Click the link to view my longform article on the impact Instagram has on journalism, published on Shorthand, or read the copy below.
By Leah Clifton
Whilst a lot of us, myself included, remember the anxious wait for our monthly dose of fashion, teens growing up in the age of social media are regularly updated with the latest trends as soon as they emerge. Prior to the social media boom fashion was reported to the public via glossy magazines and catwalk shows, but fast-forward to 2020 and the story is very different.
Instagram influencers (once referred to as bloggers) are shaping the fashion world, changing not only the way fashion is reported, but also shared and consumed. Consumers no longer look to the latest issue of Vogue but instead rely on influencers to post and create the latest trends. The latest study carried out by MarketingWeek.com show that one in three Instagram users have bought an item of clothing they discovered through following fashion accounts or influencers. Love it or loathe it, Instagram is here to stay.
The platform hosting over 1 billion users has become an essential medium within the fashion industry. It’s evident that print magazines do not hold the power they once did. Consumers are constantly looking for the next best thing thus meaning monthly magazines simply can’t keep up with consumer demand, especially as social media is infiltrated with new content constantly.
The sheer number of influencers on Instagram allows consumers to pick and chose the content they want to see. No longer is there a need to buy a physical copy of a magazine, or even visit a publications website when there are a plethora of influencers posting content that is fragmented and tailored to our specific needs and personal aesthetic, all which can be accessed on one application.
The fashion industry is everything but consistent, with trends coming and going yearly, monthly and even weekly. One day it’s tiny handbags the next it’s oversized sunglasses. But one thing that has remained is the influencers who continue to dominate Instagram.
Over the past couple of years Instagram influencers have slowly began to overtake celebrities, especially with their large followings spanning into the millions. These seemingly normal people make it easy for an audience to relate to and high fashion, once published in magazines, that seemed purely aspirational, has now become somewhat accessible.
Trends were once determined by fashion shows held by designers and later reported in print magazines by fashion journalists, however nowadays an increasing number of trends are created on Instagram. As technology improves and audiences become more dependant on social media, it isn’t surprising that this is the case – but how exactly have influencers become so popular and why?
To really understand how influencers have such authority on Instagram, you have to think of its growth. Since its release in 2010 the social media’s users have tripled to almost 2.7 billion people globally, making it one of the fastest growing apps of all time. Unexpectedly whilst some users remained at a couple hundred followers of mainly friends and family, others gained them by the thousands earning them the title of an influencer.
This growth in followers, of course, could be for many reasons – seemingly entering the Love Island villa if even for only five minutes of airtime is a guaranteed ticket to the influencer lifestyle. However ‘self-made’ influencers are known to be successful through their use of hashtags, consistency, and collaborations with brands to help find their own audience that will keep coming back for more.
Think of it like this. If there’s a hierarchy of Instagram users, influencers are undoubtedly at the top. Now being at the top of a hierarchy would make influencers the most popular group of people on Instagram, hence the name – they influence people, and because of their typically large following when they post something the masses share, like and comment. So essentially, it doesn’t matter how influencers acquire followers as long as they have an audience who will continue to engage with their content time and time again.
It’s these engagements that push brands to spend their money on collaborations with influencers, rather than paying for advertisements in magazines. Some of 2020’s biggest names aren’t conventional celebrities, instead they’re influencers whose accounts are admired by thousands and even millions of people online.
Take Love Islander Molly-Mae Hague for example. Accumulating nearly 5 million followers since her appearance on the show, only a year ago, it’s fair to say she’s one of the biggest influencers on the platform. Seeing influencers changing the game in the fashion industry and just how devoted an audience can be to these Instagrammers, many fashion brands have begun collaborating with them to increase brand awareness and push sales.
The difference between fashion in print magazines and on Instagram (aside from the obvious) is the level of engagement from an audience. Social media has made it so much easier to engage with content through likes and comments, which simply can’t happen when reading a physical copy of a magazine.
As we know, less consumers nowadays respond to the traditional media advertising in print magazines which has led to the increase in collaborations on Instagram. This new kind of advertising is known as ‘Influencer Marketing’ and it’s as simple as it sounds; influencers are paid to promote and advertise fashion brands on Instagram to a much larger audience than a print magazine could reach.
