BEAUTY | CELEBRITIES / INFLUENCERS | DIARY INFLUENCERS
DIARY Influencer: Jamie Rockers from Beauty Rocks
Date Posted: Tuesday 15th August 2017
DIARY directory recently caught up with Jamie Rockers, a beauty blogger and PR and Social Media Manager at Crabtree & Evelyn. Based in London, Jamie has a passion for travel, beauty, food and fashion. She created Beauty Rocks to share her passions with like-minded people, which lead her to develop her own beauty box subscription service, Beauty Rocks. She has travelled all over the world (nearly 60 countries) and lived in four. She has written two books and in a previous life, she wrote about food, beauty and travel for Japanese news website Japan Today.
Beauty & Travel Blogger
Worked with brands including MAC, Estée Lauder & L’Oréal
"I do find on the PR side that it’s harder and harder to target long lead press – it’s tough getting page space in a magazine these days!"
| Country of residence: | London |
| 3 main areas of focus: | Beauty, Fashion, Travel/Lifestyle |
| Skin type: | Fair/Combination |
| Hair colour: | Dark Blonde |
| Hair type: | Fine |
| Dress size: | UK 6 |
| Shoe size: | UK 5 |
| Height: | 5ft 5 |
Listed in DIARY directory in the digital influencers subsection, along with 1500+ categorised influencers for PRs to work with, Jamie talks about balancing life as a PR and a blogger, talks about how the two can work better together and weighs in on the Instagram fake-follower debacle.
How do you balance your life as a PR and a blogger?
Oh this is a tricky one and I wish there was an easy answer! It takes incredible work ethic and sacrifice and I’m only saying this because you have to give up personal time - every second has to be taken into account and not a minute can be wasted on not being productive. For example, a journey on the tube turns into when you plan in your next Instagram post, the daily commute is when you spend time answering e-mails and replying to comments on Instagram. Your lunch break turns into a one-hour frantic email catch up or touch ups on a blog post. Your entire weekend turns into content production – writing posts and taking photographs and unpacking the weekly mail. Your weekday evenings are spent either answering blog e-mails, going to events or working on copy/affiliate links. As a PR you work even that much harder during the day so that you finish up on time because you know you are going straight from your day job to your night job and you need all the time you can get! Last week I tallied up 40 hours at my PR job and 50 hours on my blog (20 hours through the weeknights and 30 hours on the weekend – two 15 hour days!). I’ve also recently hired a freelancer to help me with SEO as this is really important for search rankings in Google but an area that I don’t have extra time for.
Oh this is a tricky one and I wish there was an easy answer! It takes incredible work ethic and sacrifice and I’m only saying this because you have to give up personal time - every second has to be taken into account and not a minute can be wasted on not being productive. For example, a journey on the tube turns into when you plan in your next Instagram post, the daily commute is when you spend time answering e-mails and replying to comments on Instagram. Your lunch break turns into a one-hour frantic email catch up or touch ups on a blog post. Your entire weekend turns into content production – writing posts and taking photographs and unpacking the weekly mail. Your weekday evenings are spent either answering blog e-mails, going to events or working on copy/affiliate links. As a PR you work even that much harder during the day so that you finish up on time because you know you are going straight from your day job to your night job and you need all the time you can get! Last week I tallied up 40 hours at my PR job and 50 hours on my blog (20 hours through the weeknights and 30 hours on the weekend – two 15 hour days!). I’ve also recently hired a freelancer to help me with SEO as this is really important for search rankings in Google but an area that I don’t have extra time for.
You have the unique insight of having both the brand & blogger perspective - what advice could you give?
To brands & PRs...
Any successful bloggers/influencers/vloggers/content creators work really, really hard – as I said I worked 40 hours at my day job and then 50 hours on my blog (and on top of this my freelancer worked 20 on SEO!). A lot of effort and time goes into a blog post and there are a lot of things going on in the background that won’t be fully apparent to a PR. Like the amount of time it takes to edit a photo, to optimise your blog post for SEO (adding in alt-tags, meta-descriptions, tags, keywords, etc.), affiliate linking and more. For me the writing is always the easiest part and what comes naturally – it’s all the other stuff that takes so long. It’s like running your own e-zine but with only one person (which seems kind of crazy right?)! Also influencers know their audience the best so if they have ideas for campaigns or know something just won’t work for them then it’s always good to listen up. This will give the brand the best chance of getting attention from the target audience.
