Social media for models

In a world where people are more cognizant on the internet than in real life with social media being the Numero-Uno medium of connecting to the world. It serves multitudinous purposes, for multifarious streams. For the fashion industry in particular today, it’s not just a means to an end anymore, it is the end itself. And in-fact the beginning of a lot more than just fan following. With the plethora of aspiring fashion bloggers swarming the Gram each day with hopes and dreams of transforming their passion into a paycheck. 

Facebook, Instagram, twitter, Snapchat and others playing an imperative role in aggrandizing the models. Instagram being peculiarly popular because that’s a platform where you get to see what these models are in real life. A way to know that models are more than just animated mannequins dressed in haute couture walking like lifeless figurines. With a legion of fans expectant of the next! Sneak peeks and behind the scenes of the busy scheduled lives of these models are even more interesting source that is even more enticing. It’s their way to show what all actually goes into “just walking”.

A picture speaks a thousand words, well yeah! And that too to a 100 thousand people each day! Taking a look at the stats Kendall Jenner and her 99.3 million Instagram followers, approximately 27 million on twitter and about 16 million Facebook fans can you imagine the outreach she has? No wonder she is the number one digital diva! Gigi Hadid reaching 58 million, Cara Delevingne’s 57 million, Tyra Banks having a reach of 29 million. These people hold a very rewarding social media empire. Every second of their life is up for people to watch and admire. Where Instagram and Facebook have more refined and skimmed posts. Snapchat is more like a sneak peek into the personal and very precious lives of the celebrities. A place where you might chance upon the candid no make-up looks of the people you idolize.

Viral is the digital equivalent of a wild fire, spreading within seconds and taking the entire internet by storm. People who religiously follow these supermodels would know about their every new post or more would be waiting for them. Yet another imperative source of marketing. Where models endorse the merchandises .The products they use in their day to day activities. The places they visit, what they eat, where they are hanging out. With these millions of people desperately wanting to step in the same shoes do? They are influenced to use the same products, go to the same places, and eat the same meal and the lengths to which they’d go is limitless. Every new product launch by a huge brand is followed by an intensive digital marketing campaign and who better to do that than their models with the millions of peoples they hold the power to reach out to within seconds. Fashion trends, products, movements and social causes, there is a way to influence everything. 

This is such an intensive process for the models, keeping up with the hectic life and presenting it to the entire world. They cannot just post any random picture, but after a point, instead of being veracious they focus more on projecting a personality which again is just a façade, one that their agencies insist upon. These social media profiles looks all gay and exciting, the world that you see, but these beautiful profiles or rather the image that they so arduously build can be razed to the ground as well. Like I said earlier, Social media is a place where everything spreads like wild fire, the good and the bad alike. All it would take is just a little slip up in your conscience or a too chill weekend for your image to shatter ruthlessly like the cold glass, that one crack. Just a blow too hard on that fragile image that you invested so much energy handling it with care, shatters at lightning fast speed. Just one trash comment that they so casually made on someone else’s profile can wreak havoc for the models as well as the people they remarked upon. Recently Kendall was lashed out at for saying she is very choosy about her work. While she is at a place where she can be casual about what she wants to do but there are others who have to struggle for their big break. Such personalities are always under scrutiny and need to be sensitive with the content they put up.

It is like walking on a tight rope and just when you not wary enough, you’d fall into the unfathomable pit of petty likes, dislikes and comments. To heal a brazen reputation is an arduous task. We are trying to be so aware of our social image, making it building it, it’s a vying world where as much as you get to see what is trending, you have the urge to do it yourself and when it doesn’t gets the response you anticipated, things get to your head. Cyber bullying is not just a term anymore. It is a serious issue and a huge percentage of the youth have to go through it every day. Irrespective of whether it is a normal person or a big celebrity, everyone has been going through this menace. Trolling someone might be a source of entertainment for people, laughing and spreading a photo shopped image with some cheesy lines is all fun till it happens to you. Models have been under the effect of this since a very long time especially body shaming.

There are a million people with a million different perspectives. For some, a model might be too conservative or one might be showing too much skin. The comments are not under their control but the public in general should be more sensitive with what they write, because any form of harassment is unacceptable in any form. So the next time you think the fashion industry is all fun and games every career has its cons as well.