My Social Media Story
Photos by Richard Frantzén
“Social media has helped me reach places with my nail career that I never thought possible.”
With the invention of social media and the ever-growing role that it plays in people’s personal and professional lives, the opportunity for artists to gain exposure for their work is so much more achievable than it ever has been before. Social media has helped me reach places with my nail career that I never thought possible. I feel absolutely blessed to have the opportunity to reach out to the entire world. While it’s true that the opportunity to forge your own way in this world with whatever it is that you want to bring to it is more possible, that doesn’t mean that it’s not without hard work, consistency and a bit of boldness to lift you up out from the crowd.
Here’s my story with social media and how I have used it to build my brand and career.
Before my presence online, I worked multiple jobs. One was being a full-time nail tech, another was professional dancing and choreographing- I even worked as a magician’s assistant for about eight years. Eventually, and after having a lot of fun working these gigs amongst each other, I decided it was time for me to settle into one thing. While I was going to retire from the dance/entertainment industry, nails was still left on the table.
I began doing nails when I was only nineteen, but didn’t pursue it alone as a career because I was disappointed with the lack of interest at the time in nail art- which I loved. While I kept taking clients to pay the bills, I only ever got to do classic french or one solid colour, which didn’t hold my interest as a sole focus. However, fully re-entering the nail world just a few years later, I was pleasantly surprised to find a new interest from people in nail art. Clients were becoming interested in trying new things and I was 100% there for it! Another huge difference re-entering the nail game then was this thing called “social media”...
“I utilized both nail art and social media in a marriage that together propelled my new-found nail career.”
I utilized both nail art and social media in a marriage that together propelled my new-found nail career. I started by posting nails with different designs on each finger. This really got people’s attention. Albeit they thought I was mad, but they were viewing my posts! I created ballerina shapes and got slaughtered in the comments section. But, again, I got the attention I was looking for. I happened to know a lot of “famous” friends from my dancing days and decided to use them as my nail models and promote the posts on Instagram, which was a brand new social media platform at the time. It only took six months of this till I received a call from Sony Music wanting me to do Kesha’s nails for the show X Factor in Sweden! And the calls kept coming in with more requests to do celebrities nails. Talk about exposure! And all from posting online.
Still, even with a now A-list clientele, I searched for more opportunities to continue building my reputation and career. I applied for Nails Magazine’s Next Top Nail Artist and was accepted into the competition. I competed every week for nearly a year, which gave me great exposure. At the same time, I had been using Light Elegance nail products and fell in love with the brand. So, I approached LE while competing in the NTNA competition with the idea of becoming their “brand ambassador,” which they loved and it gave both their brand and myself even more exposure.
A lot of people who enter into competitions, for whatever their craft is, tend to think that once they’ve placed high or have been awarded “the crown,” have made it, so to speak, and they don’t have any more work to do. This could not be further from the truth! On the contrary, it is then when the real hard work truly begins. After NTNA was over and I snagged first runner up, I worked even harder on my social media presence than I ever had before. I knew I had to keep the momentum going that I had gained- from the show and from all of my exposures before. Without adding fuel to the fire, it will die.
I made the leap over to YouTube when I began to notice how the Instagram algorithms were changing. The work I was posting was better than ever, but my engagement was dropping. I knew very well at that point how to cultivate engagement- it’s what I built my career on! But, Instagram had changed. Realizing that it had become more or less impossible to focus on one platform, I branched out and created my YouTube channel.
“Without adding fuel to the fire, it will die.”
Luckily, at this time, nails on YouTube still wasn’t very popular. There was really only Suzie, Naio Nails and Simply Nailogical to contend with. Knowing that I owed a lot of my success on Instagram to being one of the first nail artists to be on the platform, I wanted to replicate that on YouTube, before it became flooded with other nail techs trying to do the same thing. I threw myself into video making, learning Final Cut Pro, and I found out how much I loved the process. My experience as a professional performer certainly helped me with being comfortable in front of the camera. From being on stage to choreography in video shoots, I knew what to think about both in front of and behind the lens. I will say that it is still difficult, but it would be a lot harder if I had not had this type of “training” already.
I keep evolving with every single video that I create. The same way that I continued to search for more success after each one I found through social media before, and from other exposure opportunities, is how I run my channel. Each video counts and builds from the last. I’m close to reaching 100,000 subscribers on my channel, which is very exciting! However, I am even more excited for how much further I can take it as well as where I will be able to go in terms of topic on my channel. I would like to be able to branch out from nails, while inspiring people and sharing my passions remains my ultimate goal. This way, I let time reveal what that might look like while my videos and myself evolve together.
“My favourite part about what I do is being able to interact with, contribute to and grow a community of like minded people.”
Pursuing my career, in a lot of ways, through the means of social media, as you can see is an ever-changing, ever-evolving feat. It is so much about staying on your toes, making yourself relevant and being adaptable. It is also extremely rewarding and exciting! I say rewarding because of the community you are able to create. My favourite part about what I do is being able to interact with, contribute to and grow a community of like minded people.
The most touching moments for me are when I see my followers making friends with each other. Ever since teaching dance back in the day, I’ve had the tendency to take younger kids under my wing; to try to protect them from what can be a tough, superficial world to have to grow up in. Creating an online community feels like doing this, on a larger scale. I have the chance to bring a kind of comfort to people, a “safe place,” to whoever taps in.