The idea is that consumers trust these influencers, seeing them almost as friends rather than a traditional celebrity whose level of wealth and success seems unattainable, and are more likely to purchase from a brand recommended by them. Not only is influencer marketing more effective it is also a lot cheaper, meaning brands in turn get more publicity for their money, making it a worthwhile investment.
This huge shift from consuming fashion content in magazines to Instagram has led brands to rely heavily on influencers promoting their items, in order to get a reaction from an audience. The influence these social media celebrities have on consumers is so huge they are paving the way for the future of fashion journalism, especially as the future of print magazines continues to be one of uncertainty and as budgets shift towards social media and influencers.
Founder and Editor in Chief of The Business of Fashion, Imran Amed explains that the power once held by magazines has been flipped, giving more control to influencers to dictate what consumers will like and buy. The consumers who once reached to magazines for news and inspiration now just scroll through their newsfeed. That leaves a lot of people with the question of whether influencers matter more to brands in the fashion industry than magazines.
Like it or not, influencers are opinion-shapers of the current time and undoubtedly the future. Influencers create content that is not only accessible to a larger audience but is also tailored to a more specific group of people, which is a main factor in why investments and collaborations are being made with influencers rather than magazines. An influencer has their niche, a dedicated and engaged audience that has been built through creating content online. An audience that listens to them.
Influencer marketing utilises this as well as the power of word of mouth – brands work with individuals who have built credibility and trust within their audience, to spread the word about their brand or product. This is typically done through collaborations where brands will gift influencers items and pay them to promote them in Instagram posts and stories. And it works! Influencer marketing generates 11x better ROI (return on investment) than banner ads in magazines, with over 80% of fashion brands reporting their profit from influencers is greater than that from magazine advertisements.
While the rise of Instagram influencers is a #blessing for some, others are being hit hard by this new craze in the fashion industry. Not only are magazines being affected from the lack of sales and advertisements, but bloggers are as well. Now, I can probably guess what you’re thinking – aren’t bloggers just influencers on different platforms? Whilst this is somewhat true, there is a clear distinction between bloggers and influencers.
Bloggers focus much more on written content which is often longform and can take days or even weeks to put together. Bloggers work much more closely to fashion journalists, either on their own platforms or for fashion publications and magazines. Blogging is essentially a digital version of fashion editorials, curated by people who share their own personal approach to style.
However much like print magazine the future of blogging is very unsure – many bloggers are closing down their platforms because of a significant dip in traffic due to the rise of Instagram. Some are even trying to convert to Instagram itself. Consumers are no longer going online to read blog posts as, similar to print magazine, it is much more efficient and easier to consume content on Instagram. People are hungry for immediacy in the fashion industry meaning Instagram posts generate more views compared to blog posts, leaving bloggers little option but to begin transitioning to social media in order to attain an engaged audience and make as much income as possible.
Someone who knows this all too well is 20 year old, award winning fashion and lifestyle blogger, Tori Tyreman. She started her blog Indigo Rosee back in October of 2016 and has been posting content at least once a week since, collating an audience of people throughout the years. “It’s been four years since I started my blog and although I have been able to attend some cool experiences and earn a little bit of money from blogging, it is ultimately a passion project and pastime of mine rather than a career.”
By placing ads on her blog (the ones you normally avoid clicking at all cost) Tori receives a percentage of money each time one is clicked. This is typically done through Google AdSense which is a network that choses advertisements relevant to your content, allowing you to place them throughout your blog. But don’t be fooled, you have to meet a strict criteria of expectations before you can qualify for AdSense and begin making money from your blog.
Not only does your site need to be over six months old and full of high quality original content, it also must have a decent amount of traffic daily. But how much traffic do you need to make a reasonable amount of money? That’s a whole discussion in itself.
Tori revealed it took her 18 months to start earning any money through her blog and AdSense, meaning she now earns a penny or two every time someone passes an ad on her blog; and a little bit more if the viewer decides to click on an ad. However AdSense isn’t as straightforward as receiving a few pennies for every ad viewed, of course it isn’t – nothing can ever be that simple.
