A Social Media Queen, Alisha Marie.
Here I am sitting on my bed ready to write my next RTA blog. I get a little notification on my phone that one of my favorite YouTubers, Alisha Marie, has just posted a video. So, what do I do? I do what most millennials do, drop everything to catch Alisha’s latest video. Now not ALL millennials will drop everything they’re doing to watch their favorite entertainer, many people can agree with me.
Except for “I’m too Addicted To Youtube” who was late because Shane uploaded…. Which brings me to my next point, YouTubers are a huge deal now! They go on worldwide tours, sell merchandise, have meet and greets and even walk red carpets. One of my personal favorite YouTubers who I started watching when she used to be ‘macbby11’. Alisha has accomplished many things as a YouTuber, she has signed a deal with the United Talent Agency. She has been on tour around America in her 2016 “Girls Night” tour and has been featured in Guidance a TV series featuring many influencers. Her love for pastel pink and bubbly personality have brought her a long way to where she is today.
1. Her following:
Now Alisha Marie has over 7.1 million YouTube subscribers (another 2.7 million on her Vlog channel), 5.25 million Twitter followers and 3.6 million Instagram followers. Can we take a second to realize that she has about 18.5 million followers on her social platforms combined! Her brand is characterized by minimalistic photos with plenty of pastels and a girly flare. She is known for prank/hack videos, routine videos, and haul videos. Besides being the #Queen of YouTube, how did Alisha experience her success?
2. Storytelling:
Taking it back to the first class of RTA, one of the key lessons from this class is that “storytelling is the fundamental unit of human understanding”. I cannot think of a better way to describe Alisha Marie than a storyteller. She has her own brand, her own persona and brings her fans/viewers along with her for the ride. Referring to her Vlog channel especially, she brings you along with her when she goes shopping when she’s with friends and even on brand trips (although she definitely paid for this!). If you notice from her uploads, she tends to post more general videos who can relate to everyone like the “9 Travel Life Hacks + How to Pack for Vacation”, but if you follow her over to her Vlog channel, you get to experience her life beyond that packing list, you can experience the vacation with her.
3. Embracing her meme’s :
We all know now that memes are an art and NOT a science (thank god for being in an art major) and all it takes is one successful photo with some text to get thousands of retweets. Alisha Marie fully embraces her memes and can even go as far as making videos making fun of her old photos, we all love a sassy #relateable queen.
This brings me to authenticity, Google did a study finding that 70% of teens admit they can relate to YouTube Influencers more than traditional celebrities. Youtuber’s have a relationship with their audience and drive more engagement then your classic celebrities. For example, in every main channel video, Alisha Marie makes sure to say “hey guys” and “welcome back to my channel”, giving her audience a sense of family. I like to think of Alisha Marie like the new Bethany Mota, the version where sponsorships didn’t take over her entire channel and change her opinion on everything.
4. Planned or canned content?
Upon learning about planned/original and canned content, I forced myself to think of it in terms of journalism, like Buzzfeed and BlogTO. After analyzing Alisha Marie’s YouTube success, I noticed that she has two separate channels with two separate types of content.
Her main channel carries more of the planned content, her routine videos, her prank/hack videos and just generally the content which is for views. These videos cater to a wide audience and tend to get most of her views/likes. However, if you move over to Alisha’s other channel, AlishaMarieVlogs you notice she gets more personal, you can see Alisha without makeup chilling in sweatpants, honestly content I can relate too on the daily.
Although the two channels do often crossover in the type of content, the majority of her main channel is filled with planned while the majority of her vlog channel is filled with original content and that is one of the reasons Alisha Marie is so successful, she has capitalized on both the markets. Above I have a screenshot of her main channel videos and their titles vs. the second screenshot of her vlog channel with her more creative/personal content.
She is obviously not the only YouTuber who has done this, many others have separate channels, I think she is one of the content creators who runs both channels successful with great consistency. By consistency, I refer to the way in which the videos are edited, the lengths of the videos (canned content is typically shorter) and the amount of interaction she has with her audience.
Alisha Marie also does an amazing job with video fundamentals. She has amazing video quality, she films with a great camera, always has a mic on her and edits to perfection. She also always seems to add text to her thumbnails. This isn’t anything new, most YouTuber’s do this, but as discussed in the next point, even her text matches her aesthetic (pink pastel with a girlie typeface). She manages to capture the keywords of the video or at least give the viewer an idea what the video will be like without even watching it. Something that I can toughly appreciate is the fact that Alisha never uses clickbait, Tana Mogeau could take some notes!!! #ATrueQueen
5. She’s clearly got an “aesthetic”:
Every company has it, a brand aesthetic. Brandy Melville is known for their slim (mostly white) blonde girls with perfect skin. James Charles is known for sisters, snatched nose contour and bold block brows. Alisha Marie is known for her classic white acrylics, pastel colour scheme and cute girly graphic editing style. A quick glance at Alisha’s Instagram her clean white and pastel theme. She typically ranges from 200–300K likes and seems to post photos from her highlight reel rather than your typical YouTuber with Hootsuite scheduled posts as only posts every 3–4 days. What makes Alisha stand out is her consistently throughout all her vlogs, videos and socials. Her Twitter is pictured here as the added example, she keeps a very reliable brand and you know whether you are going through her Instagram or watching her latest trending video, you will see the same Alisha.
6. Give them what they want:
A common trend on YouTube right now is “I let my subscribers choose my…”. It originally started with Safiya Nygaard, where she let her subscribers choose her next hair color then spiraled to James Charles who let his subscribers choose his makeup. Followed by Alisha Marie who also let her subscribers pick whose makeup tutorial to follow. As many know, one of the keys to being successful in social media marketing is “treating your audience like gold; consistently create content they care about”. Alisha Marie is no stranger to this strategy, she often tweets asking her subscribers what they want to see. I can’t even lie, I have replied once or twice because who doesn’t want their favorite YouTuber to film something they requested??? It’s like winning the YouTube lottery.
She even includes Instagram polls and cards/end screens in her YouTube videos to encourage action. Alisha does an amazing job at giving her viewers what they want, whether that be in the form of a new collab, a new series or just a couple tweets asking for her viewer’s opinions. She is truly a social media mastermind!
Alisha Marie has essentially created a social media empire. I have much respect for her as an influencer because she is one of the only Youtuber’s that I have watched since the start that has not turned into a completely sponsored mess (I wish I could @ Bethany Mota on Medium!!). She does sponsored posts, she goes on brand trips and gets sent plenty of PR packages, but in the eyes of the viewer, she remains unbiased. Myself, along with many others can count on her opinion and can turn to her channel for honest reviews. Although that’s not the only reason I follow Alisha Marie.
She is amazing YouTuber, she is hardworking, dedicated and gives the audience what THEY want to see. Unlike some other famous lifestyles guru’s, Alisha seems trustworthy and is very picky when it comes to sponsorships and ads. None the less, Alisha SLAYS the social media game and can be defined as one of the top beauty/lifestyle influencers. None the less, Alisha is a hardworking woman and as long as she keeps up with her engagement, video quality, and social media mastery, she will take the influencer world by storm!
Sources:
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/under30network/2017/06/20/why-youtube-stars-influence-millennials-more-than-traditional-celebrities/#6612369648c6
- https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/alisha-marie.html
- https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MjKhWFUe8Bpg8LG0MjhPj0PdZzalndzdI-4mzI_DBCU/edit#slide=id.g3141eb1f87_0_254
- https://trendingallday.com/alisha-marie-just-hit-7-million/
