The DIY Darling Who Did IT Herself
This Famous YouTuber Amassed a Huge Online Following and Built a Booming Brand
If you’ve ever wondered how social media’s most-followed influencers and content curators gained their online fame and attractive bank accounts, you’re not alone. Acquiring social media stardom isn’t a mystery, but challenging, nonetheless. If you’re a beauty buff, fitness fanatic, fearless foodie, adrenaline junkie, or DIY guru who has managed to amass massive followership, companies and big-name brands are more than willing to shell out big bucks for sponsored content, collaborations, and affiliate marketing partnerships. Here’s how this young YouTuber mastered the art of social media marketing to build her brand.
With the advent of immersive, interactive, and digital technology, specifically snap-sharing app Instagram and social media giant Facebook, would-be brand innovators, aspiring entrepreneurs, artists, and creatives have inadvertently stumbled upon a goldmine. As social media has irrefutably provided an unconventional – and free – tool to those seeking to build a business, now has never been a better time to get online and channel your inner social media maven and make megabucks in the process.
Take this Canadian-based student turned arts and crafts connoisseur who learned to make the most of her passion while leveraging all her social media platforms simultaneously to catapult her online presence, build a massive audience, promote her brand, become a top influencer, and sell her merchandise. She’s Lauren Riihimaki, better known as LaurDIY, and she reigns supreme as the social media queen. Insta-famous for her colorful, crafty, and innovative DIY videos on her YouTube channel, LaurDIY, this former Ryerson student discovered her love for all-things-DIY, which led to creating copious amounts of cool, fun-to-watch, informative videos. In the past seven years, her followership grew to just over 7.5 million subscribers, propelling her to the top tier of social media influencers. With the success of her YouTube series, Lauren was able to successfully transfer her YouTube audience to other platforms, like the equally popular Instagram and Twitter.
Consistency is Key
Lauren attests most of her YouTube stardom to finding a specific “niche,” as well as dedicating her time to branding and staying uber-consistent to the channel. LaurDIY continues to dominate the YouTube space because of consistent, well-timed uploading, as Lauren faithfully uploads a new DIY video every Sunday and a vlog every Wednesday – no exceptions. Even creating hashtag #SunDIY to promote her scheduled uploads has helped with reminding her fans, followers, and subscribers to tune in. Another way Lauren grew such an impressive base is by collaborating with other high-profile YouTubers since cross-promoting is a win-win for everyone involved. Lauren also further increased her social media audience by posting “trendy” videos. For example, when those slew of “slime” videos suddenly “plopped” up all over the Internet, Lauren took advantage of the idea and made a DIY slime video to stay relevant, while changing the game and adding her crafty touch. Her DIY slime video was a smashing success, to say the least, garnering even more YouTube subscribers.
Create Cool, Click-worthy Content
Not only is Lauren taking YouTube by storm, as did her predecessor and original YouTuber queen Michelle Phan, but she’s also a top influencer on the ‘Gram and Twitter, boasting over 4 million followers on Insta and a whopping 6 million on Twitter. A social media superstar, Lauren is killing it. With curated content bursting with eye-catching backgrounds, super-stylish settings, vibrant hues, and cool, fashion-forward outfits, her Instagram feed is a candy box-colored treat for the eyes! All her artful, aesthetically-appealing posts accompany positive affirmations, mindful messages, and quirky anecdotes, making her content relatable, poignant, and share-worthy. Lauren posts daily and goes “live” every so often, utilizing Instagram’s indispensable, fan-growing features. On Twitter, she posts throughout the day, all day, giving her attentive followers updates from catching up with friends over coffee to shopping hauls to her latest projects-in the-making. But, mainly, she uses the far-reaching power of Twitter to promote the uploading of her YouTube videos, like a digital memo sent to her legions of fans right from her fingertips.
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With all her hard work spent online, Lauren has undeniably managed to leverage her large following on social media to make money. And, a lot of it. She engages in brand deals – affiliate marketing – with different companies, such as Fanta, Ardene, MUDD, and others. Additionally, Lauren has used social media to build her very own brand of merchandise, creating multiple lines that include t-shirts, hats, knick-knacks, and other fun stuff.
Originally developed as a unique, groundbreaking way to reconnect with friends and family, social media now offers effective, far reaching marketing tools to those willing to work it and stick with it. Lauren has effectively honed her social media savviness to build her brand and promote her products, but she dedicated all her time to doing so while implementing consistency and ongoing engagement with her followers. Social media is an ingenious, free marketing tool, which Lauren has learned to master, becoming one of the most sought-after influencers and content creators.
Hail to the queen.