Selena Gomez’s ‘Rare’ success
Selena Gomez is one of the top five most followed people on Instagram with an impressive 378 million followers and counting.
Selena Gomez rose to fame following her role on the popular Disney TV show The Wizards of Waverly Place as well as starring in a number of high-grossing movies. This newly-built fame allowed her to start a career in the music industry where she quickly became successful, growing her influence in the industry. After becoming the most followed person on Instagram in 2016, she then took a four year break from social media. Returning in 2020, she rebuilt her social media presence from 70m followers to now with 378m. Formally launching her makeup brand Rare Beauty in 2020 pushed Selena Gomez’s social media presence to the next level.
As well as having a personal Instagram, Selena Gomez’s beauty brand, Rare Beauty has its own account with 3.7m followers. By reposting content from Rare Beauty’s Instagram account to her main account as well as posting original content with her makeup, she enables her brand to reach a considerably larger audience. This helps further build her brand by encouraging her large amount of followers to become customers.
TikTok
TikTok is rapidly becoming the app of choice for social media users. It has around 1 billion users and is one of the fastest growing social media apps globally.
TikTok also has a massive influence on what people buy especially in the beauty industry. People are increasingly turning to beauty influencers on TikTok for advice on which products they should use instead of trusting advertisements. Rare Beauty has benefitted from TikTok’s unique algorithm which allows videos to go viral overnight, selling out products completely. Rare Beauty’s soft pinch liquid blush is currently the brands best-selling product, although the product was released in 2020, as of 2023, it is still selling out in majority of its shade range when restocked.
Selena Gomez uses herself as the main model for Rare Beauty and constantly creates new content on her personal and brands TikTok accounts using her existing and newly revealed products. She uses a mix of brand content and funny videos using viral TikTok sounds to entice her fans and consumers so they stay connected with her and as a result her makeup brand.
Sending PR packages with her newly released products to the top TikTok beauty influencers helps Selena Gomez to expand her brand to reach new consumers who may have previously not heard of her products. It also allows consumers to see what her products look like on people with different skin tones, facial structures and features.
Although Selena Gomez uses her social media presence to promote her beauty brand, it is her personal touch across her social media platforms that has enabled her to stay as one of the most followed people on social media.
