What You See...
YouTube Celebrity Zoe Sugg has had a manic few months. Being included in Band Aid 30, releasing her new book, being endorsed by YouTube and getting attention from the mainstream media.
She's blowin' up!
But This Isn't The Real Story...
If working in the internet marketing industry for years has taught me anything, nothing happens online by chance.
Zoella is a client of PR Company GleamFutures. The same company that represent her BFF Louise also known as 'SprinkleOfGlitter'.
A company that must have certainly played a part in engineering the success of their most prized asset.
Who have at times surely been the culprits behind the on-off paid adverts we've all seen on YouTube; displaying Zoella's channel above Sprinkle of Glitters (her best friend) when you do a search for Sprinkle Of Glitters channel.
This Isn't To Say She Hasn't Worked Hard To Get Where She Has.
Talking to a camera, doing editing and all this stuff is commendable, then again plenty of people do this and see nothing in return.
As a marketer I recognise her clever use of personal branding, and how she can put across the perfect persona (for her audience) that we teach clients to portray, if we are to be endearing and likeable.
This is an important part of what separates those who succeed online, from those who do not.
Many of her early followers, now in their twenties have been critical of how her personality has seemingly changed completely as her online following grew.
From a marketing standpoint, this is indicative of refining your strategy to enjoy more success. Build > Measure > Learn > Repeat.
And It's Very Misleading...
In fact these YouTubers are often so misleading that they, including Zoella, have recently come under scrutiny with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for doing paid advertising, without disclosing the fact they are.
So if you think they live for their followers, think again!
Here's just a few of the monetization channels that I have noticed Zoella using to make more money:
- YouTube Ads
- Affiliate Links On Her Blog
- Promoted Tweets
- Paid Product Reviews on YouTube (see getting in trouble with the ASA)
- Appearances
- Her Book
Of course, people make you more money when they don't think they're being sold. So you sell them a persona.
Including telling people how vulnerable you are...
Zoella Is An Anxiety Sufferer...
1 in 13 people worldwide suffer from anxiety in some form. In the United States alone the figure sits at 40,000,000 sufferers.
While we can't argue that Zoella has helped people with her openness in talking about her issues, there are certainly a lot of people who have had it worse or are more qualified to help people who are suffering from the more severe types of anxiety.
Over a year ago a 22 year old girl contacted me on my blog, she had been suffering from Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Bi-Polar, Clinical Depression AND Anxiety.
I was blown away by how much suffering she had been experiencing for years, she asked if I could help her establish herself on YouTube to help others who were going through similar experiences.
I agreed, even though this girl had no money (because she could no longer work) I saw she had passion. We discussed her goals and her illnesses and she said she wasn't interested in making money, but she just wanted to help others so they didn't have to go through a similar experience alone.
In the end, she got worse and was unable to do the YouTube idea because she was scared of going on camera. I offered to help her start a blog called HackYourselfPretty instead and this was going well until her fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue got worse.
Having read her content that she did produce, it was clear that this person could help others and was sincere about doing so. The last time we talked she was hoping to pick up where she left off, and to still do YouTube eventually.
Zoella on the other hand got started doing beauty videos and content, she may have opened up about her anxiety because she just felt like it, or maybe it was as calculated as all of her other moves to virtual fame.
Regardless, being lauded for talking about anxiety is perhaps a slap in the face to the thousands of mental health workers out there and those that genuinely want to help.
However Zoella stumbled upon the opportunities these open talks have afforded her, she's found a way to get even more fame out of it instead of becoming a serious advocate for mental health awareness...
While no one can say she's guilty of calling herself a mental illness guru, she certainly isn't discouraging the view either.
Fake Or Real, Does It Matter?
While there's plenty of evidence to suggest that Zoella has in fact engineered her success and has 'faked it until you make it', does it really matter?
Sure it would hurt a lot of her fans to think that she's more concerned with money and success, but isn't that true of most people? Others would probably not care either way and continue to support her regardless.
In the long run, online, people's true colours eventually show through. It can take years to build success and just moments to destroy it.
What do you think? Fake or real? Does it matter or is this ethically wrong?