DIARY directory recently caught up with fashion and travel loving DJ sisters, Jordan and Loanne Collyer from The Collyer Twins. An oh-so-stylish blogging duo, the sisters foray into blogging came in 2013 when Jordan created a fashion blog whilst at university. Although initially updated sporadically, things changed a year later when Loanne graduated and the sisters discovered their dream team potential. Joining forces to share their statement style, travel adventures and musical prowess, the twins now run a thriving blog which has caught the eye of many of the world's biggest brands. Today they share with us how they pick such collaborations, how they plan their posts and what it's like to work with family. 

Worked with brands including Topshop, J.Crew, Puma and
Tommy Hilfiger

"We have a trust like no other and, obviously, both want the same for the business. We are so lucky that we get to travel
the world together..."

Who are your audience? Do you find you have more fashionistas, music lovers, or travel seekers following you?

The majority of our audience are female who love fashion and travel, however, we do have a 30% male ratio of followers and I think that is partly to do with the music side of things.

Did you start off as a duo or did you used to have individual Instagram accounts? What came first travel blogging or Djing?

We started the Instagram account together, we both started off with individual accounts but both used them as personal platforms as opposed to a business platform. The blogging came first then the DJing shortly after. We grew up surrounded by music so it was a no-brainer for us to start DJing. We’re lucky as we have lots of friends in the music industry who encouraged us and taught us the ropes. The two, blogging and DJing, now go very hand in hand.

At what point did you both realise that this was your career path and that blogging was the direction you wanted to take?

We always knew that we weren’t cut out for office jobs. Growing up on stage, we knew we were built to do something within the creative field. We both really enjoyed taking photos and showcasing our outfits and what we were up to so as soon as the blog started to gain traction we knew we were going to make a career out of it.

How do you go about planning your social posts? How far ahead do you work?

We are very big on an app called Planoly which allows you to plan and view your content before you post It to ensure your Instagram grid is looking coherent and aligned. We have a bank of images always waiting to be posted but we’re both quite fussy with what we post. Sometimes it’s dependent on deadlines when working with brands but we do try to ensure we have content planned for the week ahead which is usually a mix of brand partnerships and our own content.

How do you select your next destination? What’s the most important factor, culture, weather or resort?

Primarily we look for the sun! Firstly because we’re sun-worshippers but secondly the lighting is so much stronger so any chance we get to escape the gloom of London we’re there. All of our best content has been abroad as the quality and lighting are in a different league to content in the UK. Obviously, the resort is important too but when you have good lighting anything can work!!

We love the variety in your posts, whether you are travelling, giving us fashion inspo, or performing at a festival. How do you maintain your mixture of posts, do you ever find yourself tending to lean more in one direction than another?

We like to have a mixture of content in there to fully showcase what we’re up too. We do try to make sure we are travelling at least once every couple of months to get a variety of travel and fashion content.

You’ve previously teamed up with the likes of Puma and New Look, are there any other brands that you currently work with? Who would be your dream collaboration?

Yes, we’ve been super busy and have worked with some great brands. We’ve just finished working with J.Crew to create a ‘Style Hack’ video for them which was super fun! We’ve recently worked with H&M, Topshop, & Other Stories... Karl Lagerfeld, Tommy Hilfiger and Kurt Geiger. Dream collab would probably be working with brands like Faithfull The Brand or Conrad Hotels, anything that involves travelling and getting that Summer gear out!

What do you look for in a brand? What factors do you take into account?

First and foremost it has to be a brand that we like and that we genuinely believe in. Second of all, we have to ask ourselves whether it's fitting with our own brand. Does it align aesthetically? Is it something our audience will resonate with? These are the most important things to consider. Things like the size of the brand and company are irrelevant. Again, if we like it and it fits well with our brand, sign us up!

What’s it like working with your family? How do you make all of your decisions?

It is really great to work with each other. We have a trust like no other and obviously both want the same for the business. We are so lucky that we get to travel the world together and have each other to attend new events and meetings. It does, however, get extremely challenging, spending so much time with someone - there are always going to be bickers and arguments which is why it is important to give each other a bit of breathing space from time to time!

Often influencers get lost in the numbers game. How do you measure your progress and success? Where do you see the industry progressing in the next 5 years?

I think a lot of brands also get lost in the numbers game. Reality is though, the longer you’ve been doing it, the more followers you’re going to have. We were pretty late to the game so we don’t have that advantage. We do however produce strong content which we believe should put us in the running with these other influencers that started from the beginning. That’s why engagement is a very important metric and one of the ways we measure our success. The other way is through the type of brands that approach us and want to work with us, as well as the type of press and coverage we receive! We’ve ticked off a lot of our goals already this year through working with some of our favourite brands! Where the industry is progressing in the next 5 years...that’s a good question. It has been said for a long time now but I do believe attention spans are getting shorter and the rise of YouTube and video content is a direct result of this. Less people seem to be reading blogs now and more people are focusing on easily accessible and ready to watch video content. We’re jumping on the bandwagon! 

If you had to choose between your blog and Instagram, which would you choose and why?

That's difficult. we love Instagram but I think the blog is a better representation of the two of us! This is where you really get to know us more, a taster of what we do, where we go and a whole bank of content you’ve never seen on any of our social pages. Our blog is our personal portfolio, we started it as a hobby and we’ve just so happened to start making money out of it which is amazing. We have no control over social media so if anything was to ever happen to instagram (touch wood it doesn’t), we’re safe to say we have our own portfolio and blog to fall back on!

Do certain types of posts seem to do better than others? What advice would you give budding influencers trying to spot these?

Yes, the photos of the two of us together definitely exceed the engagement of just photos of us on our own. Our holiday content always seems to get higher engagement as well, when the light is prime and our outfits can really stand out. Our ‘matchy, matchy’ symmetrical photos always seem to perform the best. I think it’s important to stay true to who you are and focus on what sets you apart from the rest. We are identical twins and people are fascinated by that, they love the fact there's two of us and to see our similar but varying tastes in clothes and styles.

Have you got anything exciting planned for the future?

We have many exciting things planned indeed! Just think a lot more of what we’re doing right now. Festivals, more video content, bigger DJ gigs, more travelling and a potential line of our own :) Enough said! We don’t want to give it all away. you’ll have to stay tuned and find out for yourselves!

Listed in DIARY directory in the blogs & vlogs section, The Collyer Twins are one of over 1500 categorised influencers that PRs could work with. Subscribers can sort blogs according to social media following across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and filter by country and UK region. See our previous Featured Influencers here!