INFLUENCERS MARKETING
manner of a well-meaning best friend, with a very well-stocked make-up bag. But a decade on and the marketplace for influencers is saturated and the original beauty influencers are not what, or where, they used to be. Cunningham launched British Beauty Blogger around 13 years ago as a review website. Even though she doesn’t view herself as an influencer “in the current sense”, there’s no denying that her loyal online following and opinionated style give her the means and ability to sway her readers. Plus, she admits to using affiliate links, albeit alongside non-affiliate alternatives.
But 13 years is a long time in the digital world and Cunningham has felt the pressure experienced by many to keep up with it all: all the platforms, all the posts, all the videos, putting herself front and centre of her website, rather than remaining behind the words.
‘
It’s just not possible to do everything and have any kind of life outside of social media
content I have to produce in any given day as it is – so far, I haven’t done much more than glance at it from time to time. It’s just not possible to do everything and have any kind of life outside of social media, and I’m trying to cut down rather than increase.”
Jane Cunningham
She adds: “I still don’t like putting my face on my blog, but I do it a bit more now because we have become so
much more visual and it’s expected.” ZOELLA SPEAKS OUT
“I am on Instagram, which I don’t love, but recognise it is a good accessory channel for the website,” she tells Cosmetics Business. “I’m also on Facebook and Twitter, and still on Pinterest although I have so many visits (over a million a month) and never see any traction from it whatsoever! “I do have a TikTok account, but I feel a bit overwhelmed with the amount of
cosmeticsbusiness.com
Feelings of being overwhelmed and pressurised to keep up with the social media Joneses are sentiments not unique to Cunningham by any stretch. In 2019 Sugg gave a glimpse into her current state of mind in an Instagram post to her 9 million odd followers, in which she revealed that she feels pressure to be perfect on social media. She captioned an image: “In February, I will have been in this space for ten years and it has changed a lot in that
November 2021 55
time. I spoke a bit last year about the pressure, expectation and fear of posting that I have often experienced through my decade of sharing, but now more than ever, I second guess a lot of things I say or post. I also know that so many of you do the same thing, regardless of follower count, and you can end up feeling a little suffocated and disconnected.”
A year later and she took her words one step further by teaming up with Lush to promote a day of digital detoxing. Organised with mental wellbeing campaign #IAmWhole, Sugg did a 360° turn when she asked consumers to step away from social media – the very thing that ‘made’ her when she launched her blog in 2009 and, soon after, her YouTube channel – to check in with their mental health. Today, Sugg’s YouTube account is inactive, with her last post dating back three years ago. Now favouring
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