To brands & PRs...
Any successful bloggers/influencers/vloggers/content creators work really, really hard – as I said I worked 40 hours at my day job and then 50 hours on my blog (and on top of this my freelancer worked 20 on SEO!). A lot of effort and time goes into a blog post and there are a lot of things going on in the background that won’t be fully apparent to a PR. Like the amount of time it takes to edit a photo, to optimise your blog post for SEO (adding in alt-tags, meta-descriptions, tags, keywords, etc.), affiliate linking and more. For me the writing is always the easiest part and what comes naturally – it’s all the other stuff that takes so long. It’s like running your own e-zine but with only one person (which seems kind of crazy right?)! Also influencers know their audience the best so if they have ideas for campaigns or know something just won’t work for them then it’s always good to listen up. This will give the brand the best chance of getting attention from the target audience.
To influencers...
Brands do not have endless budgets. Some brands have no budgets at all to work with influencers and some do – they are all different. And bloated figures for sponsored posts won’t go down well. Know your worth but also be fair. Also be professional and treat others the way you would want to be treated. It’s a simple rule – but very, very important. Also a lot of work goes into events, send-outs, etc. that a brand does for influencers so just be appreciative.
What, if any, metrics do you provide to a PR after a sponsorship campaign to help them measure success?
I have a business account on Instagram so you can easily see reach/impressions and engagement which I always screenshot for a brand. I also screenshot IG stories so that if I am doing something for a brand they can see the stats around that post. In regards to sponsored blog posts, I can also provide stats such as page views, unique visits and bounce rates on a particular post. Brands on their side will also be able to see click through to their site through Google Analytics from a blog post.
I have a business account on Instagram so you can easily see reach/impressions and engagement which I always screenshot for a brand. I also screenshot IG stories so that if I am doing something for a brand they can see the stats around that post. In regards to sponsored blog posts, I can also provide stats such as page views, unique visits and bounce rates on a particular post. Brands on their side will also be able to see click through to their site through Google Analytics from a blog post.
Where do you see the industry heading? How has it changed since you first started?
I do find on the PR side that it’s harder and harder to target long lead press – it’s tough getting page space in a magazine these days! Magazines are also under pressure so I completely understand but it’s no surprise that because brands find it so hard to get a spot in a magazine feature that they turn to influencers/bloggers for coverage. Also with digital – whether it’s magazine or blog post you can measure the traffic it brings to a site through Google Analytics which is incredibly useful. It’s much easier to prove the ROI. So I do see things moving more in the digital space. But saying that I think there will always be space for both print and digital.
I do find on the PR side that it’s harder and harder to target long lead press – it’s tough getting page space in a magazine these days! Magazines are also under pressure so I completely understand but it’s no surprise that because brands find it so hard to get a spot in a magazine feature that they turn to influencers/bloggers for coverage. Also with digital – whether it’s magazine or blog post you can measure the traffic it brings to a site through Google Analytics which is incredibly useful. It’s much easier to prove the ROI. So I do see things moving more in the digital space. But saying that I think there will always be space for both print and digital.
Do you feel a pressure to curate your Instagram feed? What are your thoughts on influencers altering their imagery significantly?
Oh yes, Instagram. I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram these days. I love it but it’s a lot of pressure and it can easily get you down if you think about it too deeply. I do feel the need to curate my feed so that it looks good and tells a story. And not only that but there is also a constant pressure to have high engagement. This is now harder than ever due to Instagram’s algorithm – your posts just aren’t seen by as many people so naturally engagement/likes/comments will be down for everyone.
Oh yes, Instagram. I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram these days. I love it but it’s a lot of pressure and it can easily get you down if you think about it too deeply. I do feel the need to curate my feed so that it looks good and tells a story. And not only that but there is also a constant pressure to have high engagement. This is now harder than ever due to Instagram’s algorithm – your posts just aren’t seen by as many people so naturally engagement/likes/comments will be down for everyone.
In regards to photoshopping, I don’t mind people photoshopping posts if it’s done in a creative way. Quyen Mike does this amazingly. However, if you do it to deceive people I’m not into that.
What would your advice be to someone who wanted to launch a blog in this busy arena?
