Ries_Blog #4

            When I was debating a celebrity to analyze, I realized how few figures I interact with on social media. I was getting a bit frustrated, and then one of my favorite songs came on my Spotify – “Life Changes” by Thomas Rhett! I could have analyzed him; however, the song talks about how his wife, Lauren, says that “now she’s got her own set of fans, got a blue check mark by her Instagram” meaning that she is a verified celebrity on the app. I know a little bit about their lives from following his music, but I was excited to dive more into her social media presence and see what I could learn about Lauren Akins.

            Lauren has a presence as a “public figure” on Facebook, Twitter, a promotional website, and Instagram. Her Facebook is under her full name, Lauren Akins and is easily visible. She reposts many pictures that are on her Instagram with a about a month in between certain posts, so it is clearly not her most used media platform. She has an ‘about page’ that was last updated in April 2018, so she has not updated the page with her newest child or any other events. She does take a philanthropic approach in immediately starting out to thank people for “supporting the sweet children of Uganda” through Love+1, a brand that sells jewelry to raise money. The about page is very promotional and not a personal statement which differs from her usage of the other platforms.  

        Lauren Akins uses Twitter under the same handle as her Instagram. Similar to her Facebook, she uses Twitter to repost Instagram pictures. While her Facebook had a month in between posts, Akins’ recent tweets were roughly two months apart with slightly different commentary than her Instagram captions. Many of her retweets were commentary about Thomas Rhett or magazine and book release updates. Her bio mentions Thomas Rhett and promotes her recent book. She has very few likes and reposts, so you can tell she is only minimally active, but still has over 140 thousand followers.

When I originally went to her personal website, laurenakins.com, I expected it to be more like a blog than anything else. Instead, it is a promotional website for her recent book which gives updates on sales and information about the content. The promotion is in every bio in her social media. Her book is titled “Live in Love: Growing together through Life’s Changes.” There is very little personalized content, despite the ‘vulnerable’ nature of her book itself. It seems to be a memoir about her daily life and experiences. She is heavily advertised with some ‘big name’ companies promoting her book like Target, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

            Lauren’s Instagram is the platform she uses the most, with more frequent and original posts. She has a verified celebrity check next to her name, with a distinct bio that attempts to humanize her to the audience. Her bio is a few bullet points, starting with a bible verse, her book, her husband, and then her three children and nonprofit work. Showcasing the things that are important in her life can allow people to connect with her on a personal level if they relate to any of those aspects. The images presented in her feed are primarily viewed as a ‘normal’ family life with a few celebrity posts thrown in. In this way, she is relatable to the families who can find similarities but also maintains a heightened status. She heavily relies on an “authenticity” standpoint, appealing to a specified imagined audience of Christian, southern families (Marwick & Boyd, 119). Similarly, Lauren’s “personal branding” of a happy, successful mother and family is effective in connecting with people – shown through her 2.4 million followers (Marwick & Boyd, 119). Her pictures are a mix of showcasing all three of her children – her third child was born on Valentine’s Day – and fancier appearances that display her ‘normal family’ in the spotlight. The red-carpet appearances are in direct contradiction to her regular friends and family photos that seem more ‘real’ than the professional shots.

            Lauren Akins does a particularly good job of seeming ‘authentic’ despite the clear celebrity status. Her Instagram presence seems open and honest in a way that is resonating with people enough to warrant over 2 million followers. Despite that, there is definite room to grow in her Twitter and Facebook presence that would offer her the ability to connect with different users and show different sides of herself. Twitter, in particular, could offer a platform to interact more often in a conversational tone with her fans. It would most likely be a motivational feed with a religious background but could offer more connection that the aspirational photos of her Instagram. When she does post, people seem to react well and retweet most of her original content, however, the reposts get less action overall. I would say that her Facebook should be utilized more but that necessarily depends on the audience she wants to attract. As her feed seems to connect to younger women, Facebook might not be her target platform due to its older user base. I don’t think that her Instagram needs to be changed. After researching her for this post, I have since followed the account and do enjoy looking through her posts. I am not sure how her interactions will change after she stops promoting her book as heavily but besides that I really appreciated her ability to mix celebrity with normalcy in a believable way.