The social media landscape of today is awash with individuals who influence and engage with their audience on a level never seen before. The pace of content creation is frantic and we know that everyone wants a piece of the action – but this hasn’t always been accessible to smaller brands with tiny marketing budgets.
Today, the rise of micro-influencers is allowing brands of all sizes to tap into highly engaged audiences – according to Gnack’s CEO, Chris Gonzalez, micro-influencers get an average of two-to-five times more organic engagement per Instagram post, compared to those with more than 100,000 followers”. Apparently, there’s such a thing as being too popular.
Micro-influencers are authentic, affordable, highly targeted & achieve more engagement.
At Flaunter, we have access to a network of influencers who are always keen to discover new brands, download beautiful images and request samples to include in their own photo shoots. Which is why during April, we launched the first Flaunter Influencer Challenge to give bloggers and stylists the opportunity to explore the Flaunter image library and create a mood board that showcased their personal style and creativity. Today, we introduce the winner of our comp and chat to her about her unique audience.
Vanessa Valois || @Miss.GoodyTwoShoes
Tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Vanessa. I am a primary school teacher who loves musical theatre and am head over heels for fashion.
What inspired you to start Miss GoodyTwoShoes?
At my previous school, I worked with teachers who were fellow fashion lovers and constantly inspired me to take pride in the way I dressed and have fun with my clothing choices. We all challenged ourselves to dress professionally but also experiment with trends.
Then I started at a new school and didn’t have my little network of fashionistas… It took me about six months to stop putting effort into my outfits which coincided with Canberra winter so I spent the winter wearing black jeans, boots and knits. I started to notice that I didn’t have the same excitement to come to school every day – I was in a fashion rut!
Luckily, I discovered teacher-fashion-bloggers on Instagram and decided that was how I was going to reignite my fashion love affair. The teacher bloggers are really the most amazing community; we share handy hints, resources and most of all support each other. That one little compliment or smiley face can make all the difference on a rough day and they constantly inspire me to push myself further as a teacher and with my fashion choices.
What motivates you to keep sharing content?
Sometimes I do find it difficult to find the time in my crazy teacher day to take photos of what I’m wearing. And honestly, sometimes it has to give way while I prioritise other aspects of my life. However, ultimately it is something that I really enjoy doing.
Sharing with my followers is a way to pay homage to the time and effort and love I have put into an outfit. I really love being a part of the Instagram teacher and fashion community and enjoy contributing and sharing what I am wearing and doing in my classroom.
What’s your number one piece of fashion advice?
Wear things that suit you and your body type. This doesn’t mean wear the same thing every day, or stick to one shape of jeans or dress or one colour. I am all about trends and having fun with them and I think your outfit should be a reflection of who you want to be portrayed as at that particular point in time. It tells people who you are and what you’re about before you even talk.
Don’t always listen to people if they don’t like that particular bag/jacket/hat/skirt that is a bit out there but you adore. If you adore it, wear it, love it, rock it. Experiment with different looks, but also know when something isn’t right. For me, something isn’t right when I start squinting in the mirror, or looking at a dress from a particular angle, or saying “if I just take it in here and only wear heels” 😉
Who are your style icons?
- Brittany Xavier || @ThriftandThreads for her effortlessly cool street style
- Kirsten Anderton || @KirstenAnderton she takes layering and monochrome chic to a whole new level.
- Olivia Palermo || @OliviaPalermo she is the ultimate embodiment of elegant and trendy at the same time. Which are two adjectives that don’t hang out together that often!
Who is your favourite blogger?
Britney Briggs || Miss 5th || @miss5th
She is a not a fashion blogger, she is a teacher blogger and she is incredible. The love she has for teaching and her students just pours into every article. I’m much more of a visual person when it comes to fashion so I spend more time on Instagram and Pinterest looking at fashion than reading blogs. But as with any profession, it is fascinating and great for professional development to read about other people’s processes and strategies.
Your go-to online store?
Oooh! This is a hard one. It depends often on what I’m shopping for. But, generally, I can’t go past Petal & Pup. They are a fashion boutique with beautiful on trend items. Plus they are Australian so you get your items quickly (great for me, I am a chronic last minute panic shopper!).
What do you find the most difficult aspect of creating your page?
Getting past the fear of judgment. It was like being in a high school time warp again. The self-doubt of is this good enough? Will people like it? Once you get past that and just post things that you like then it’s smooth sailing.
Where do you source your images?
The majority of the images that I currently use are my own. However after finding Flaunter get ready for Miss Goody Two Shoes to be flooded with mood boards! I also can’t wait to start requesting samples from newly discovered brands so that I can snap images of items myself!
How would you describe your personal style
Overall, I would say preppy. But also adventurous. I love playing around with trends and am not afraid to wear something that I think is fabulous even if my friends aren’t on board with it!
Featured brands || Lovisa, Kmart, Target, Witchery, Collette Hayman, Forever New
What was your experience using Flaunter?
I had so much fun using Flaunter. I really enjoy the easy search options, being able to sort photos according to the photo type or colour scheme made it super easy to put together mood boards.
The website was very self-explanatory and easy to use and navigate through. I was also really happy to see very affordable brands being represented. As a self-confessed “bargain hunter” seeing brands that I love like Sportsgirl, Missguided and Lipstick is fantastic.
Flaunter makes it a breeze to source product images and takes all the hard work out of it. Forget scrolling through every brand’s website to find products and getting frustrated when you can’t just right-click and save their images. Flaunter puts it all in one place. You can save the images to your various mood boards and then you are happy with the images collected, save and download as a zipped folder all of the images in high resolution, on your computer ready to go. Boom! Fantastic.