Zoe: Yeah we post like three times a day, we post at 10, we post at 2 and we post at 8 ish, depending. Um, and loads of people unfollowed us, but obviously it could be external factors, but I do think that it is the pandemic, like people are deactivating, and then we will get a random day where we get loads of followers so its like people are reactivating their accounts on a Sunday. Emily: Yeah okay that’s good. Um so then I found some research that suggests that there has been a growing trend in social media detoxing like you said, so that’s following on from like a change in consumer attitudes towards social media, so do you think this poses any threat to the future of marketing on social media for you? Zoe: Umm, not really just because our target audience is like a millennial girl, who loves fast fashion and is text savvy so our girl is somebody that will go on social media, like that’s our target audience so obviously if we were branching out to older people maybe like even 30. 40, then it’s like, ok, maybe we need to either change up our Facebook or think of different marketing. But social media is the most efficient, like sustainable way, like we don’t waste any paper with flyers, or anything like that, and we’re guaranteed reach and we can see stats, so I don’t think it will ever change with social media. Emily: Yeah, maybe if someone had a different demographic they might be in trouble but I think obviously with young girls… Zoe: It probably will always stay, like influencers are so big like we’ve seen a massive, well I’ve seen a massive increase in agencies that contact us, because literally there are agencies popping up everywhere, like from like really macro to micro agencies with like four influencers to five hundred influencers, and they’re just popping up from everywhere because everyone wants to manage influencers because they’re so big right now, but then because there are so many agencies, I can’t see it dying down because there is such a buzz around like agencies, influencers and stuff like that. Emily: So do you think it’s moving more away from sponsored posts and more towards just influencers with Instagram? Zoe: Yeah, we don’t really do many sponsored posts because like I’m sure you’ll agree but when I see a sponsored post I know they’ve been paid loads of money for it, where as when I see a girl in like Boohoo or Hidden Fashion, they’re just posing in it, it’s more like well they’ve chosen the item, they want to style it, and not that they’ve been paid two grand for a post. Emily: Ah ok, and that’s quite a lot cheaper as well isn’t it? Zoe: Oh it’s so much, well, if, most of Hidden’s is gifted, but obviously we do pay as well. Emily: Yeah. So say hypothetically the recent trends in social detoxing did effect Hidden Fashion, how would you adjust your social media marketing content to sustain your position? Zoe: We’d have to adjust I think and start paying more macro influencers because they’re not going anywhere like, Emily Shak, Jess Hunt, they aren’t going anywhere, Molly Mae. So you’d have to, I think, put loads of money into it because if the micro’s are detoxing, the macro’s won’t detox because if they detox then that is it really, like they lose the buzz and they’ll be on so much money a post, so then they’ll lose it and obviously once they lose it then people will overtake them. So you’d just have to start paying more money.
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Pandemic influence Account deactivation Account reactivation Increased followers Marketing strategy Negative pandemic effects
Evaluation of social media engagement No threat Social media sustainability Social platform reliability Consumer as driving force Social media marketing effects
Social media durability Increase in influencers
Marketing strategy Use of influencers Consumer trust
Marketing expense
Use of influencers Marketing expense
