The blue-haired blogger on brands, bitchiness and bringing in the big bucks…
Photography: Kyle Galvin
“I think some brands think that we [creators] just sit at home and take selfies on our phones,” Sophie Hannah Richardson says and rolls her eyes.
“I’ll spend a whole day shooting a video, editing it and getting it exactly right for a client. If they were to shoot that content themselves they would have to pay for a videographer, an editor, a model, a location etc. Sometimes I think brands are just cheeky when it comes to bloggers.”
Fortunately, however, Sophie has experience from the other side and can put brands in their place if they do start to take advantage. Prior to becoming a full-time blogger/Instagrammer/YouTuber in June 2016, the 26-year-old worked in PR for three years and was in charge of building brands’ social media outreach.
This gave her first-hand experience of brands’ budgets, expectations and fees – and an understanding of the value of the influencer market. Indeed, Sophie is very matter-of-fact when it comes to the logistics and finances of blogging full-time.
“Some bloggers don’t like to talk about how much they charge. I guess it’s because blogging hasn’t been around for years, so many of them have had to make it up as they go along.
“I like to help and often when a blogging friend gets a project they’ll come to me, as I’ve worked from a brand perspective before, and they’ll say: ‘Soph, I’ve got this job, how much should I charge?’ and I’ll always try to give them advice and tell them what price they shouldn’t go below.”
Sophie’s strongest platform, where she can charge the most, is Instagram. She has more than 250,000 followers on the app and is renowned for her hair tutorial videos in which she’ll experiment with her vibrant blue locks and create awesome bold looks. Despite having more than a quarter of a million followers, Sophie believes numbers are actually becoming less and less relevant.
“I think now that blogging is developing, what matters more is engagement rate over following,” she says.
“I know that there are agencies that are setting up now and are only taking on bloggers with less than 50,000 followers because they know that their engagement rates are a lot stronger than if you’ve got more followers.” It’s important to note that engagement rates can fluctuate, too, Sophie says, and that there’s a difference between engaging in the form of likes and engaging in the form of views.
“I get between 13,000 – 20,000 views on my Instagram Story and you would think that that is how many people want to see my content – but I don’t get 20,000 likes on my photos.”
(N.B Sophie’s videos on Instagram usually sit at around the 100,000-view mark, though a recent hair-dye tutorial currently has more than 2,750,000 views.)
Sophie’s Instagram account is a work of art and showcases her statement style, which she describes as “edgy and a bit quirky”.
“I think it’s important that bloggers have their own unique way that they dress as I feel like that’s your way of distinguishing yourself,” she says.
“I think my style has stayed the same since I started blogging,” she continues.
“I like playing around with oversized earrings and glitter and sequins and things like that.” The move into high-end, luxury fashion isn’t something Sophie intends to branch into and she is sometimes dubious of bloggers who do make the move.
“Sometimes it’s clear that it’s the blogger’s genuine style aspiration, but other times I think that it’s just because the blogger wants to make more money. I know some people who do well at the affiliate schemes and obviously if you sell a designer piece you’re going to get £100 plus for that.”
Making money isn’t the problem for Sophie; it’s the lack of authenticity. Staying true to oneself is important, Sophie states, as that’s what the readers come back for. It’s Sophie’s consistency that she attributes to her success on Instagram (she often posts twice a day), but although her following is growing by 10,000 – 20,000 a month, she is keen not to focus all of her energy on the platform.
“I think as a blogger you should be on everything,” she says.
“I’m trying to grow my YouTube now because I don’t think you should only be on one thing.
“I mean look at MySpace and Bebo – they were so big back in the day and we used them all the time, then suddenly no-one wanted to be on them anymore.
“You just never know what’s going to happen.”
One platform that didn’t work out for Sophie, despite much effort, was Snapchat.
“I tried so hard to get my Instagram audience to follow me on Snapchat, but they just didn’t go. On Snapchat I was only getting about 1,800 views a story, so I just don’t use it anymore.”
In addition to the two or more Instagram posts, an average social media day for Sophie consists of a Facebook post, at least one tweet and now an Instagram story.
“If I get time, I use Buffer and I schedule loads of posts in on Facebook and Twitter just so I know that I have something going up,” she says.
“I do feel like Twitter is a really hard one to crack, though, because I think you have to be really witty on there and constantly post if you want people to follow you.
“I don’t have a strong following on that channel. I don’t use it as much as I probably should because I know that there are a lot of bloggers on there and it’s a good way to connect with everyone. It’s just finding the time.”
Sophie has formed a strong group of fellow blogging friends without Twitter anyway. Some she met through her former job and others through blogging events.
“I’ve made loads of friends through blogging, which has been really nice as I think that when you get older it’s harder to make new friends. Obviously you might have friends at work, but other than that there aren’t really that many opportunities.”
Whilst Sophie has seen the positive aspects of the blogging community, she has seen a rise in negativity, too.
“There can be a lot of bitchiness,” she says.
“I didn’t think it existed at first but then the more I got into the community and the more I was going to events, the more I saw of it.
“Even now, I’ll go to events and if I go on my own, for example, there are certain people who won’t even talk to me – they’ll just look at me. But if I go with one of my blogging friends who they’re friendly with then they’ll talk to me.”
Where this “bitchy” behaviour arises from, Sophie isn’t quite sure.
“I literally don’t know. I find it so weird because we all do the same thing and we all know how stressful it is. I think we all understand what goes into a blog and so I just think it’s strange this type of behaviour exists.
“I also have heard that some bloggers have fallen out with other bloggers over followers – thinking that they were just after their audience. I think it’s silly – nobody is going to suddenly un-follow one blogger and then follow another. People follow lots of different people for lots of different reasons – there are enough followers to go around! In the blogging world it can get a bit competitive.”
Sophie would rather see more collaboration than competition within the blogosphere. Indeed, 2017 is the year in which she hopes to see the community bond a bit more.
“It would be good to see more bloggers coming together – it would make the industry a nicer place – with less of this bitchy jealousness that seems to be going around.
“I would also like to do more collaborations myself. It would be cool to do some sort of fun hair video with Zoe London for instance. I’ve only met her a couple of times but she’s always really nice.”
A better environment within the community will also lead, Sophie thinks, to brands taking bloggers more seriously.
“It’s a profession at the end of the day, so we should act professionally. Competitiveness aside, we all actually work really hard and brands need to see that. As much as some of them would like to believe it, we really don’t just sit around taking selfies.”