while our LinkedIn followers are probably more interested in how long it takes for the latest drop to sell out online. Both messages are important for our business, but we need to cater to the intended audience to retain their engagement and continue to boost your own credibility. It’s extremely beneficial that we can utilise Tammy’s established presence on all platforms to cross promote Saski Collection across all platforms, and it’s obviously extremely beneficial for Tammy to do so too.
Collaborations and influencers
As the status of the social media influencer continues to rise, businesses are seeing the major impact an influencer can have on the immediate success of their brand or product. Seeing what fake tan your favourite Insta-celeb uses is just as powerful as receiving a recommendation from a friend, because fans feel so connected to the people they follow online. Tammy’s influence has crashed many a website (including her own) with people scrambling to replicate her impeccable style or feel closer to her by owning what she owns. It’s such a powerful tool for businesses, and they are fuelling the impact of social media even further by creating entire marketing campaigns around influencer content.
Tammy attributes a lot of success and the weight of her influence to her approach of authenticity and chooses collaborations that genuinely appeal to her. The protein she uses, the clothes she wears, the hairdresser she goes to – they are authentically Tammy and contribute to her personal brand. If something feels unauthentic, her strong and heavily invested fan base will notice and that is damaging to the brand she’s worked so hard to establish. This may not be the approach for everyone, but Tammy’s own experience shows that authenticity is key to her audience.
Return the love
If you want your followers to stay engaged with you, you need to engage with them. Being proactive with your fan base is crucial to keeping them on board and this is a policy that both Tammy and the team at Saski Collection abide by and our followers respond extremely well to it. Staying in touch with our audience is so important, and includes responding to comments, questions and messages in a genuine and timely manner. They don’t want to feel ignored or like they’re getting an automated response, they want to feel like Tammy herself is thanking them for their kind comment or for posting a photo of them wearing her clothes – this feeling of being connected is so crucial in retaining engagement. If people don’t think it is the person they are following on the other end of the iPhone, their interest will eventually fade and so will your influence.
Social media as an advertising tool
Saski Collection only advertises on social media, and this can be one of the most effective (for your budget and sales results) advertising tools. This was a no-brainer for us because Tammy’s presence allowed us to push our product out to the perfect audience instantly.
However, even if you don’t have a social media heavyweight up your sleeve, targeted digital advertising is still reasonably priced and can be as targeted or as broad as you need it to be. There are not many other mediums where you can single out a particular demographic of people and only serve your ads to them, as well as tracking the results. You are not wasting valuable dollars on reaching the type of people that aren’t going to purchase your product, you can tweak your target groups over the duration of a campaign and you can analyse the outcomes for ways to improve before your next campaign.
These tips are things we’ve learnt along the way and things we know work for our business and Tammy, but when growing your own brand and social media presence, it’s important to do what comes natural to you and build a strategy around that. Whether you want to inspire people, make them laugh or make them think, social media gives us the opportunity to reach out like never before, and that’s big business.
