"But you did management, didn't you? Now you also post on Instagram?" This is very often people's understanding and simplified translation of what I have undertaken.
Over time, I've been able to tell my family what it is, though there are still some gray areas in addition to some unsavory discomfort to an activity that is virtually a full-time job and therefore a delicate matter, especially when invading personal spaces.
But what does it mean being "blogger" or "influencer"?
An activity that seems to be an easy thing to be accomplished but which implies, as I interpret it, a series of skills matured through a cultural background, a managerial experience, a sense of style, organizational abilities and fast rhythms .
It is in fact a new discipline that, to be realized, needs to deepen a priori knowledge and competences in various fields of human activity.
For example, you have to think about declining your style each time in a different way, planning contents, having items and accessories to be photographed, whether your own or received from a company, you need to choose the location, schedule the shooting with suitable timetables, organize the photographer ( either a professional, a relative or a generous friend), build and invent an attention getting story telling, responding to followers messages popping up everywhere and at any time, commercially promote your image with the companies. So to mention some of the activities.
And all this is a precise and sometimes complex role that cannot be delegated to anyone at the beginning.
Furthermore, and this is also a specific peculiarity as far as I'm concerned, there's the fact that I'm not a girl who is living with her parents or a single who has to take care just about herself doing the fashion blogger. I have a life and a family to orchestrate with its rhythms and characteristics, two daughters to follow, three dogs and, last but not least, a husband to be handled carefully on the whole matter, thing that can also have funny sides, though being not always a piece of cake.
There is also the fact that I have a certain professional background and every now and then I feel to tell to some interlocutors that communication requires a precise strategy, including the correct definition of the brand, the target you want to reach, the message you want to transmit.
As a matter of fact this is the new method of communicating and whether certain companies are backwards or forwards in understanding it, this is the present and it will be the future of marketing and advertising communication.
Over time 'Experience marketing' has been added to what it was classic advertising dictated by companies to consumers, trying to make consumers as the major players but always under company's 'control'. Now we are in the era of 'Influential Marketing' promoted by individuals who have acquired a driving force for buying choices, such individuals that companies have to deal with, as they are a very powerful vehicle through the mean of social networks .
They are called influencers. They can be celebrities, and in this case it's easier to be credited, it's almost an automatic effect - you're famous then what you put on and what you do is cool.
It becomes more complex to build an endorsement, as a matter of fact based only on your own sense of taste, on contents and messages that one intends to convey, on your own daily clothing or holiday choices and on sharing them with a wide and diverse audience.
But what is it that attracts the so-called followers and makes a normal person to become an influencer?
Two are the elements that count in my opinion and they are the heart of the whole project: authenticity - I'm truly this one, if you meet me in the supermarket I'm dressed as you see me in the pictures - and the message you want to give: a suggestion, a word of lightness, a poetic content, an inspiration, in any case an emotion that wrings the heartstrings, being able to share a life-style approach, reflecting your real feelings and character.
Which then translates into style choices and therefore consumption choices. Because everything always comes from emotions.
And then it is useful to have a full range of softwares ranging from 'networking without network', that is to say, exposing yourself without the certainty to be liked, avoiding self-congratulation, a very easy risk, showing oneself without being or feeling ridiculous, being ready to being criticized and still not wavering, being down to earth without being snob, while maintaining some charm and a bit of distance.
That's all building a story able to intrigue and create loyalty in those who follow you.
The goal is in practice to become a daily reference for so many people on various topics.
Does it look little to go on?
The Photos of the article were taken in:
Milan and surroundings
New York City, Public Library
Nova Ponente, Sud-Tirol
Rome, Hotel Waldorf Cavalieri Hilton
Venice, Canal Grande
Zürich, Hauptbahnhof
Paris, Pyramid du Louvre