A day in the life of Emma Campbell

Back in November, whilst attending She's the Business female entrepreneur networking workshop, I won a competition, winning the opportunity to arrange and spend the entire day with the successful and well-renowned social media influencer, Emma Campbell. We were back and forth over email arranging when was best to meet, and she made sure she was going to give me a sincere 'day in the life' of Emma! I thoroughly enjoyed my day with her; she showed me the ins and outs of the PR world and online content creation online, not to mention an amazing food experience at the Hilton bar Cloud 23!

Emma leads a life I definitely aspire to have, and after to listening to her on the social media panel at She's the Business I was eager to learn more about it. She spoke about how authenticity is key when being a social media influencer, and that you have a responsibility to influence your audience accordingly. This is mentioned in detail on my She's the Business blog post. Emma, aka 'What Emma Did', has over 64,000 followers on Instagram; blogging and posting on both social media and her website 'Powder Rooms' all things beauty, fashion, food and lifestyle. Her posts are beautifully personal and so relatable its easy to see why she's been high up in the blogger-universe for over ten years. I was itching to find out what being a social media influencer was really like; what do you have to do, how you can make a living from it, and how social media influencers differ from one another. So I was ecstatic when I won the opportunity to spend the day with her. Here's how it went...

We started our day off by meeting in a co-working space in Manchester, where we sat and had a cuppa and a catch up. We spoke about the event we attended, and how brilliant it was to see so many business women coming together, helping one another and sharing ideas and motivations. We then spoke about why I was there; I told her that I knew I always wanted to go into a job that involved researching and writing in a creative way. I automatically assumed journalism would be my career path. But, upon work experience and seeing the challenges journalists had to face, I felt as though I was interested in something else, and wasn't quite sure what. But, after starting up Herricane and visiting the She's the Business event I soon realised Marketing and PR was the avenue I was pursuing, without even realising it! I had such an epiphany moment there and have been striving towards that goal ever since (Applying and receiving an offer to study a Public Relations masters degree at Liverpool John Moores Uni seems like a good place to start!).

Emma and the other girls at the event spoke about how influencers often get gifted things they have been asked to promote, but I was intrigued as to how Emma not only gets gifted things but gets paid to do things. She told me there are numerous ways, and this is the type of thing people tend to get confused when it comes to social media influencers. Its not all about the followers on social media, and especially in Emma's case she said a lot of it is to do with her blog and website she has built up over a decade. Domain authority is crucial when it comes to job offers and applications, and by building up your own personal stamp online can really benefit you when it comes to becoming a full-time influencer.

Emma worked in PR herself before becoming a full-time social media influencer. She introduced many contacts such as Chic Networking and Go PR, not to mention countless companies that are always open to work experience, internships and even jobs at the end of it! It was so interesting to speak to Emma about her past jobs; shes worked both self-employed or with a company and has built up her business skills and social reputation in order to work full-time, self-employed. I asked Emma how she finds jobs and places to work, and often they are found on social media platforms such as Facebook. Emma suggested that by joining blogger pages on Facebook enhance your understanding in terms of want businesses want and what other content creators do in order to get these jobs. By joining these groups, you can apply to jobs that catch your eye, apply and hope for the best.

We then moved onto Emma's job she had booked in for that afternoon. We walked to the Hilton in Manchester, as she had been asked by the Cloud 23 Bar to review their new Buns and Bubbles menu, and I was her plus 1! I was so grateful for this, as trying new food is one of my favourite things to do. The food and drinks were incredible, and it gave us a chance to have a cocktail and chat about all things PR. Emma explained that her audience expect certain things from her, and so the job comes with responsibility. She knows that by showing her authentic self, sharing and promoting businesses she would genuinely use is a key in being a credible and well-rounded influencer.

Emma was an inspiration to be around, and showed me what influencing was really like. People tend to get misconstrued when it comes to influencers. But Emma has shown me there are so many avenues in PR, especially in the influencer world; its a fast-paced, creative, demanding career that encourages you to constantly work not just for yourself, but for other peoples businesses; creating bonds often with strangers who look up to you to give them a balanced and real insight to products. Emma spends so much time and effort on her content creation in order to appeal to both her audience and create the perfect coverage for the brand she is promoting. She has worked so hard building up her reputation and successful website in order to get to where she is today, and she continues to put her audiences' best interests at heart. She also has a lot of fun reviewing things, such as Cloud 23! I couldn't be more grateful to have to opportunity to have a work-experience style trip, gaining tips of the PR trade whilst still having loads of fun. Emma gave me so much useful advice that I hope to take on board with me once I graduate, making one step closer to achieving my career goals.

If you want to read more interviews about women in business, check out my Her Stories page on my women-in-business promotions website Herricane, were I interview female entrepreneurs: questioning them about why and how they got to where they are in their business now.