There are a lot of factors that impact how much you get paid per view including the demographic of your audience and even what time of day it is. Everyone’s AdSense is different meaning it’s almost impossible to calculate an average revenue per view. The general consensus among bloggers, however, seems to be that 100,000 views on your blog each month is a number that will equate to earnings of around £1500 to £2000 and is enough to consider pursuing blogging full time. But of course in the age of Instagram, these numbers are near impossible.
“Even if my views were consistently at the highest they’ve ever been, I certainly couldn’t live off the money I make but it’s nice to earn a little bit of extra money just through people viewing my content,” Tori told me as we began to chat a little more about the money (or lack of) that is in fashion blogging. “I think nowadays given how popular Instagram is it’s almost impossible to maintain an audience on a blog, especially one large enough to earn a living from. There just isn’t the money in blogging anymore.”
The reduced amount of money received by bloggers is undoubtedly due to Instagram – I hope this doesn’t come as a surprise, it’s becoming quite the reoccurring theme. There certainly is a big appeal to Instagram for bloggers; not only is it a simpler platform to navigate, it allows them to post their outfits quickly without having to compose an entire article around it. Many see it as a way to save time on writing and editing and are leaving their blogs in favour of Instagram. After all, why spend hours working on a blog post when you can easily share your outfit in real time, to a larger audience.
Tori has a collective of 10 thousand followers over two Instagram accounts and often receives gifted products from businesses and brands, who pay her a certain amount of money to promote the product or company in a positive light.
“I’ve had a lot more opportunities to work in collaboration with brands on Instagram than I have had on my blog, no one wants their products advertised on blogs because quite simply, who will see it?”. Although Tori has a dedicated number of viewers who consistently return to her blog for new posts, it doesn’t compare to the large audience content could be exposed to on Instagram.
Tori, who’s been blogging for over 4 years doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon but has recently been trying to grow her Instagram account, in the hopes a new audience will follow her over to her blog.
“I think the future of blogs are uncertain because people’s consumption of words has slowed down, it’s so much easier and often much more convenient to be able to visually see something rather than read something. I absolutely love blogging and I hope people rediscover the platform before it’s completely dead. Although I won’t stop blogging, I am definitely putting more time into Instagram and taking a ‘microblogger’ style approach to it. I think posting good quality content with short, snappy captions is the only way to engage an audience and make some form of income in these current times.”
It seems that money is a big incentive and is helping bloggers make their decision to swap over to Instagram that bit easier. There’s lots of different ways you could earn money as an influencer but the most common is receiving gifted items in return for promotion on Instagram posts and stories. The exact details will be outlined by the brand, some will only want one post whilst others will want a lot more content often including video and multiple stories.
Fashion Nova is an American fashion brand who are doing just that and are well known in the fashion industry for working closely with Instagram influencers all over the world. In 2019 the brand was reported to have spent more than $40 million on influencer marketing, ranking them number one for online marketing spends that year. Fashion Nova’s approach to influencer marketing is incredibly strategic and thought out, after all they’re investing all of their money on online advertising.
Founder and CEO of the company Richard Saghian shared that the brand has no runway shows, no press releases and no placement in magazines or other traditional media outlets as they focus solely on social media and the internet, as this is where their audience is.
No longer do they need journalists to promote and report on their upcoming collections or catwalk shows; and no longer do they need space in magazines for advertising, it’s all done online with the help of influencers.
Though Fashion Nova is not a billion dollar company (yet!) thanks to influencer marketing, it certainly has the potential to become one. Working with a variety of influencers, some with millions of followers and some with just a couple of thousand means the brand has a huge reach making it accessible to a large number of people.
Working with ‘micro’ influencers (typically those with below 10,000 followers) is just as profitable as working with those with a larger following. As mentioned earlier consumers feel a closer personal connection with smaller influencers and are more likely to purchase from a brand that is recommended by them.
A collaboration with the brand could earn you anything from £250 to £5000+ depending on how much engagement the posts receive. Fashion Nova are constantly on the hunt for new influencers to join their team as they continue to dominate the fashion industry, making them one of the most frequently searched brands on Instagram.
