Welcome to Voices in PR. Today we have our first guest Peixi to talk to us about being an influencer and her experience with Social Media. Peixi is an NYC-based luxury fashion influencer who loves sharing things like style tips, brands she’s loving, what you should spend your money on, with her audience. She’s born and raised in Singapore and her style has grown so much since she’s been in NYC the past 10 years, and she’s enjoying every moment of this evolution!
How did you decide to be an influencer?
I started my fine jewelry line (MaisonKwee) back in 2016, and I realized I was having a lot of fun taking pictures, posting, and editing, the creative stuff. I started to take my personal account more seriously, and I took what I was learning in my professional account and applying it there. I got better engagement with my personal account because I was able to be more of a person instead of a professional brand, so I directed people to my jewlery account through my more popular personal one.
How did you develop the style of your page?
My personal style is reflected in the style of my page. I’ve always gravitated towards a clean aesthetic. If you look in my closet, you’ll see a lot of neutral colors like black, white, brown, and nude, and occasionally there’s some blue or green. I like to plan my feed with a consistent style, so I tend to wear the same colors and styles. I try to keep things classy with a little trendiness or edginess, and I really like mixing masculine and feminine styles.
How do you make your content stand out?
For the past six months or so I’ve been focusing on luxury fashion, rather than just fashion in general. I think making luxury fashion accessible is a niche, and that is helpful for growing your followers. Having this niche has helped me get posted on luxury fashion pages that have lots of followers, and that drove a lot of traffic to me. I also think it’s important to have content that adds value to someone’s life. If someone is taking the time to read my content, I want them to take something away from it. For example, I try to include style tips in my posts, where I can share things that I’ve learned or what I like. For example, I made a post the other day about putting a Chanel brooch on a Zara bag, which I thought elevated it to a new level. It matters that I liked it, and if others also think that’s a good idea they can try it, too. The response I’ve gotten has definitely been very encouraging. Sharing these tips has made my audience more engaged.
What has been your favorite project or collaboration so far?
My favorite collaboration is with a luxury handbag rental company. I’ve been working with them for four months and they’re just really lovely to work with. I truly believe in their business model. They rent out luxury handbags for a week or a month, and that makes these luxury items more accessible. A person can rent one out to see if they like it before dropping five thousand on a handbag, and it’s great for special events. It’s similar to Rent the Runway in concept. I also like being able to own less, even though there are all of these tempting things online. It’s especially great because I can be very vocal and creative with them. They don’t just tell me what to do, they ask me for suggestions and what I think works. It’s very communicative, and that makes it one of my favorite projects.
What do you think is most important when dealing with social media?
The most important thing is not focusing on the numbers. You can’t worry about your follower count or how many likes you have. I try to focus on creating high-quality content that I enjoy. Obviously if you’re posting things you love and you aren’t getting any engagement it can be discouraging, but you can’t think about it like that. I make sure that I’m being true to myself and using this as a creative outlet, so I don’t let the numbers affect me too much. It’s much more about how I feel about the photos I’m posting. Am I elevating my game, am I taking better photos, and am I adding value to my audiences’ lives? I think it’s normal to focus on the numbers, especially if you’ve been Influencing for a long time, but it’s important to be happy with the content that you’re making.
You use both Instagram and Youtube. Which one is your favorite?
I like them for different reasons. Instagram has so much content, and it’s very aesthetically pleasing. it’s very inspiring for me to look at the creative work people are doing on Instagram, especially photos. But I can learn a lot on Youtube. I’m actually learning how to use a new platform with Youtube right now and it’s very complex stuff. Youtube is also much more engaging. You really feel like you know the person whose video you’re watching. I’m more active on Instagram. It’s much faster to take, edit, and post a photo compared to a video, which takes an hour to shoot and another three hours to edit. Instagram is my favorite, especially now that they’ve added Instagram Reels and IGTV, but I really do love Youtube as well.
What does your daily life look like?
It depends on the day, but generally, I shoot, post, and edit photos and videos every day. I also spend a lot of time on my emails, negotiating, and I get sent a lot of products to review. I feel very blessed to be sent these products for free. It takes a long time to create your captions and edit descriptions on Youtube, so I do that most days. These things that people think don’t take a lot of time actually fill up my day really quickly.
So being an Influencer isn’t as easy as people think?
Absolutely. If you’re just doing it for fun, I could see where it takes five or ten minutes to post things. But making sure your photos are aesthetically pleasing and high quality and creating your captions does take a long time. And there’s so much that I have to spend time learning. For example I’d like to start my blog this month, so I have to spend hours learning how to build it, how to make it fit with my style. There’s a lot of research involved.
How do you organize the detailed aspects of your work?
I always make sure to use my Google Calendar. I really rely on that to stay organized. Everything has to be on there. I also have a spreadsheet of all of my ongoing collaborations. I find that organization is really important in making sure you’re keeping track of when your deliverables are due, what state you’re in, have you shot it yet, have you not shot it, have you been paid yet, is it completely done and closed, or is it still pending? There’s a lot of things where just having a spreadsheet and using Google Calendar is helpful to make sure you stay organized and don’t miss anything. I also don’t schedule my posts that much. Of course, I have my feed planned out, so that if I do a new collaboration I can find a place to fit it in, but I like to have things a little looser.
What motivates you everyday?
It’s the audience. Their response is really assuring. I started my Youtube a few months ago, and someone on Instagram messaged me about how much they loved my first video. They give me constructive feedback and tell me about how the video helped them decide which bag to buy, or that they were going to buy a bag and decided it wouldn’t be a good fit for them thanks to my video. Like I said earlier, I really care about adding value to people’s lives. On top of that, I’m a creative person, so having this as an outlet is really fulfilling for me. I’m able to see how much I’ve grown as a creator, and that growth mindset is very motivating.
Another thing that’s great is when I’m able to help a brand grow. When I introduce my audience to a new service they didn’t know about, I feel like I’m helping both of them. I helped my audience know about the product, and I’ve also helped the brand reach a bigger audience. As a small business owner, I understand how hard it can be, so that part is also something I value a lot.
I really like to see a product or a brand before it gets to the public. People think Influencers will endorse everything, but sometimes I have to tell a brand that I didn’t like their product. Of course, that’s awkward, but I respect the people reading my page and watching my videos, and I don’t want to mislead them.
Voices in PR is a platform where we discuss relevant issues regarding PR and social media. We get insight from influencers and PR leaders about useful and trending topics. Check out our video as well, linked to this blog. If you like this program, or would like to share your thoughts, please comment below.