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The Jeweler’s Guide To The Blogosphere: Know The Key Influencers | May 13, 2015 (0 comments)
Merrick, NY—There’s an old saying in marketing circles: “you pay for advertising but you pray for editorial.”
There’s nothing like editorial mention in the right place to give a brand or retailer the kind of buzz that translates into sales. Today, in addition to the standard fashion and lifestyle publications or product placement on a celebrity, the blogosphere offers endless opportunity to get your brand or name noticed and buzzed. In fact, some bloggers in the fashion world have grown so influential that brands seek their notice as much as any editor from leading fashion magazines. Jewelers and brands looking to get buzz would do well to familiarize themselves with these names and add them to the list of whom to pitch for PR efforts. Not every blogger accepts pitches, but influential bloggers are still worth reading to see what's trending and/or the next trend on the horizon.
The jewelry world has its own blogging stars too. Depending on your goals, a comprehensive marketing outreach also should include some of those names on your target list. Other names may not be appropriate for your marketing strategy, but they are knowledgeable and interesting to read for your own industry knowledge.
Recently, fashion website Fashionista.com compiled its list of the 20 Most Influential Personal Style Bloggers Right Now. Next, Love And Pieces.com, which bills itself as “a curated online jewelry boutique,” recently ran a blog post titled “12 Jewelry Bloggers You Want To Follow,” and The Centurion Newsletter has added eight more names to round out the jewelry list to an even 20. All in all, that's 40 influential voices that might be interested in what you have to show or sell.
Fashionista.com explains its list, “Over the past decade, these independent publishers have become a real force in the fashion industry—not just snapping up front row seats at fashion shows, but landing major campaigns and collaborations with brands, becoming regular guests on TV shows like Today and America's Next Top Model, and turning their blogs into multimillion-dollar businesses. Some have become household names.”
To determine its list, Fashionista considered:
- “Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest followers, as well as website traffic. These numbers gave us a snapshot of how many people these bloggers are reaching every day.
- Brand extensions. We gave props to bloggers who have used their influence to create original products.
- It factor. We talked to industry insiders about whom advertisers are loving right now, and who is moving the most products via affiliate links.
- Google News searches. Headline makers were rewarded for extending their reach beyond their own network.”
Fashionista eliminated bloggers whose empires have expanded beyond mere blogging, which is why famous names in the fashion blogging world like Hanneli Mustaparta, Leandra Medine, Garance Dore, and Emily Weiss don’t show up on the 2015 list. But make no mistake, they are indeed influential. Below is Fashionista’s list. In the interest of both conserving space and avoiding plagiarism, click here to read Fashionista’s synopsis of each blogger and why she is considered influential. Click on the link following each name to go directly to that blog:
- Chiara Ferragni, The Blonde Salad
- Aimee Song, Song of Style
- Wendy Nguyen, Wendy's Lookbook
- Kristina Bazan, Kayture
- Julie Sariñana, Sincerely Jules
- Rumi Neely, Fashion Toast
- Nicole Warne, Gary Pepper Girl
- Blair Eadie, Atlantic-Pacific
- Julia Engel, Gal Meets Glam
- Nicolette Mason
- Shea Marie: Peace, Love Shea
- Bryanboy
- Elin Kling
- Zanita Whittington
- Gabi Gregg, Gabifresh
- Danielle Bernstein, We Wore What
- Jessica Stein, Tuula Vintage
- Susanna Lau (aka Susie Bubble), Style Bubble
- Chriselle Lim, The Chriselle Factor
- Jane Aldridge, Sea of Shoes
Susanna Lau, aka Susie Bubble, is one of the best-known and most influential fashion bloggers. Photo: Getty Images/Fashionista.com
Now, let’s talk about the 20 influential jewelry bloggers. Love And Pieces.com's blog post titled “12 Jewelry Bloggers You Want To Follow” listed some names you may already be familiar with—Cathleen McCarthy, Cheryl Kremkow, and Wendy Brandes, to name three—but it also lists nine others worth checking out.
The Centurion Newsletter has eight more to add to that list. Our picks discuss a variety of topics from fashion and design to diamonds, gemology, and business. Please note that we did not include any of our colleagues who blog in the trade press. Though they’re all very talented and knowledgeable, for purposes of this article we are focusing on independent bloggers. (For reference, you can access trade editors’ blogs on instoremag.com, jckonline.com, and nationaljeweler.com.)
