A Pinterview with… Alex Serruys, the creator behind as Alex in Colour

Our next creator Pinterview is with the amazing Alex, otherwise known as Alex in colour. We chatted about she grew from 0 to 800,000 monthly unique viewers on Pinterest over lockdown, the importance of making a positive difference in the online space and her top tips for uploading video to Pinterest. Don’t forget to read till the end to find out her answer to Nagi Maehashi’s question from our last Pinterview.

Hi Alex, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me today. To kick things off I’d love to get to know you a bit better and learn a bit more about yourself and your career?

Hey Georgia, thanks for having me, this is such a milestone for me in my career as a content creator so I feel really honoured to be asked to do this interview.

My career before social media was as a Personal Assistant within the music industry, moving on then to assist the CEO of the British Fashion Council, followed by a role as a PA to the founder of a social media agency, which is where I discovered the term “influencer” and decided to give it a shot myself. I have always been interested in fashion and have been a confident speaker my whole life so figured I could do something with those skills and I guess that’s how we got here today.

It took me a while to find my niche online but I feel in the last year and a half I have really found my voice which is sharing my love of colour through outfits and styling videos whilst spreading a positive message around women’s health and talking openly with my audience about these “taboo” topics, for example, I have been sharing openly my journey through laser hair removal on my face due to suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome and having a beard haha! But it’s something that I have found a lot of women suffer from and didn’t ever want to talk about but I have given my followers the confidence to address it and not be embarrassed by it.

For me, if I can make a positive difference in the online space, a space that can be so overwhelming, then I feel I am doing my job right! And I love it!

Pinterest is the home of inspiration. I’d love to hear about where you find your inspiration?

I have been Pinning for years, in fact, it started with my mum sending me recipes she found on Pinterest for me to try! I then got into quotes, and homeware and soon after the fashion Pins. I have a real array of content that comes up on my Pinterest because of the wide variety of Pins I Pin. If I see something I like on another platform or website I will then search for something similar on Pinterest and see what comes up, so I guess you could say I source inspiration from all sorts but then bring it back over to my Pinterest to create my inspo boards.

You wrote an amazing blog post that everyone should read, about your recent growth on Pinterest and how you’ve grown from 0 to 800,000 monthly unique viewers. I’d love to hear about what inspired you to start using Pinterest for your business and not just personally?

Sure, so during lockdown I was scrolling through Pinterest, as I always do regularly and just thought it needed a tidy up. My Pins were everywhere and all a bit messy so I decided to create new boards with a focus on certain fashion trends and aesthetics to homeware and wedding inspiration. (I was due to get married this month, but of course, due to COVID it has been postponed). I realised it was an untapped resource for me to show not only inspiration from other Pinners but also my own content from my other social channels and thought I’d give it a go at “cross-pollinating” my platforms. I then became obsessed with building on the new boards I’d created and just really enjoyed coming across new ideas for fashion and my home so kept Pinning every day and that’s when I started to see the growth.

I love all of your styling video Pins on your profile! Do you have any tips for other creators about uploading video to Pinterest?

Ahh thank you! I’d say to keep the videos short and sweet on Pinterest to capture an engaging audience to then watch it in full. I find Pinterest’s “trending this week” tips really good because you can then tailor what it is you’re posting and have a good chance that it will probably be picked up from Pinners and watched multiple times.

You mentioned that you started putting more time into your Pinterest profile. When did you start to see success on your profile and has it had an impact on your business?

As I mentioned briefly above it was during lockdown I really got into pinning consistently and working on trending boards to create more of a reach for my Pinterest profile. I find it a really nice creative outlet to get lost in Pinterest, it’s almost like creating collages at school from cut out pictures from a magazine, it’s just a digital version and I used to love making collages when I was a kid, didn’t you?

I started noticing the impact on what I was Pinning about 3 weeks into using it regularly, it was quick to be honest. I spent time reading up on growth strategies and top tips that Pinterest business hub offers and just found it to be really fun and a new platform to enjoy and put effort into.

What’s the one thing about using Pinterest for your business that you think all Creators should know?

It’s another platform for your content to be seen and heard. Pinners can find you there then migrate over to your other platforms resulting in growth across all platforms you might use. Why limit yourself to just one social media platform right?!

Who are your favourite Pinterest Creators that you think everyone should be following?

So for homeware, which is my current fav board to search and Pin to it would have to be Ariel — PMQ for Two, she is a Canadian based Home Décor & DIY account and loves colour!!! Her kitchen is GOALS!

And also Banyan Bridges who Pins a lot of DIY, remodels and murals all again very colourful!

I also love CazJean, she’s a really cutesey, colourful, vsco type girl and she Pins some lovely pics that you can just get lost in.

What’s the last thing you used Pinterest for personally?

I actually used it last night to follow a recipe my mum had sent me from Allrecipes UK & Ireland, and it was how to make the “best big, fat chew chocolate chip cookies”! They were delicious and a nice easy recipe to follow too! I think if you love baking and cooking, Pinterest is such a go-to for recipes.

Do you have a question that you would like to ask our next Pinterest creator in the series?

Would love to know what it is you love most about Pinterest?

Check out Alex’s Pinterest profile here to see her colourful styling videos and outfit inspiration. Keep your eyes peeled for the next Pinterview to see who our next Creator in the series is and find out their answer to Alex’s question.

For more Pinterviews with our best-in-class Pinterest Creators and more Pinterest tips and tricks, check out the Pinterest Creators Blog and make sure that you’re signed up to the Creator database to hear the latest from us.

Georgia — Pinterest Creator Specialist, currently Pinning to… Autumn feels.