Blog 4

When deciding what celebrity or companies social media presence to assess I went with my first instinct. I chose to assess the social media presence of the one and only Kim Kardashian West. Yes, Kim Kardashian gained fame from her infamous sex tape among other things, but social media helped not only her but her entire family to rise to fame. Kim can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Kim is very present on each of these social media sites, and it is apparent she uses each platform differently (similar to us). Want to know how she uses each one? Keep reading. 

First, let's talk about Kims Facebook presence. Although she is still very apparent on Facebook it is nowhere near the amount of interaction she recieves through Twitter and Instagram. For individuals 40 years of age and younger Kim was somebody we watched growing up on the television show that still airs called Keeping up with the Kardashians. Alternatively, the majority of active Facebook users are more tenured. We can attribute her “smaller” (still a whopping 30,053,206 people following) following to the facebook user demographic. The majority of her Facebook is used to promote herself, her KKW Beauty line, and her SKIMS line. The majority of her posts are either of herself, her life, her children, and restocks on either of her makeup or clothing lines. Facebook appears to be the only platform Kim rarely interacts with her followers. The tone of voice she uses on Facebook is either informative or simple. From the photo above with her daughter, North, you can see where she is highlighting her life using a very simple caption which states, “School drop off,” and simple tone. The picture below highlights how she uses an informative voice to primarily promote her KKW Beauty line and SKIMS line. 

Additionally, I feel that it is very important to highlight that even when Kim is promoting her makeup line or her clothing line she is also promoting herself. As you can see from the picture on the right hand side she is promoting her brand while using what made her famous in the first place, her body. This simultaneous promotion of her products and her body can be seen across all of her posts not just on Facebook but on the other social media platforms she is present on as well. 

162 million, that is how many followers Kim Kardashian has on Instagram. As of the beginning of 2020 she is the 6th most popular Instagram account. That is more followers than I could ever even DREAM of having. That is 162 million people keeping up to date, checking in, and viewing what Kim is posting which raises the question what is Kim posting? Why does she have so many followers? On Instagram Kim posts herself, herself, and more photos of herself. Again each post has a different motive from promoting her lifestyle, to her KKW Beauty Collection, to her SKIMS line but the majority of her posts include herself inherently promoting…. Yup, you guessed it, herself. Similar to Facebook you will not see much interaction from Kim with her followers on Instagram, and she keeps a similar tone. Her tone stays simple and informative depending on the post. Her posts in regards to her fashion and beauty line tend to be informative as seen in the picture below. 

The picture on the right shows a more simple tone from Kim highlighting her lifestyle. 

Although I could not find Kim interacting with followers through Instagram I did see that her brands such as SKIMS and her sisters heavily interacted on her photos. You can see her brands and sisters interaction on Kim's photos in the comment section in both of the photos above. Due to me being an active follower/fan of Kim I know she also frequently posts Instagram stories. Kim posts stories of a lot of things, but it is her stories that make me feel as if I am able to interact with her even when I’m not. By Kim posting stories of her family I am able to catch a glimpse into her life. I am sometimes able to feel like I am her friend and that I actually know her. For example, today March 10th, I was able to connect with her via her stories in relation to fitness. As seen in the photo below she states that she just is not in the mood to workout today so she is going to do abs and yoga. 

Easy to relate to, right? I know I have those days I don’t want to workout. She also uses her stories to promote her brands. In the photo to the right you can see Kim promoting herself and her KKW Beauty line. Kim is more than just somebody we like, and want to relate to. She is a name, she is a brand, and she is required to keep a certain image of herself even on her personal social media accounts. 

Lastly, I want to talk about Kim's Twitter presence. If you’re looking for a platform to try and get Kims attention and have her interact with you, Twitter is the place to go! As you can see from the tweet below Kim is replying to a video a boy made and tagged her in.

This is interactions with her fans that you don’t see on her Facebook or Instagram account. Another difference you will see from Kim on Twitter that you don't see on the other two previously listed platforms is her posts in regards to KKW The Justice Project. As seen in the tweet shown to the right Kim actively posts in regards to her activism to help wrongly

accused individuals incarcerated as well as individuals she believes deserve second chances. Kim still continues to promote herself and her brands on Twitter, but both seem to take a back seat to her KKW The Justice Movement. Her posts in regards to her brand remain informative in tone, while her tone of voice in regards to her Justice Project are both demanding and sympathetic. You are able to see from Kims posts in regards to The Justice Project she feels strongly about her work. She demands change and creates a sense of urgency for her fans to help as seen in the tweets below she asks her followers to take action as she retweeted tweets from two separate individuals that suggest taking action.

Kim does a great job at marketing herself and her brands across all social media platforms. As a marketing major the one thing I would suggest to her is trying to stay interactive with her followers on Instagram and Facebook as she does with Twitter. She should continue to create posts that generate interaction, and help her followers to feel more involved with her life. For example, ask what lip color her fans and followers would like to see next from her KKW Beauty collection. Additionally, I feel that she should use a variety of models to promote her brands rather than herself because currently we are strictly idolizing her body which is almost near impossible for the rest of society to obtain that same image. In the article, Crossing the #BikiniBridge, it states, "Traditional advertising media have been deemed one of the biggest influencers of how women view their bodies (Grabe et al., 2008)." By promoting all body types on her social media she may be able to gain an even greater following. View the picture below of Kims current Instagram feed to gain a better understanding of just how much she posts/promotes herself and her body image. 

Additionally, in the article, Women Girls and Social Media, it stated, "Marsh found that Instagram is the social media platform that encourages an image of girls as having to live up to a certain standard of beauty." If Instagram is the platform we obtain our perception of body image, and we look up to people such as Kim Kardashian will we ever be happy with our bodies? 

Even without making my recommended suggestions if Kim continues to use social media the way she does now she will continue to grow her fan base. Kim understands social media and continues to use it in a way that grows her name and brand. She remains fairly consistent in tone across all platforms (which if you know anything about marketing is a good thing) and interacts with her fans on at least one platform. By continuously having her fans and followers feel involved in her life her fans will remain loyal.

References

Women and Girls and Social Media. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5de8067ddba3b/1782899?response-content-disposition=inline; filename*=UTF-8''Vega-Castaneda%20%26%20Castaneda-%20Women%20%26%20Gender%20%26%20SM%281%29.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200311T150957Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLTYPZRQMY/20200311/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=c232ed7541a314ace3c1ea45fe0bacac855f684b6cd7feaf0b5492b0d7cd9b73

Crossing the #BikiniBridge (n.d ). Retrieved from https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5de8067ddba3b/1785707?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27Scheinbaum%252C%2520Dreten%2520%2526%2520Gurrieri-%2520Body%2520Image.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20200311T145129Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLTYPZRQMY%2F20200311%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=ab3a3ad192ca1b8a82ced9c5f8183ad70299ed01c94c2d8a1df85458e90a4e18