Kardashians: Queens of Social Media

If you cast your mind out and try to think of a group of people who seem to have mastered every aspect of social media and the creation of a brand online, you surely don’t have to think too long until you land on a single, era-defining clan: the Kardashians.

While the family did not get their initial shot at fame through social media, they have undoubtedly managed to stay relevant through their social media presence. Each sister has grabbed hold of their individual success and translated it into a means of commerce, whether it be a range of products, lifestyle apps, brand deals or models.

Let’s take a quick look at the women’s online prowess on an individual level:

Kim Kardashian

?          143 million Instagram followers

?          61.2 million Twitter followers

Kourtney Kardashian

?          80.2 million Instagram followers

?          24.5 million Twitter followers

Khloe Kardashian

?          95.8 million Instagram followers

?          27.3 million Twitter followers

Kendall Jenner

?          113 million Instagram followers

?          28 million Twitter followers

Kylie Jenner

?          139 million Instagram followers

?          27.6 million Twitter followers

From the outside, it may seem easy enough to take a selfie and upload it online; for each of the Kardashian women, however, the payout from a single post is huge. With a mix of brand deals and sponsored ads, the Kardashians can make anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000 per Instagram post.

Each sister has tackled social media in her own way. While Kim and Kylie have developed their own businesses via e-commerce, these two sisters have left the marketing aspect of their brand almost entirely to Instagram. Kylie launched “Kylie Cosmetics” in 2016, and her projected value is set to reach a jaw-dropped US$1 billion by 2022. Her main strategy is simple: first, she uploads a photo of her using her product to her personal Instagram. She then moves on to the Snapchat platform, which will usually include a quick video of her swatching all her new products. Typically playing her personal music playlists in the background of these videos, Kylie has rapidly built a brand out of the intimacy of her output strategy.

Kim’s “KKW Beauty” brand more or less follows the same strategy as her younger sister. Kim, however, also chose to throw a brand launch party to which she invited popular YouTube beauty gurus so that they could publicly try out her products before their public launch.

The other three sisters command huge social media empires of their own. Kendall Jenner’s modeling career has been a major success thus far, while Khloe and Kourtney are dedicating time to running their respective lifestyle apps.

The legacy of the Kardashian sisters is of a clan that has together skyrocketed to the top of the social media food chain – and stayed there. They may use a variety of techniques, but what they have in common is a conquering of social media by exemplifying their value proposition and building a community among their target audiences. If only it was as simple as they made it look.