Kim Kardashian Rules the World
I’d like to start this off with I’ve never really understood the Kardashians but somehow they always manage to suck me in. Kylie’s pregnancy rumours? I was on the edge of my seat for months and I don’t even care about her life. Kim’s earring in the ocean meme will never fail to make me smile. The whole Tristan Thompson cheating on Khloe drama? I’ve never kept so up to date on celebrity happenings than I do with the Kardashians, and I know I’m not the only one.
The Kardashians are a brand, and every great brand is lead by a “great exhilirator”. While Kris Jenner may be to thank for getting the Kardashian ball rolling, Kim is the great exhilirator, she has been at the forefront of the Kardashian family and has been credited with starting the “Kardashian craze” we all take part in.
I took a look into Kim Kardashian’s social media presence and while she seems ditzy on the outside, I assure you she has you wrapped around her little maniacal finger. More than anything else, she is known for her figure and you can bet your bottom dollar she is fully aware of that fact. She creates the content that her followers want to see, with a lot of it also advertising her own products such as those from her beauty and fragrance lines, as well as articles she’s posted to her website (most of which you have to subscribe to her website in order to read). Kim is aware of her strengths as an influencer and plans her social media posts accordingly.
Quick overview:
Instagram — 110 million followers
Unsurprisingly, her Instagram account has more followers than any of her other social media accounts. Kim K, much like the rest of us, is also trying to keep a cohesive instagram aesthetic — a problem experienced by people of all social classes apparently.
Instagram is Kim’s outlet to give her followers a slightly deeper look into her personal life, including selfies, family photos and vacation pics. Most of her photos are professionally taken which means she always posts high quality photos.
Twitter — 59.7 million followers
Kim’s Twitter account is a close second in follow count, with just over half of the followers she holds on Instagram. Kim uses it a lot more for self promotion, by posting articles from her website, links to her shops, and every now and then the occasional life update. As someone who wouldn’t consider herself a Kardashian fan, I’m bored by her Twitter — it’s all advertisement and not enough original, personal content to keep me intrigued. However, her interactions on twitter are enough to keep my attention, she does have a very basic sense of humour.
Facebook — 30 million likes
Kim K’s Facebook is the mixed content of her Twitter and Instagram, with half as many posts. It’s about the same level of personability that I would expect from any other person on Facebook. Most of her posts include some kind of media whether it’s a link, a photo or a video which is good for engagement.
Youtube — 1,145,753 subscribers
Kim’s Youtube consists mostly of videos promoting her beauty and fragrance shops, and short trailers for longer videos you can find on her app or her blog. All of her videos lead you to a purchase point, whether it’s buying her products or subscribing to her blog which is a smart business move but also makes me feel more distant.
Blog
Kim’s personal branding blog has links to her shops, articles on her beauty habits, private home videos, behind the scenes content and a section she’s labelled as “favs”, including quizzes and other articles she feels particularly strongly about.
Content
All of her content concerns herself or her family — she keeps an extremely cohesive brand image, true to the Kardashian name. A lot of her content is relevant to her businesses although she does also post about her family and friends. After having gone through all her social media at once, I will say I’m a little disinterested. All of the content she posts on her main three social media is the same and after I’ve looked at one, I don’t really need to look at the others.
I think this point is what makes her Instagram game so strong — if she’s mostly posting photos to her other social media, why wouldn’t I just look at Instagram, the media meant for sharing pictures. Kim Kardashian is known for her visual appearance and thus not posting pictures would just be silly. Fortunately enough for her, most people are visual learners which is playing to her strengths.
Brand partnerships
While Kim Kardashian does have her own line of products, she’s also been known to feature other products from time to time. In 2016, Forbes reported that Kim Kardashian would make upwards of $300,000 on one Instagram ad. She’s sponsored many different beauty and appearance products, and partnered with many brands for her own beauty line and for events. It is widely known that partnering your brand with a Kardashian is almost a guarantee that your product will sell out because the Kardashians have such involved and loyal followers.
Kim(eme)
Kim becoming a meme may be her greatest claim to fame for those who aren’t die hard fans. It’s hard to go through the years with the whole world watching and not have some meme-quality moments. As I said above, the earring in the ocean moment will always be my #1 but the crying Kim meme has become fairly popular in recent years. Now I never pegged Kim to be the kind of person to laugh along while people were making fun of her but she’s teamed up with a company to bring the online store “Kimoji”, which most notably sells “cry face” iPhone cases. However they also sell a collection of Kim related items, such a variety of butt shaped items, pins, clothing items and even rolling papers. The memes never end, and she’s managed to turn them into a business ordeal.
And the drama just keeps coming…
Kim’s aptitude for drama has definitely helped escalate her fame over the years, which have only increased her mentions on social media where people go to let the world hear their opinion on the matter. From her reality show, to her three marriages, to her cosmetic enhancements, there’s always something happening in the Kardashian world that keeps her name relevant.
Why is Kim Kardashian’s social media worth examining? She’s at the head of a business empire and she’s one of the most followed people of all time, all because of a leaked sex tape that shot her to become infamous. How CRAZY is that?? It must have taken so many carefully thought out business moves which also makes me think that all the Kardashians are insanely smart, making money from our likes. The majority of her career has taken place online as a social media influencer, to the point where I’d say she may have been at the forefront of the rise of the influencer. To gain such a consistently growing mass of followers over the years must mean she’s doing something right and as far as I can see, it’s because she knows her audience well and delivers with the content that they want to see. She knows her strengths are her physical features and she plays them to her own advantage. She’s keeping her followers engaged and active by posting media and interactive content like quizzes to her streams. She does a lot of things and she tells people.