A recent study shows that typically consumers prefer to use Instagram as a source of fashion news and inspiration - the decreasing number of blogs seem to provide evidence for that, as well as the progression in the abandonment of the term blogger in favour of influencer. Influencers bring in an audience that fashion magazines and bloggers simply can’t keep up with, so they’ve had no choice but to adapt.
As fashion is being consumed differently and primarily on Instagram, many in the fashion industry are implementing changes to stay relevant as social media continues to become consumers primary source of content. So, do influencers lead the fashion industry or is there still a place for journalists and magazines?
The question of whether print fashion magazines can survive in the digital age is one that’s been asked a lot in recent years, and the answer isn’t as simple as yes or no. Of course content being readily available online and free of charge doesn’t help the decline in sales, however there is still hope that print magazine can survive in the 21st century alongside social media.
Graydon Carter, journalist and former editor of Vanity Fair, believes that print magazine doesn’t need to exist anymore, but enough people now and in the future will continue to love them and buy them – giving them a guaranteed place on the shelves. Consumers who consistently purchase magazines see them as collectables (my extensive collection of Vogue further proves this) and care more so for the physical copy rather than the content that is inside.
Although it’s not as big as we’ve seen in previous years, there is still a demand for print magazines; there’s still an audience who are willing to spend money on the latest copy, therefore magazines will continue to publish prints in addition to digital content. It may just be done a little differently.
Many publications are publishing physical copies fewer times a year opposed to monthly, creating more of a buzz and a feel of exclusivity around an issue giving consumers more incentive to purchase. Not only that but it saves money in printing and distribution costs which can be spent elsewhere, for example on an online platform or social media.
A magazine that has done exactly that is Glamour, who in 2017 announced the print publication would move from being published monthly to just twice a year in the spring and autumn, marketing the issues as a ‘collectible’ that will reflect upon fashion and beauty for the upcoming season. “Today’s consumer moves to a different rhythm than the one who bought the magazine when it launched in 2001,” the magazine said, adding that they “look to deliver content in a different way.”
Glamour have since moved their content online, integrating their editorial and commercial team meaning journalists and editors are just as important now to the publication as they once were. The magazine runs exactly the same as it always has, the only thing that has changed is where the content is published. Focusing on digital investments has helped to expand the Glamour audience as their content is easily accessible wherever you are.
This change makes sense as the publication revealed their print audience consisted of only two million readers compared to their digital footprint of over 20 million readers, with traffic already increasing by 12% on their website since the move. Glamour have also seen their social engagement rise by 27% as they’ve begun to spend a lot more time (and money) on growing their online platforms especially, you guessed it, Instagram.
With a more considered approach to Instagram, thinking carefully about what content goes where, their numbers have began to increase having a positive impact on engagement. Catering to their audience who expect fashion and beauty content, Glamour have recently began collaborating with Instagram influencers to further improve engagements and reach a larger audience.
London-based fashion influencer Alessandra Steinherr has been working with the brand consistently, directing her own followers of over 200 thousand over to the Glamour Instagram page. There she regularly posts videos and IGTV’s as well as going live on the account talking through her fashion secrets and beauty must haves, as well as answering questions sent in by the audience using the #AskAlex.
Glamour are also known to send products out to influencers in return for promotion. This is typically a collaboration through a brand and glamour, for example Glossier who is a beauty and skincare brand that Glamour work with often. The pair work closely together and are often advertised on Glamour’s website as well as their social media’s.
Glamour send out Glossier products to influencers who will then promote both brands in return for a sum of money – together they’ve figured out a marketing strategy that works for the both of them, it’s a win win.
Glamour are a great example of a magazine who have adapted to the digital age and are thriving because of it. Whether you like it or not, influencers are part of the fashion industry and print magazines will have to learn to work amongst them, sometimes even with them to stay afloat in the industry. However Glamour have proven that magazines can still exist on their own, albeit with fewer published issues and a greater online presence.
So don’t cancel your Vogue subscription just yet! The future of fashion journalism, although different, is a very exciting and promising one. Influencers and magazines can, successfully, work together to help enhance their content and engagement - but they equally can work separately creating high quality editorial content with fashion journalists. Is Instagram the future of fashion journalism? In 2020 there’s no definitive answer, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
