Ever wondered what influencers do all day? Every week we're going to be chatting to famous social media influencers to find out exactly what they do on an average day.
This week we spoke to singer, YouTuber and influencer Talia Mar and she's spilled the tea on creating content for her social media platforms including Twitch, how she first went viral and her advice for anyone who wants to follow in her footsteps...
Name: Talia Mar
Age: 24 years old
Social media platforms: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and Twitch
Talia Mar reveals how she blew up on social media
It's probably a lot of aspiring influencers who dream of going viral on social media and funnily enough, that's exactly what happened to Talia Mar.
"My first make-up photo I tweeted went viral and completely blew up, this helped me gain an audience and really took me by surprise!" she told us.
"I then ended up with 10k followers on Twitter and really everything went from there. I started having people asking me to film YouTube videos so I posted tutorials and carried on from there."
"I worked at Chessington World of Adventures"
Before becoming a full-time influencer, Talia actually had worked in completely different fields (well, kind of).
"I worked at Chessington World of Adventures, I was a Bartender for a bit, I worked at a make-up stand for Smashbox and I was a freelance make-up artist.
"Then when it all started taking off [when her tweet went viral], I quit my job and decided to try it full time and things went from there."
She added, "I never juggled having a job and doing this full-time, I focussed fully on being a content creator once I had quit working which meant I could be fully dedicated to it."
Nowadays you'll see Talia on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Twitch (FYI it's a streaming platform and Talia is "either playing games or talking too much" - her words, not ours).
Speaking about her daily schedule, Talia admitted that no days are the same.
"Every day is completely different, I normally wake up earlier on a shoot day and this can be before 8am depending on the call time.
"On a regular day, I normally wake up before 11am so that I can either get an early stream in or get some admin done. Meetings depend on my diary, some days are quieter, some days I have 4-5 meetings either with my team or external brands to discuss exciting things!
"I normally then try to reply to comments/DM’s when there's spare time throughout the day."
When it comes to posting content on her social media platforms it turns out that Twitch is actually the app she's on the most.
"I stream pretty much every day, shoots are starting to pick back up now and these are happening almost every week.
"I work on creating sponsored content for different brands throughout the whole week and posting within brand deadlines and I also work on writing and recording music as that is a big focus for me at the moment."
She added, "Meetings depend on what is going on during that week and it ranges, I can sometimes have around 6 meetings a day or it can be quieter and I have just a few meetings a week."
Now posting content on social media may sound as if it's a quick and easy job but it turns out for Talia sometimes she'll spend up to half a day on Twitch.
"[Because] a lot of content is live when I am streaming on Twitch, I normally stream between 4-12 hours a day," she explained.
Whereas with Instagram content, "Photos take me about an hour plus to shoot, then editing takes around 5 mins. I use Lightroom, I love colour editing and I actually studied photo editing at school.
"My long form video content (on YouTube) take a full day and my short form videos (on TikToks) take a few hours to shoot."
As for actually creating content the 24 year old admitted that it's actually the people in her personal life that give her ideas.
"I get my inspiration mainly from my friends, people around me and what I like to watch, I then shoot it and make it my own," she confessed.
When we asked Talia what advice she'd give to any aspiring influencers, her response was pretty simple, "My biggest tip is to just start and go for it".
"Just start and go for it"
She continued, "Make sure you enjoy the content you put out there and keep it consistent.
"Don’t upload just one Instagram post or YouTube video and one then again a year later, make sure you're keeping all your channels active."
And you never know if you follow her footsteps you might just end up going viral.
"I also posted a camera hack this year on TikTok which went viral and gained loads of traction and press," she added.
Part of becoming a full-time influencer may mean that you sign with a management company and Talia has advised that you do your research before signing anything.
"Starting to know your worth is really important, a management can make or break you so making sure you have a really good relationship with them," she explained.
"I would also say to make sure you love spending time with them as you do have to spend a lot of time with them and always, trust your gut."
And as for Talia and her team there's actually six people she works with.
"I have an assistant, Alex and work with my management, as well my lawyer. I also have a freelance photographer, videographer and editor".
As with all jobs there's pros and cons and Talia admitted that it's trolling that's the worst part of her job.
"Online hate can be difficult to manage," she admitted, however there's plenty she does enjoy about her job.
"I love the freedom and flexibility that you get with your time, you’re doing something you love.
"I am so lucky to get to work with amazing brands that I’ve loved for a long time, and I get to create really cool content for them. Every day is very different, and I love that aspect of my job," she explained.
As an influencer it might be hard to figure out who your actual audience is (Belle Hassan admitted after Love Island she found it difficult to adjust to all her new Instagram followers) but Talia's found the best way that suits her.
"I spend a lot of my time engaging and talking to my audience. Twitch enables me to speak to my audience directly every day which I love.
"I get to know them on a more meaningful level than looking into analytics which are available as well to understand your audience on a more general level."
During our chat we had to know what's the most surprising part of Talia's job and she revealed it's actually the friendships.
"You immediately make friends with other people that do the same thing.
"I meet loads of people from playing the same games as me on Twitch which I love as we have so much in common!"
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Talia Mar on career regrets and her 2021 plans
When we asked Talia if there's anything she'd change about her career there was one thing she slightly regrets.
"I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, but I definitely should’ve stopped reading the bad comments sooner."
And as for her 2021 plans it sounds as if we're going to be seeing a lot more of her.
"2021 is going to be an important year for me with music, a lot of things are in the works and I can’t wait to share them with everyone.
"As well as some really cool brand collaborations coming up. I am also really looking forward to being able to travel again after the pandemic as I’m sure everyone else is!"