Zoella And The Rise Of The Vlogger: It’s Big Business

YouTube superstar Zoella made history this week with the fastest-selling debut novel of all time. How could your business learn from her example?

If you’ve been watching any TV recently, or taken a look at the ‘trending’ sections of any social media, you may have heard of vlogging sensation Zoella. She, along with some other Internet superstars, has become the face of YouTube, featured on Band Aid 30, and outsold J K Rowling with her debut novel, Girl Online.

Now, I’m pretty sure you’re not here to hear all about Zoella’s tips on beauty and body confidence (although she does have many, if you’re interested), and so you may wonder why a business blogger would bat an eyelid at the girl. The truth is, aside from the fact that she’s everywhere and it’s really hard to avoid the topic, Zoella (or Zoe Sugg in the world outside of YouTube) is a brand, and a brand which has achieved the exposure that all global brands hope for.

Let’s take a moment to look at the 24 year old as a business entity:

• As a vlogger, Zoella comes from humble beginnings, setting out in her business from the comfort of her own home; the price of starting up is just a webcam and an Internet connection
• As a YouTube sensation, she is paid by the website and their advertisers. She also stars in their adverts for yet more income
• Advertising space on her website is getting pretty pricey. High-end brands such as Christian Dior and Jo Malone currently advertise their products on her website to take advantage of the high volume of traffic passing through daily (the website gets around 6 million hits per month)
• She launched her own beauty range this year which was dubbed the ‘biggest beauty launch of the year’
• She is sent products and paid to promote them in her blogs and vlogs; her celebrity status will send these fees skyrocketing
• Her novel, Girl Online, released November 25th, broke records to become the biggest selling debut novel ever. Her pre-release fame helped the book outsell even the debut Harry Potter book. You can guarantee she’ll rake in a pretty penny from that

There is a small army of vloggers out there racking up a fortune in exchange for their thoughts and endorsements. Unsurprisingly, you might be missing a business trick here. The opportunity to get your brand’s exposure up and flying is handed out at every twist and turn in trends; the explosion of social media and the rise of the vlogging sensation are but two invaluable tools that your business can harvest.

We’ve written before about social media, and how it can carry your brand to success. Zoella too, has a social media presence, with a very impressive 2.59 million Twitter followers plugged in directly to her brand and waiting to snap up any such product that she endorses.

So, how could your business benefit from a video blog?

• Vlogging is both cheap and easy exposure for your brand. YouTube is free to join, and a great tool to use alongside your social media accounts to bring some visuality to your Brand DNA
• Regardless of whether or not your vlogging efforts go viral, revenue can be generated from a video blog (as is the case with a written blog). There’s a whole world of opportunist consumers out there just waiting for something to catch their eye. A video blog can be both helpful and persuasive – use it to benefit your biz
• Breaking into a new market can be difficult as a brand. The Internet is hiding a plethora of new custom just out of reach, so you should use all it has to offer to maximise your brand’s reach
• A video blog gives you the opportunity to give a face to your business, to work alongside the personality put across through your social media efforts. This is entirely versatile depending on your brand; showcase your business-like manner or get ‘down with the kids’ as you deem appropriate

Make sure your website is geared up for the extra traffic which a video blog can bring with a powerful hosting solution from UK2.