Social Circles

Social Circles Q&A with internet personality Emma Peng

Emma Peng is a social media influencer focusing on lifestyle, food, beauty and fashion. Peng, who speaks fluent English and Chinese, has over 15,000 Instagram followers, 36,700 YouTube subscribers and 446,000 followers on Chinese blogging platform Sina Weibo. Peng began her social media journey during her senior year of high school. Currently, she is a recent University of Florida graduate living in the U.S.

32 | fall 2019 Sparks

Can you briefly introduce yourself? Where are you from and what made you choose UF?

Emma Peng

My name is Emma Peng. I studied marketing for my four years here at UF and I graduated this year in August. I am 22 and from Luoyang in Henan, China. I came to UF as an international student.

Would you consider yourself an “influencer”?

I don’t consider myself an influencer. I’m just a normal person who likes making videos. I do know a lot of people who bought products based on my recommendations or came to UF because they watched my University of Florida vlogs. There are a lot of students who use them as a reference. So, I do know that my videos have influenced people’s decisions. So, maybe that’s an influencer?

Do you consider your social media work more of a hobby or a career?

I In the beginning, I thought [social media] was a career because it was going really well. But right now, I would consider it a hobby because I’m international and having YouTube won’t guarantee me a visa, so I will have to find a permanent job — some type of job that will give me a visa to stay here. And then I will do YouTube on the side as a hobby.

I watch a lot of western YouTubers. My favorite YouTuber is Jaclyn Hill (@jaclynhill). She’s in the beauty industry. And then Kathleen Lights (@ kathleenlights). They were one of the reasons that I came [to Florida]. I look up to them because I started my channel watching them, so I feel connected with them on a personal level. What I look up to is if the person is authentic, genuine and truthful to fans. Sometimes when you watch people’s videos, you can tell that they are being paid to say whatever. I like those influencers who share real experiences.

You post content both in Chinese and English. What is it like working in social media as a bilingual person? What are the challenges of addressing a multilingual audience?

There are so many challenges. It’s crazy. The challenges are mainly a group of people only want me to consistently post English videos without subtitles, so they can practice their English. Also, my American friends say to post more videos in English. YouTube is mainly English users. There are people who want me to post English, and there are people who want me to post in Chinese.

Also, when I post in English, some people think that I don’t love my country because I’m not speaking Chinese. They attack me for making English videos, and they say, “You’re Chinese, why are you not speaking Chinese? Your audience is all Chinese, so why are you speaking English?”

What are the benefits of addressing a multilingual audience?

I think it’s a unique niche in the industry because there are not many YouTubers making both kinds of videos. It is either a Chinese girl making only Chinese videos. It’s great content, but there’s not much English content. Or, it’s just like Jenn Im (@imjennim). She’s Asian but she only makes English videos. So, I feel like I have both and can get different audiences from different markets. How do you balance social media and your other responsibilities?

Before, when I was an undergrad, it was actually really easy to balance. I would work one or two days, less than 20 hours. I had a lot of time to edit, so it wasn’t too bad. The only hard time was when I would run out of ideas or just feel kind of down because I had been making videos for so long. Otherwise, it was pretty easy to keep up with making videos. Right now, I work in human resources almost full-time. The only time I have to make videos are at night, but the lighting is not good. Artificial lighting just does not look good. On the weekends, I spend time with my boyfriend and friends, so I don’t have time [to make videos].

Do you have personal experience with brand deals?

I have definitely gotten sponsored in the past couple years I have done YouTube. I watch a lot of YouTube videos, so I know a lot of brands that try to contact me. For example, Zaful, Shein, those are the very common types of companies that sponsor YouTubers. I have gotten a lot of offers from them but have taken only one Zaful and Shein. Their quality of clothing isn’t the best; it’s hit or miss. So, after one promotion video, they continued to reach out to me, but I just never responded. I know that I don’t want my followers to get a hit-or-miss item. I do background checks on the company. I look up their website, look at their Instagram, look at other people who have made videos with them, try out products first. Also, I accept sponsorships that are related to my channel.

What is your opinion on the controversy surrounding “sell-out culture”? Is there potential harm in the over-commercialization of social media platforms?

The mainstream beauty community uses way too many products. I stopped watching them because every other day, they pull out a new palette, and they all look the same. No one has money to buy all those. It’s just the beauty content. I feel like the beauty industry is too overwhelming. Every company is coming out with something every day, so it’s too hard to keep up. But looking at other types of YouTube videos like cooking stuff and house cleaning or lifestyle channels, I think they are doing just fine. They’re not pushing people to buy any products.

Do you network with other social media influencers?

Right now in Gainesville, not really because there’s not many. But in China, I do have a lot of influencer friends. I don’t think of them as my close friends. I learned my lesson the hard way. Different people have different intentions of why they want to be friends with you. They might just want to be your friend or seem like they’re close to you, so they can get the clout or so they can get subscribers from you. It sounds stupid, but it happens. People are like that. They’re not genuine; they don’t want to be friends with you because you are a nice person. They want to be friends with you because of the numbers you have. Also, when people are doing well in their career, they will forget about people who are not doing as well. So, I don’t have any close, real friends from my social media.

What’s your usual routine for creating a YouTube video?

If it’s a vlog type, and I’m just filming what I do, I pick up a camera and film whatever I think is interesting. There’s not much planning to do. Editing-wise, I have my own editing style, and it’s a combination of who I watch. People think other influencers copy certain influencers, but it’s so hard not to learn from someone.

So, the other type of content will be the sitdown type, where you just talk to people, answer questions or talk about a topic. Those require you to plan, like write down exactly what you’re talking about, products you’re recommending, do research on the product and write it down. So that is the planning part. Then for the filming part, you just film and refer to the notes. And then I edit my videos usually on the same day or the next day. It usually takes about, if there’s no subtitles, three to four hours. If there’s subtitles, six hours. So around three to six hours. Then, after I edit them, I upload on my YouTube, put it on private, and then when on private, I make the thumbnail, title and comment in the description box.

Do you have any advice for young people interested in growing their social media presence?

My advice is to review, think about and ask other people’s opinion before you post certain content. Don’t just post it because you don’t know what things might be offensive to someone. Let’s just use an easy example: Logan Paul (@loganpaul). He might think his videos are okay, but if he would let other people review them before he posts them, he would avoid a lot of problems. So I would say, whatever you post — whether video or Instagram — get it reviewed first by someone, get someone else’s opinion before you post it, so you don’t mess up.

What has been your biggest challenge of working in social media?

The least rewarding feeling would be when you’re working really hard, and you don’t see results. It is kind of sad for me to say that I care about numbers, but everyone cares about if they reached a goal. Sometimes, I really like a certain piece of content that I made, but I did not receive the views I wanted. I’ll look at my views and be like, “Oh, this one will definitely be a viral video,” but it’s not. You never know what exactly people are looking for.

On the other hand, what has been the most rewarding part of working in social media?

The most rewarding thing is the fact that I know that I created something from nothing. And just to see this thing grow. Even though now I’m kind of letting it die, not really doing anything about it, it is something that I built all on my own. I did have help, but everyone when they start has some sort of help, so I’m proud to see this thing grow. And also, it’s really rewarding when people come up to you and say, “Your videos help me a lot,” or I get a message saying, “Just continue being you, don’t worry about what other people say, I still support you.” When I get that kind of message, it’s really rewarding to see that my actions, that what you I’m, is influencing one or two or a lot of people.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ASIAN AMERICAN STUDENT UNION at the University of Florida ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICAN AFFAIRS at the University of Florida University of Florida STUDENT GOVERNMENT