The day Suzy Bae took over my Twitter
Social media is a strange beast. It has been a second nature part of my life for quite a few years, but it still manages to throw up a few surprises.
I spend a large amount of my time – both personal and professional – on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For the first two of those I am fairly confident with what will work and what won’t. But Twitter is a strange beast and that is what I really love about it.
Twitter is, to those who live and work on social media, a bit like how I imagine the sea can be for the more aquatically-minded among us; a source of wonder, information and adventure one moment and a tsunami of madness the next.
Despite lots of experience and time put in, Twitter still manages to surprise me every now and again. Some days a tweet which I had great confidence in will go unnoticed and other times one I had not thought much about will blow up.
That happened to me today. But it has given me physical evidence of the power of the internet’s most sought-out beings – influencers.
Yesterday I wrote a story at work about South Korean artist and singer Suzy Bae attending the opening of a new Lancôme shopping activation in Seoul.
I popped off a brilliantly crafted and poetic tweet which went as follows:
South Korean actress and musician Suzy Bae was first on my 'to write about' list as I got into the office today. She joined @LancomeUK Travel Retail Asia Pacific's team for the launch of a new brand at @shinsegaedf bit.ly/2AHi25C
Inspiring stuff, right?
At the moment my Twitter is still pinging away – more than 24 hours later – with people liking and retweeting it.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do understand the reaction. Suzy Bae, for the uninitiated, is a singer and actress who was once a member of K-pop group Miss A and usually goes by the mononym Suzy.
Since hitting mainstream success in 2013 she has become one of the most in-demand endorsers in Korea and made more than 10 billion won (about £7 million) in 2013 from about 14 endorsement deals.
If you are wondering what an “influencer” looks like ladies and gentlemen, it is this.
Now I know celebrity endorsements are nothing new. They have been going on for years and are a popular way for brands to launch new products and boost existing ones.
Lifestyle is the new secret to selling. Particularly in the cosmetics and fashion worlds.
If Instagram, Twitter and Weibo are the worlds we now live in, then a celebrity with millions of followers and an enviable lifestyle is the key to success for a brand.
It is not something which should surprise us. Today’s society wants quick fixes and flash fame. Reality TV allows people to grab stardom in a moment and people want their moment.
If they think an item will make them more like Suzy then they want it. More than if they read all about it or see a big picture of it on a bus. Guaranteed.
But the search for flash fame and the internet’s ability to give it has created the rise of another influencer – those without a famous face but with the brains and drive to make themselves relevant in the digital world.
The social media influencers.
If you don’t follow them then you probably don’t know who they are, but they are a constant subject of conversation among those I speak to at work.
They are people you could sit next to on a bus and not recognize, but brands will fall over themselves to get them onside, because a word from them can send a story stratospheric online.
Does it pan out in big sales?
Probably not always, but it builds hype. And in today’s world hype is success and hype is money.
So, with that said, my Suzy Bae tweet is still pinging round the internet and I’m off to ask for a raise – before everyone forgets about it and moves on.
Photos and video courtesy of Mercury PR and Lancôme