Whew – these days it’s harder than ever to stand out but it’s never too late! The secret is good content and also feeling passionate about what you write about. For people hoping to make a quick buck it takes a lot of time before that ever happens but if your goal is create good, genuine content then go for it! Read other blogs or watch YouTube videos that inspire you – a way to get better at writing is to actually read! And practice makes perfect – when I look at some of my first blog posts I actually giggle/cringe because the photography is so bad but I would never delete them because they show me how far I’ve come.
Whew – these days it’s harder than ever to stand out but it’s never too late! The secret is good content and also feeling passionate about what you write about. For people hoping to make a quick buck it takes a lot of time before that ever happens but if your goal is create good, genuine content then go for it! Read other blogs or watch YouTube videos that inspire you – a way to get better at writing is to actually read! And practice makes perfect – when I look at some of my first blog posts I actually giggle/cringe because the photography is so bad but I would never delete them because they show me how far I’ve come.
"Brands do not have endless budgets. Some brands have no budgets at all to work with influencers and some do – they are all different. And bloated figures for sponsored posts won’t go down well."
What inspired you to create your own beauty subscription box service?
Well, the background story is that I spent so much time travelling before I arrived in the UK and consequently trying lots of beauty products from different countries. I lived in Osaka, Japan for four years and Melbourne, Australia for 1.5 years and have travelled extensively all over the world (nearly 60 countries!) from a home stay in Mongolia, to travelling across Russia by the Trans-Siberian train to consulting with witch doctors in Malawi. I mean I have travelled and had amazing adventures. Also I’ve always loved beauty so I thought why not combine my two loves and create a beauty subscription box with a global theme? So each month I curate products from a different country that is special to me. People who subscribe to my boxes tell me they love learning about a new country through beauty – my boxes come with lots of info about the products and the beauty culture from those countries. My first box – Tokyo Love – was a Japanese beauty box, my second (Seoul Sister) was all about Korean beauty (I’ve been to Korea FIVE times!) and my third which is just launching now is my French beauty box – Bonjour Beauty. My next one will be all about Australian beauty so watch this space!
Well, the background story is that I spent so much time travelling before I arrived in the UK and consequently trying lots of beauty products from different countries. I lived in Osaka, Japan for four years and Melbourne, Australia for 1.5 years and have travelled extensively all over the world (nearly 60 countries!) from a home stay in Mongolia, to travelling across Russia by the Trans-Siberian train to consulting with witch doctors in Malawi. I mean I have travelled and had amazing adventures. Also I’ve always loved beauty so I thought why not combine my two loves and create a beauty subscription box with a global theme? So each month I curate products from a different country that is special to me. People who subscribe to my boxes tell me they love learning about a new country through beauty – my boxes come with lots of info about the products and the beauty culture from those countries. My first box – Tokyo Love – was a Japanese beauty box, my second (Seoul Sister) was all about Korean beauty (I’ve been to Korea FIVE times!) and my third which is just launching now is my French beauty box – Bonjour Beauty. My next one will be all about Australian beauty so watch this space!
What have you found to be your biggest difficulties/struggles since launching your blog?
Well, it seems like there are more and more tasks to do as time goes on – things keep getting added to the list. There are always ways to increase your SEO and traffic to your site so that challenge never goes away. The SEO for me takes forever so that’s probably my biggest challenge. I also think the Instagram algorithm change made doing well on Instagram A LOT harder. When Google or Instagram change things this always makes it more difficult but unfortunately this really can’t be controlled! Running a blog/YouTube/Instagram channel is like owning your own business – your goals just keep getting bigger and bigger.
Well, it seems like there are more and more tasks to do as time goes on – things keep getting added to the list. There are always ways to increase your SEO and traffic to your site so that challenge never goes away. The SEO for me takes forever so that’s probably my biggest challenge. I also think the Instagram algorithm change made doing well on Instagram A LOT harder. When Google or Instagram change things this always makes it more difficult but unfortunately this really can’t be controlled! Running a blog/YouTube/Instagram channel is like owning your own business – your goals just keep getting bigger and bigger.
As a PR do you use any tools to determine which influencers to work with or maybe avoid ?
Because I am an ‘influencer’ myself I can pretty much eyeball someone’s feed and probably within 10 minutes could tell you if anything fishy was going on. I don’t really use Social Blade because sometimes it can be a bit deceiving – for example if an influencer is re-grammed from an Instagram inspo site with thousands and thousands of followers and gains a thousand followers in a day suddenly this may look suspicious on Social Blade. It would look like they bought followers when that actually wasn’t the case at all. The only thing that Social Blade can really tell you is if people are following/unfollowing people in order to get potential follow backs. But it can’t explain the full details of why someone suddenly got 1000 new followers in a day.
