The Unseen Side of an Increasingly Popular Digital Career
How social media influencers ‘make it work’ in the online world: An interview with Katie Crewe
Research and Policy Analyst Mairead Matthews sat down with Canadian blogger and certified strength trainer Katie Crewe to discuss how social media influencers “make it work” in the online world. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Katie’s career has seen immense growth both online and offline through social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Read on for her unique insights on navigating new revenue streams and business models, maintaining a healthy work–life balance, and acquiring new digital skills.
Mairead: To begin, do you mind telling me a bit more about yourself and what you do for a living?
Katie: I am a fitness trainer and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and I post online fitness content. I try to create a mix of informative — and hopefully at least somewhat entertaining — content to engage people and teach them while engaging them. I also run lifting classes and periodically do some educational seminars that go more in depth about the evidence-based side of programming and lifting.
Mairead: At what point did you realize social media could become an integral part of your career? Did the fitness training come first, or was it the blogging?
Katie: I would say I first started this as a way to post about my interests. I actually started out posting a lot of food content, and shortly after did a year-long nutrition program, but I was always very passionate about fitness. I had also done a fitness show, which was not great for my body or mentality but ended up being a very valuable learning experience.
Then when I became a fitness trainer and started seeing clients, I thought that posting online would be a nice, passive way to market my services. I don’t like feeling as though I’m harassing people who aren’t interested in having a personal trainer, so I thought, “Great, I can basically just continually update this like a business card, and people will be able to find me and reach out if they like me.”
I guess I realized it was viable when I started getting more clients through social media. As I continued to post, I ended up amassing more of a following, which became even more helpful for my business. I started releasing more general programs in the form of PDF documents, and later through my Fitplan app, while gaining access to a large pool of people who were free to decide whether or not they were interested in my services.
Mairead: Had you seen someone else do this first, or did you learn to do this on your own?
Katie: I don’t think I used a specific person as a model, but online coaching was becoming more popular and generally accepted. I did follow some nutrition researchers who had successful online coaching businesses, but that wasn’t my initial intention. It just sort of evolved over time.
Mairead: What do you do, or what would you recommend doing, to maintain a healthy work-life balance as an influencer?
Katie: I make strict rules around having phoneless time, and I make a point not to document my entire life on social media. I know a lot of people who document a lot of their lives using the stories function, but I personally need a lot of separation between my real life and my online presence. I’m also careful to only share certain things online.
It’s kind of embarrassing, but I used to get like a lot of anxiety when I wouldn’t post everyday, or when I didn’t have new content — like I would get very stressed out. Then I realized I just needed to chill the heck out, and that it’s totally fine to take time off. I even challenge myself to not post on certain days as a personal challenge, as if to say, “Get over this. You’re getting a too anxious and obsessive.” So, I’ve found that at least for me, developing strict rules is really helpful.
Mairead: I can see how that cycle of anxiety would work, especially if you felt as though people might stop paying attention to your content if you stop posting. Online audiences can have such short attention spans.
Katie: Yeah, it’s true to a certain degree because you’re top of people’s minds and favoured by platform algorithms if you’re posting super consistently. And from that perspective I’ve probably gotten too good at not posting, but mentally, it does feel a lot nicer. It’s a weird balance that you have to strike between time off and being consistent. When I look back, during the times when I was really trying to grow, I was a lot more consistent, but at this point though, I don’t really care too much. If my following grows, that’s great, but I’d rather just try to teach things to the people who do follow me, and if other people tag along, that’s okay, but it’s not a huge goal of mine.
Mairead: On the technology front, which platform have you seen the most success with, and are there other platforms that you’re not currently using that you’ve considered expanding to?
Katie: In terms of success, definitely Instagram. I plan on growing my Facebook platform this year as I have some very successful, smart friends who market their services very effectively using Facebook. I’m also starting to record stuff for YouTube, which admittedly has always been my favorite platform, but one that I’ve shied away from because the comment culture is so toxic. I do really enjoy longer form, more personal content. I find that people develop a much closer connection to you through that kind of content, however it’s curated, because they feel like they get to know you better. So, I’m going to try to start doing that, but outsource all the editing-type work and try not to obsess over, or look at, the comments.
Mairead: How much does an influencer need to know about things like content creation (video editing, photography, blogging, etc.) or digital media best practices (various kinds of formats, social media algorithms, etc.)?
Katie: For myself, it’s been a lot of trial and error, but I think it really depends on how much you want to optimize things. You can be very successful not knowing a lot about content creation or social media if you are just very consistent, clever and perceptive enough to pick up on what people are responding well to and use that to inform your future content decisions. I think that’s really important. Obviously, stuff like production budget does make a difference, but consistency is extremely important. A lot of people have very, very successful channels, just by using their phone to make and upload content.
As you evolve, however, you generally want to improve on that, so it’s helpful to know how to edit, especially in a way that makes your content look better. You can edit the same video to make it look a lot better or a lot worse, so it’s helpful to be decent at that, and as you get more practice in, you get better.
