Interview With Jade Rogers

The brief for this task was to interview an Instagram Influencer to understand how important the social platform can be in implementing a successful digital marketing strategy.

Jade Rogers is a content creator and Instagram Influencer based in the southwest. As well as her personal account, she managers social media for Taste of Bath and is an events manager at Wolf Wine.

Do you think that Instagram is an important social platform for a successful marketing strategy? Why?

Personally, I would say that social media is very important when it comes to a successful marketing strategy. The use of Twitter, Facebook or Instagram for marketing on social media is key for success. Whether it’s marketing yourself or a business, knowing and using social media is the most important thing you could be doing. The fact that Instagram has over 100 million users at your fingertips is surreal. Even with the best marketing, you can’t reach all of these people, but that figure is incredible.

What would you say is your number one strategy, personally, for maintaining your digital presence?

From what I've seen, using social media has been vital to businesses. It’s the new form of advertising, and it can really work! Businesses often approach influencers or social media marketers such as myself to build new audiences; offering complimentary products, meals or services in return for social media postings. Businesses can be sceptical of arrangements like this. However, the key to a successful social media influencer collaboration is to really look into who they're using, looking into their insights, styling and interactions with other businesses. When I'm approached for this kind of service, I try to do the best work I possibly can for them with a sort of checklist.

• Ensure they know my style, my warm tones aren't for everyone.

• Get them to actually look at my feed, highlights and captions.

• Know exactly what they expect of me in advance; how many photos I should share on my grid and story.

• Set a time frame of posting. I like to make sure my work is perfect so if items are gifted, I'll give a time scale of about one to two weeks to ensure I have photographed and edited images.

• Send copies of the images for the business to use as needed.

In terms of my use of social media marketing, I think for me it started as just something I was doing for fun. It soon became a tool that unlocked a whole world of opportunities. It’s something that I enjoyed for years without realising it could be a job. I've always taken pride in the photos I post, making sure they match previous images and flow nicely if someone was to scroll through my Instagram feed. I think, for me, it has always been really important to have a scrollable feed. I think in terms of maintaining a digital presence, I like to only post things I love to create authenticity. This helps people to relate.

What advice would you give to those looking to grow their platform?

I think with growing your platform, it’s always been my goal to grow a following of people who are interested in travel, food and local living. I really want to showcase businesses I love, and often they re-post my content in return. I've found this process really works in gaining genuine – and like-minded – followers, which is the most importation thing for me. I really don't have a huge following in the grand scheme of things, but buying followers and likes is a total no-go zone for me. I believe that everyone who clicked follow on my account genuinely chose to follow me; whether it’s because of my chosen subjects, styling or collaborations. Consistency in what I'm posting, as well as actually planning my content, has been really vital to creating my own personal brand.

As well as my personal account, I run social media for Taste of Bath, who create gorgeous hampers using Bath-based produce. You can see from their feed that I have used my own style, but with a twist for business. It was really important for me to work with Taste of Bath’s branding but to also give it my own signature spin. Running an account such as Taste of Bath has allowed me to see both sides of social media marketing and has given me insights into how to collaborate with brands and what they actually require from influencer marketing.

The key tips I'd have are:

• Keep consistency in your content.

• Make your feed is scrollable and interesting.

• It doesn't happen overnight, it takes lots of work; photo shoots, planning, emailing businesses, scheduling, but it'll get there!

• Collaboration or not – support things you love, you never know where it might lead.

• You can be your own brand. I've used my Instagram as a CV on several occasions and it worked – never underestimate your ‘gram and how important it can be!

• When collaborating, keep the plan clear and simple.

• Have fun with your Instagram; it can be a business, it can lead to opportunities but show the real you!

Image Credit: https://www.instagram.com/jadetigers/?hl=en