Because I am an ‘influencer’ myself I can pretty much eyeball someone’s feed and probably within 10 minutes could tell you if anything fishy was going on. I don’t really use Social Blade because sometimes it can be a bit deceiving – for example if an influencer is re-grammed from an Instagram inspo site with thousands and thousands of followers and gains a thousand followers in a day suddenly this may look suspicious on Social Blade. It would look like they bought followers when that actually wasn’t the case at all. The only thing that Social Blade can really tell you is if people are following/unfollowing people in order to get potential follow backs. But it can’t explain the full details of why someone suddenly got 1000 new followers in a day.
I don’t think it’s about people buying followers as much as people buying likes. Again, you can instantly tell if the likes are fake because the likes come from bot accounts which are pretty easy to spot. Again, I know why this happened – it’s because influencers panicked because they suddenly weren’t getting as many likes and engagement on Instagram due to the algorithm change. They just need to realise that this happened to EVERYONE so try not to panic and do anything stupid! Trust me – it takes a skilled eye to know. But a note for brands out there - I do think that most influencers are genuine and the ones who are not are going to get caught out sooner or later anyway.
What do you think PRs can do to improve their relationship and work better with influencers and vice versa?
I think it’s all about respect. PRs need to realise that influencers take their blog and social feeds really seriously and influencers need to have respect for PRs and build good relationships on both sides. Both are under different pressures – it’s about understanding what those pressures are and the challenges that each one faces. PRs need coverage and need to report back on ROI so if you are an influencer don’t accept things if you aren’t going to provide anything for that. Don’t say yes to exclusive dinners, press trips, nice things etc. if you just aren’t going to feature anything. PRs also don’t waste time sending unsolicited post and then chase people for coverage. Just don’t be rude – on either side! Influencers need PRs and PRs need influencers – it’s as simple as that. When people realise that both sides need each other just as much as the other this is when you can really work together well.
I think it’s all about respect. PRs need to realise that influencers take their blog and social feeds really seriously and influencers need to have respect for PRs and build good relationships on both sides. Both are under different pressures – it’s about understanding what those pressures are and the challenges that each one faces. PRs need coverage and need to report back on ROI so if you are an influencer don’t accept things if you aren’t going to provide anything for that. Don’t say yes to exclusive dinners, press trips, nice things etc. if you just aren’t going to feature anything. PRs also don’t waste time sending unsolicited post and then chase people for coverage. Just don’t be rude – on either side! Influencers need PRs and PRs need influencers – it’s as simple as that. When people realise that both sides need each other just as much as the other this is when you can really work together well.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Oh those questions are always hard. I would love to be my own PR – wouldn’t that be the dream?! I would like to run my own blog business but still be able to take on clients to help them with their PR/Social goals at the same time. I’ve also always fancied freelancing for a magazine (Tatler Spa Guide are you listening?). I’m the kind of person who likes to have eggs in more than one basket – I’ve always been that way. I enjoy working on several different projects so I don’t get burned out with any one in particular.
Oh those questions are always hard. I would love to be my own PR – wouldn’t that be the dream?! I would like to run my own blog business but still be able to take on clients to help them with their PR/Social goals at the same time. I’ve also always fancied freelancing for a magazine (Tatler Spa Guide are you listening?). I’m the kind of person who likes to have eggs in more than one basket – I’ve always been that way. I enjoy working on several different projects so I don’t get burned out with any one in particular.
What other bloggers /influencers do you follow and why?
I’ve always loved Song of Style – her feed is my total inspiration – it combines lifestyle with travel, beauty and fashion and tells a story. For realness I love Hannah Gale – her posts make me laugh out loud. And who doesn’t love a good dog account? Piggy and Polly are genius – you cannot look at that feed without smiling. It’s just not possible.
I’ve always loved Song of Style – her feed is my total inspiration – it combines lifestyle with travel, beauty and fashion and tells a story. For realness I love Hannah Gale – her posts make me laugh out loud. And who doesn’t love a good dog account? Piggy and Polly are genius – you cannot look at that feed without smiling. It’s just not possible.