The Internet Broke Because of Kim K
When I think about who has the most social media influence right now the first person who pops in my mind is Kim Kardashian West. The world refers to her as “The Queen of social media” because she has clearly mastered social media. Between having her makeup line, Kimoji app, Kimoji merchandise, an app, and much more, she has managed to dominate every social platform with her brand. It is evident that through her successful impact she truly understands how to utilize social media, and this new marketing wave.
I want to throw it back to 14 years ago when the first season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians aired. Kim’s brand along with her sisters consisted of just a retail store called Dash. The reason for doing the show in the beginning was to use it as a way to promote their store. The show is really the reason for the whole family’s brand. Fast forward 14 years later to 2018, Kim has more followers then TV ratings. In 2004 there was no social media, Kim and her sisters had to rely on their reality show to get attract consumers. The show was limited in the sense that they could only market so much at the time because social media had not come into play. Since the rise of social media Kim’s career has been based off it, and has led to many opportunities due to her platform online.
There are many factors that have contributed to her fame and success on social media, but I would say that the most vital factor to her brand is her image. There is much fascination and obsession over her appearance. Kim is a California girl, but does not exactly fit the stereotypical look of a California girl. Kim has olive skin, brown eyes, brown hair, and is curvy. Her beauty does not exactly “fit” with what society typically defines as beautiful, yet Kim has managed to leverage off this difference of body type. Her followers are intrigued by her beauty, clothes, and lifestyle. I think the world is interested for that matter. She can post her everyday selfie, or she can post vacation pictures, outfit pictures, family, but the most controversial are her nude photos. Everything she posts on social media is what regular people post day-to-day, but the difference is Kim has managed to “monetized the act of living.” The curiosity with her lifestyle has built her a huge following, and from that different businesses have developed from her brand and image. Kim uses her social media as a commercial for each business, which is where the success lies. Her makeup line and perfumes for example, is sold via e-commerce and advertised through her social media. I remember in 2012 when I lined up to see her at the Hudson’s Bay for her perfume line, and seeing tons of people awaiting her and the release of her fragrance. The money that was put into advertising and marketing for just one perfume bottle was probably 100’s of thousands of dollars at the time.
Due to the how Kim uses social media, now the costs are much lower, and exposure is much higher which is key for her business. Along with how she shows off the highlights of her life style, when someone follows or consumes Kim’s products there is an image associated with purchasing her stuff. The idea that if you buy her contour sticks, you’ll look more like her, or if she subscribe to her app you’ll have an insider look on her “amazing” life, you’ll know the secrets on how to be like her. Her success thrives off her ability to connect with like-minded who share an interest in her self brand. Those people’s filter bubbles is her market. Her followers, as I can speak for myself when I say feel a connection with her through her social media presence.
Her engagement with her followers via social media is another key to her social media strategy. The content that she puts out does have a wow factor to it, then it filters through all platforms including television and news. The effect of that is people are engaged with her online activity regardless if they like her or not. I know people who totally disagree with how she got famous, and believe she has no talent, but will still buy her makeup, and other products, so Kim stays winning at the end of the day. Kim says one of the most important things about building a brand is listening. She wants her fans to be involved, and that is actually a strategy that got the social media ball rolling. She realized that social media is a communication tool, and she wanted to use that as an opportunity to get feedback with her fans on projects she was doing. Being able to use her fans as a focus group, via the internet was a strength for her brand. Her fans and followers are also her consumers so she wants to let them make decisions on future items that will belong to them. Kim said in an interview with Forbs magazine that she specifically uses twitter to engage with people. She said: “ I love the conversation with people. I think what people don’t do enough in their brands I think people love to promote but for me i listen a lot and I love that conversation with the people that I follow and really take their advice its the most amazing focus group and I love that on twitter you can have that conversation back and forth.”
She uses snapchat to show her everyday life, but recently uses it mainly to market her KKW beauty line. She sometimes will be in factory, so she will snapchat the whole process to allow the followers to see into that world.
Kim definitely shows off her world on social media, and she understands that there is pressure to post which gets difficult. There is definitely an upkeep with having to always put out content for the whole world to see. With trying to maintain a huge brand that is on a global scale it comes with the issue of lacking privacy. The major innocent that altered Kim’s social media usage completely was her robbery that occurred in Paris. The guys who robbed her at gunpoint were following her on social media, watching her every move. She was showing off her jewellery, they knew she was in paris, when she got there, where she was, and who she was with. All this information that came from social media. Following this traumatic incident she totally pulled back on social media. People questioned if her brand would be able to take this pull back. Kim’s clothes, vacations , and overall flashy lifestyle makes up her image and brand, so for her to not show off her things, and where she goes completely shifted her brands angle. During that time people did wonder how it would impact a brand that is so social media focused. I had no doubts at the time because Kim created something to a such a magnitude that she is able to take a step back and allow the fans to come to her and take interest. In business there is the theory of supply and demand which was relevant in this case of Kim ghosting the internet. People will seek her out more if the demand is low. People were anticipating what her return would be and when it would be. The fans and the world were eager for content and missed her.
Social media has played a major role in Kim’s fame, success and influence. After her temporary break from social media I started to realize how powerful she is. Kim fills the world in on her life so much that her style and looks form trends in our culture, which is a prominent component to her brand. If you hadn’t seen the Yeezy Season 6 ad’s all over social media you may have slightly been living under a rock. This innovative marketing strategy that was created for her husbands brand which to me is the climax of highlighting her impact over the years. This campaign is a way to prove her major influence, power, and platform. It also gives a glimpse into the future of new methods of using social media in respects to influencers promoting, and marketing brands. In a way it shows how she contributed to starting it all because really everyone looks to Kim when it comes to social media because as I said before “she’s the Queen.”
Different platforms are shifting with the ways content is distributed. Before big stories about celebrity scandals would come out in a tabloid. Now all Kim’s big announcements are communicated through social media so they are articulated in the way she chooses because she now has that control. There is less leaking of information like pregnancies, and marriages. All the gossip can be exposed in real time on Twitter Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. Most of the information comes directly from Kim.
I started this post by giving context to how she was able to launch her brand so far. It did originally begin with Keeping up with the Kardashians. Kim and her families role In popular culture due to the show has made it possible where they could stop filming today, but can easily still build their empire further because of social media. Kim once said in an interview with 60 minutes that “I totally attribute my career to social media.” She understands what content will go viral and she uses it to her advantage. The time where she posted the “when you have nothing to wear” nude photo, exposed Taylor swift, or posted hundreds of selfies that then turned into her own selfie book, along with so much more is why she is the queen of publicity. Kim once said “Social media is the most important tool to building your brand,” she said. “Social media requires you to be authentic and listen, especially when it comes to building your brand.” Thus I will conclude with the phrase that was once said about her which was “Kim Kardashian breaks the internet.” This means that she has the ability to use the internet to create conversation, engage with followers, and attract attention from mass audiences with her self-brand. For Kim this means “maximizing social media hype and make [herself] the centre of attention”. Kim Kardashian has mastered this like nobody else, which is why she is the queen.