That said, what I’ve found is that when people are very focused on their business or have a very successful business, they tend to outsource a lot of the content stuff. Even when they’re decent at it, they just don’t want to spend their time doing that. For example, I know these people that have a gym with full-time videographers and editors on site, so that they can focus on just the education component, and the things that specifically require their face and voice. They’re there to film, and then bam–somebody else does all the edits, uploads it, and does all that other stuff for them. It saves them a ton of time. I’m not at that point, but it would save me a ton of time.
Mairead: On that note, what does your team look like, and how has it evolved over the last few years?
Katie: It’s my husband and I, and soon it’ll include my brother, who’s also a trainer and professional MMA fighter. He’s a helpful resource. I outsource some other stuff. For example, I have some programs that run on an app, but I don’t run the app — other people deal with that.
Mairead: How would you describe your business model, and what are the core components of your revenue stream?
Katie: The audience I target is basically females who are interested in fitness but are also looking for some education. They tend to be around my age — late 20s to mid 30s.
I’m sure you know this already — there’s a TON of fitness content out there. But the problem is, when it comes to quality information, some of it is a little lacking. On the other hand, I follow a ton of people who are extremely intelligent, good researchers who put out such quality information, but their content is maybe less interesting to people who aren’t already super invested in learning. I find them interesting, and I wish they got more eyeballs, but I do my best to learn and disseminate that information in hopefully a more accessible way.
My approach is to try to bridge the gap that exists between those two. My audience tends to be women who are interested in some sort of education — people who really want to understand the why of fitness — but also want fun content. I also really don’t like deceptive marketing or playing on people’s insecurities when it comes to fitness.
In terms of revenue, I direct traffic from social media to my website where there are multiple options for fitness programs. The programs are where the majority of my income comes from — the largest being the app, but there are PDFs for people who don’t want a subscription-based service as well. I’m also going back to individualized coaching soon, which had been put on the back burner for the last little while.
Lastly, I do some brand collaborations, although I’m very selective, as my vision must align with their brand mission. Also, I prefer not to be selling things to people all the time and want my page to be a place for learning and a little entertainment.
Mairead: I think a common misconception about social media influencing is that you can sustain yourself on just brand collaborations alone. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do this interview, to get a more realistic understanding of what influencers do and how they make their income, so it’s interesting that you say that.
Katie: It is interesting because with a lot of companies, it’s the Wild West. There just isn’t a lot of consistency between what different companies offer in terms of compensation. That’s not to say you can’t make very good money from collaborations, because you can. It’s just that it’s likely not reliable or sustainable. I wouldn’t feel comfortable solely relying on that. I’ve also had some great long-term partnerships myself, but it’s difficult to find ones that make you feel good about promoting them, and I think you should always try to operate with integrity. If it doesn’t make you feel good, don’t do it.
Mairead: From your experience, is there a common and agreed upon metric or rate for pricing brand collaborations, or is it more of an ad hoc negotiation?
Katie: I really don’t think that there is. It’s interesting, I did a collaboration with this one company that’s pretty well established, and when I talked to the woman in charge of their social media about it afterwards, she basically confirmed that there is no one agreed-upon set price that all companies use. Everyone is figuring it out as they go. I’ve had some companies quote me the same amount for 1 million followers as when I had 15,000 followers. In the end, you have to determine what is worth it for you.
Mairead: Based on your conversations with other influencers from Canada and around the world, how is the Canadian influencer experience different from other countries and how is it the same?
Katie: I think we’re a little more isolated here, and you definitely feel that, especially if you’re interested in doing collaborations with other influencers or working with brands where in-person contact is required or is beneficial. There just isn’t as much happening here in Canada with larger companies, and so when working with larger companies for in-person content, I’ve flown out to New York or LA or different places to do so. To be fair though, I definitely don’t capitalize on all the local relationships that I could be forming, and I’m sure many Canadian influencers do a much better job of making social connections here. I would love to work with and promote more quality Canadian companies if the opportunity presented itself.
Mairead: Does being a social media influencer from Canada mean your audience demographic is mostly Canadian, or have you found success with other audiences around the world?
Katie: By a vast majority, my audience is mostly based in the US. My second biggest country is the UK and my third is Canada. Canada is a smaller market, so I don’t think it’s unusual that when you start gaining a larger audience it becomes more US-based.
I can actually look at my demographics right now. So, my second top city is Toronto. It goes, London, UK, Toronto, Canada, and then Sydney, Australia. [The US viewers are a bit more dispersed].
Mairead: In closing, are there any projects that you’re working on right now or are coming up that you’re excited about?
Katie: I’m reopening my individual coaching, which is exciting for me because I do miss having that connection with people. I’m also planning more seminars. Three very intelligent, evidence-based ladies and I did a seminar series, and I’m hoping to do a condensed version of that by myself more locally, just because there’s so much misinformation about fitness online.
I think a lot of people who are very knowledgeable about fitness have their own gyms or go to private gyms for convenience or whatever reason, but I think because of that, they lose touch with the general public and are somewhat unaware of the complete lack of knowledge that a lot of people have about this topic. I’m very exposed to people who are new to fitness, and I think it’s quite helpful because I’ve realized that people really do need better access to basic fitness information.