We also didn’t include any retailers’ blogs here—yet—because we’d love to do a separate article about those in the future. Retailers, if you blog, please send a link to hedda@centurionjewelry.com. Brands, ditto!
Here is the list of bloggers compiled by Love And Pieces.com. Click here to read the synopsis of each blogger, and click each link to see the blogger’s own site.
- Liza @ Gem-A-Porter, Gemologue by Liza Urla
- Daniele Miele, Gem Gossip
- Becky Cole, Diamonds in the Library
- Wendy Brandes
- Natalie @ Jewels Du Jour
- Alice Matsumoto @ The Carrotbox (Note: Matsumoto does not accept submissions to her blog).
- Cathleen McCarthy, The Jewelry Loupe
- Cheryl Kremkow
- Katherine @ Katherine's Jewelry Adventures
- Roos-Anne van Dorsten, ModeRosa
- Jasmine Howell, Friend in Fashion
- Zsuzsi and Reka, Bold Color Glass
Finally, last but not least, here are eight more jewelry bloggers The Centurion Newsletter recommends as a worthwhile read:
1. Barbara Palumbo, Adornmentality.com. Palumbo’s day job is as director of business development (south) with Gumuchian.com, but her blog is an independent venture that has garnered a substantial following in the industry, as well as among jewelry lovers in general. As she calls it, “a blog for people with jewelry on the brain.”
Barbara Palumbo
2. Anthony DeMarco, Jewelry News Network. DeMarco is a freelance writer and editor covering the luxury jewelry and watch industry for several publications, including Forbes.com, the Financial Times, Hong Kong-based JewelleryNetAsia and the Italian jewelry magazine, VO+. His pedigree also includes nearly a decade at JCK magazine, where he covered technology, digital marketing and retail business. His blog includes everything from industry business news to the latest and greatest in luxury jewelry and watches.
Anthony DeMarco, left, and Beth Bernstein, right.
3. Roberta Naas, A Timely Perspective. ATimelyPerspective.com is veteran watch journalist Roberta Naas’s take on the latest introductions and events in the global luxury watch industry. Naas and her team of contributors review most of the luxury watch industry’s product introductions and also take readers on a global journey of special events of interest to lovers of timepieces and horology.
4. Josette Patterson, Mark Patterson. Those who are expecting designer Mark Patterson’s wife, Josette, to use her blog strictly as a promotional vehicle for her husband’s designs will quickly discover that’s not the case. Although she did recently repost an article about Mark written by another magazine, most of her blog posts are focused on interesting personalities in the industry, such as Taryn Cox of The Wife or decorative arts scholar Levi Higgs.
Josette Patterson, wife of designer Mark Patterson is an artist and sculptor in her own right, as well as a blogger. Here, she's shown with one of her wood-fired clay sculptures.
5. Beth Bernstein, Bjeweled. Beth Bernstein is an author, designer, journalist, consultant, and stylist of everything jewelry. She has penned two books, My Charmed Life: Rocky Romances, Precious Family Connections And Searching For A Band of Gold (Penguin, 2012), a memoir which links her life, losses, family and loves with her most significant pieces of jewelry; and Jewelry’ Shining Stars: Shaping Today’s Collectibles and Tomorrow’s Heirlooms, (Fine Points Publishing, 2013), a coffee table book, featuring 38 talents shaping the future of jewelry. Her own design brands are Estate of Grace Fine Jewelry and Bethany B., and she also works as a branding, marketing, and merchandising consultant.
6. Edahn Golan. Edahn Golan is a veteran journalist in the diamond industry for 15 years. His B2B blog addresses topics such as how the diamond industry operates, wholesale and retail polished diamond prices, the rough diamond sector, financing issues, ethics and changes in the way the diamond industry has operated over the years. Prior to founding Edahn Golan Diamond Research & Data, he formed the news and research department of IDEX Online Group’s website.
7. Robyn Hawk, The Daily Jewel. Robyn Hawk is a social content curator, serial blogger, and website copywriter at A Fly on the Wall. Her blog, A Daily Jewel.com, is a daily post of the artists, jewels, and gems that influence her most.
8. Monica McLaughlin, TheHairpin.com. Monica McLaughlin is a passionate scholar of estate and antique jewelry. She was editor of the Heritage section of JCK magazine for more than a decade, and stayed active in the industry as a witty jewelry contributor to The Hairpin. She also is a painter specializing in gouache and dry brush watercolor and has had several shows and commissions in her native Philadelphia.
Top image: theguardian.co.uk