Blogging and using Instagram to promote fashion products has almost become a norm over the last few years, well known fashion and beauty Bloggers “Zoella” and “Inthefrow” receive thousands of views on their blogs week in week out. With both the social media sensations also sharing various beauty and fashion items on their personal Instagram accounts along with links to their blogs discussing the products.

How to write a good blog post can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140602121530-3161863-20-quick-tips-on-writing-great-blog-posts

Glamorous! – The gorgeous IntheFrow and Zoella pictured together at an event 

Using this form of celebrity endorsement is becoming more and more popular with brands as organisations look to exploit the social media and the internet for new creative marketing technics. Chiosa Ana Raluca (2012) wrote that a celebrity endorser is someone who has high profile and a life style and values that people aspire to be like. Celebrity endorsement impacts on many consumers buyer behavior (Renganathan 2015), meaning using Social media stars to promotes your product through blogs and Instagram posts can become a effective marketing tool.

Despite the obviously similarities between the two bloggers, both bloggers have their own unique styles and brands would need to carefully select which blogger would be best suited to promote their products.

InTheFrow:

Is a truly stunning individual who is prepared to strip down to the bare minimum of a bikini to promote clothing on her blogs and on Instagram, where fans can see her body displaying the clothing in a sunny location with a tasty background with fans seeing the “perfect” life.

Inthefrow’s  Blog does not directly mention products within her blogs however chooses to have a more measured approach to adverting throughout the blogs with small abstract paragraphs a common feature alongside images of her looking beautiful displaying different outfits.

Only a small section of the blog shows readers where they can purchase the products and styles displayed in the photos.

Her Blog can be viewed here: http://www.inthefrow.com

IntheFrows target audience will be of a slightly older age then Zoellas due the more mature content and more mature styles displayed.

Zoella:

Zoella is more of a clean cut blogger compared to inthefrow and does not take any risks when posting blog images by revealing to much of her skin or body within the posts. This is down to the core structure of the Zoella brand aiming to be a clean cut “friend” to her audience.

Unlike InTheFrow, Zoella sometimes can be more direct with her advertising and doesn’t try to dress promotions up with a abstract paragraph and is prepared to post a blog post with a few images and just a list of products she is displaying within the images, Shown Below:

Zoella’s blog can be viewed here:  https://www.zoella.co.uk

Did you Know: Brands can pay up to £20,000 to collaborate with stars like Zoella!! (Fox, 2015)

Fans of the two bloggers mentioned above will be prepared to purchase products they see on the blogs in an aim to be like their role models, Both bloggers also post images on Instagram supporting their blog and products which they promote within them.

In doing this allows for the products and blogs to be exposed to a larger audience, where people who may not see the blog regularly might see the image and want to look further into the product or the blog. Instagram also has a Hashtag feature where if the right hashtags are used the blogs can be exposed to a further audience again through viewing the hashtags, Instagram also allows for a quick viewing therefore if as user doesn’t have time to read the full blog then can quickly view the short snippet on Instagram.

InTheFrow – Supports her blogs with posts on Instagram.

With such high views counts and exposure there will obviously be some limitations and risk involved when using a blogger like Zoella or Inthefrow to market with the main issue of users questioning the authenticity of the girl behind the blog with users possibly no longer believing the words of their beloved social media star. In recent article by Wood, (2016),  the writer suggests that Zoella doesn’t longer write her own blog suggesting people write the blogs for her and the  “Zoella” Brand is just used to promote the blogs, This article can be viewed here: http://www.sugarscape.com/bookclub/news/a1086034/zoella-secret-blog-writer-carrie-fry/

Opps – A “Zoella” Blog was listed as written by Carrie Fox but then was later deleted and the author was changed to Zoella.

This isn’t the first time Zoella authenticity was questioned, Fans were left upset after discovering her novel “Girl Online” was ghost written, Read More Here:  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/11/zoella-ghostwriter-sioban-curham-controversy-childrens-author

References:

Chiosa Ana Raluca (2012). CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT STRATEGY. Annals of ‘Constantin Brancusi’ University of Targu-Jiu. Economy Series. 3 (3), 75-79.

Flood, A. (2014). zoella’s ghostwriter Siobhan Curham speaks out over controversy. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/11/zoella-ghostwriter-sioban-curham-controversy-childrens-author. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.

Fox, J. (2015). as Zoella moves into a £1 million mansion, we reveal just how much money she’s REALLY making http://www.celebsnow.co.uk/celebrity-news/as-zoella-moves-into-a-1-million-mansion-we-reveal-just-how-much-money-she-s-actually-making-as-a-web-celeb-42819. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.

Renganathan, R. (2015). Perception of College Students about Celebrity Endorsemen. Research journal of applied sciences, engineering and technology. 9 (7), 543 – 548.

Rowse, D. (2014). 21 Quick Tips on Writing Great Blog Posts. Available: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140602121530-3161863-20-quick-tips-on-writing-great-blog-posts. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.

Wood, L. (2016). IS ZOELLA REALLY WRITING HER OWN BLOG POSTS THESE DAYS?. Available: http://www.sugarscape.com/bookclub/news/a1086034/zoella-secret-blog-writer-carrie-fry/. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.