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With nearly 2 million users across the country, from President Higgins to Bono, it’s safe to say that Instagram has penetrated almost every aspect of Irish life.
For some, the social media platform has even become a way to make a living, with brands giving millions to popular users to promote on their pages.
The earnings can be quite high for homegrown beauties here in Ireland, with users like Suzanne Jackson and Rosie Connolly believed to be able to earn up to € 1000 per sponsored post.
Nicole O’Brien from Cork, however, could put them all to shame, with a post to her 826,000 followers that will earn her $ 4,000 this year.
“I think paid content is totally acceptable if the influencers do it the right way. I only work with brands that I like and trust. Everything I post is what I believe in, ”says the 25-year-old. He shot to fame last year after appearing on Netflix. , which was viewed by more than 64 million households worldwide.
“My life completely changed overnight. It went from zero to 100 so fast I couldn’t believe it. There was a time when I gained up to 65,000 followers a day, ”he says.
The constant notifications made her nervous at first. The Innishannon native had been working as a sales executive in London before the show aired, and moved two years ago after her graduation from UCC.
However, he quickly got used to the care and tried to use it in a positive way, establishing a self-help platform called IAmLovd.com with a group of expert psychologists.
“It made me feel very anxious at first because there were so many eyes on me and I didn’t know how to perceive myself on social media. So I decided to be myself and share my ups and downs with everyone. I wanted to be totally transparent and people loved it, ”he says.
“Instagram is essentially how I make most of my money now, it’s my source of income. I’ve been voted the best influencer in Ireland, which has been crazy. Looking back, just a year ago, I was working in an office. ”
Nicole made headlines a few months ago when Zalando named her the highest-earning Irish influencer, estimating her earnings at € 422,000, which is not an exact figure. She is very careful about the brands she works with, and only endorses products that she believes in.
“I realized for the first time that I could make Instagram a job just two days after the show aired. I had great brand deals coming from companies like Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing and MissyEmpire, ”he says. “Instagram has given me incredible job opportunities. I had my own clothing line edit with WearWhatSheWore. I’ve also been able to attend events and meet amazing people. ”
His main focus at the moment, however, is his music career and rebranding as an artist. She just released her first single under the name Kole, it reached number one on the iTunes charts.
“I have wanted to work in the industry since I was a teenager and I firmly believe that you can do anything you put your mind to. I always had in mind that I wanted to do television and influence and then gradually get into music from there, ”he says. However, the difficult part is being constantly in public view.
“It can be a blessing and a curse. I love chatting with people from all over the world, but with that, you also get opinions from a lot of people on certain things. It is very important to have thick skin if you want to have a great profile on social media. I’m lucky that nothing makes me nervous anymore, but people have to be careful about that. There is a negative view of online influencers and I think it has gotten worse. “
Since Louise Cooney first created her website in 2015, her name has become synonymous with fashion blogs in Ireland. For her 214k followers on Instagram, there is simply no talk of Irish Instagram pages without mentioning Louise, who recently tracked her return to Ireland from New York City for her followers.
Returning to the family home would be a shock to any 28-year-old’s system, but especially to someone who quit their job in 2017 to make a full-time living creating content online. The next eight months in his native Limerick was the longest time he had spent at home since he left to study communications at DCU at 17.
“At that time, I really didn’t know what I was going to do or what path I would take, but being creative, writing, taking photos, gathering ideas; that’s what I’ve always liked a lot and that’s exactly what I do for my work.” says Louise on the phone from her new apartment in Dublin City.
He first moved to the Big Apple after receiving his master’s degree to study as a graduate student at Tourism Ireland.
Writing about fashion was a no-brainer for Louise, who spent her childhood ripping pages out of magazines. In addition to running his blog, he also worked as a correspondent for and studied a fashion course at Parsons School of Design.
“It was a constant hustle for years,” he says. “The thing is, when it’s something you love, it doesn’t feel like a job. The opportunities it opened up for me were worth it.” However, after a year, the 24-year-old was forced to make a difficult decision.
“I got to a point where I had to make a decision about [blogging] full-time or quit because he couldn’t keep doing both. So I said, Look, I can travel, I can get all these really cool opportunities, even if it only lasts for a couple of years. Why not?”
Louise saved six months of living expenses and quit her job, a “calculated risk” as she calls it. “I’m a bit worried. However, you must have a lot of faith in what you do.”
Since then, you’ve learned a lot, from simple things like which months are busiest (December) to how to do your taxes (not so easy to figure out). He also had to learn how to block the many verbal bullets aimed at women online.
“When I started my blog, I was so nervous because I think when it’s something that you really love, you’re more scared of backlash. I was so scared of what those closest to you would say. And they did, you know, they said ‘What are you? doing?’ because it’s almost until you prove you’re taking it seriously that anyone else will, “he says.
“Fortunately, people understand that now, but it was really stressful. Doing what I do on a daily basis now would have been very difficult back then. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.”
Unlike Nicole, Louise’s online fame didn’t happen overnight. In the years since she started, she and her fellow post-naughty bloggers have had to leave their websites and navigate the worlds of Youtube, Snapchat, and now Instagram, slowly gaining a following along the way.
“I used to go to my website and there were maybe eight images in a post and a great speech to go with it. Now it’s completely changed. Now it’s about fast 15-second videos and everything has to happen in real time,” she says.
“It’s constantly changing. When video first became something three years ago, I was so bad at it and I hated it. But you have to move with the times.”
A new word has also emerged for Louise’s work that she is not a huge fan of: influencer.
“I think it has a negative connotation and I think what we do is more than that. Yes, we influence purchases, but you can also influence people’s decisions in addition to buying things, for example, donating to a cause, like me. I work with Casa de la Piedad.
“It shouldn’t be considered a totally bad word because it depends on what people are influencing and a lot of Irish influencers do both. They also influence for the better. I also share a lot of my life and that’s essentially where it started,” says Louise, pointing. the consequences that can bring.
“People can be pretty tough. I have read things about myself online that are sometimes not very fair or true. That can be very difficult because it plays on your insecurities, sometimes insecurities that you didn’t even know you had. ”
When it comes to the crowded online landscape, Louise, who has also been cited as one of Ireland’s highest-earning content creators, says there is no place for people who think about money first.
“There is no reason why you should work with brands that you don’t like. I would never work with a brand that I don’t actually use or support because, at the end of the day, if your audience can’t trust you and if” You sell something that you can’t really back up, you just won’t have longevity in space. Trust is everything in what we do. “
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