Reflection #6- Case Study of Beauty Blogger, Carli Bybel

Brittany Freeman

MCS 355

April 25, 2017

Reflection #6 - Case Study of Beauty Blogger, Carli Bybel 

Although Carli Bybel is widely famous in the YouTube community as well as the beauty community, she doesn't let her popularity keep her from being genuine towards her fan base on other social media outlets such as Twitter to allow herself to interact with her following on a more personal level. As stated in Alic Marwick and Danah Boyd's article To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practive on Twitter a micro-celebrity is a concept in which a person gains a following and status through certain techniques online, "This practice involves ongoing maintenance of a fan base, performed intimacy, authenticity and access, and construction of a con- sumable persona"(Marwick and Boyd 140).

As a "micro-celebrity", a term mentioned by Marwick and Boyd, Carli is able to maintain her strong fan base through regularly interacting with fans on social media. Although Carli Bybel is not known as a widely popular celebrity, and can be seen as a more average person, she is very popular within the beauty world. Through her start on YouTube she has been able to brand herself into a bigger name and present herself in a way online that draws attention from viewers who are interested in the subject of beauty. As her popularity has grown online throughout the years, and as her fan base has increased to millions, she has utilized social media sites, especially Twitter, to keep that fan based engaged and constantly wanting more. 

Carli is a great example of how a celebrity is able to create intimacy with fans through tweets while making them feel authentic towards each follower. Warwick and Boyd stated that the “audience is viewed as a fan base; popularity is maintained through ongoing fan engagement; and self-presentation is carefully constructed to be consumed by others.” (Marwick and Boyd, 2011) Her fans a more likely to get noticed by her on Twitter, which makes them feel closer to Carli compared to YouTube which would get a wider range of views, because if you're following a micro-celebrity on Twitter you are generally more interested in the personal side of their life.

By using her Youtube fame, Carli Bybel has been able to launch many of her own beauty products including two eyeshadow palettes and a jewelry line. Her Twitter gives her already obtained following a behind the scenes look into whats going on with her businesses and beauty events in a more intimate way. Because the beauty blogger community is very tight knit, Carli allows her followers to be a part of the conversation and topics she tweets about, by responding to their messages.  

By responding to Tweets from her followers of pictures showing they bought one of Carli's products, she responds to the majority with a retweet, personal comment thanking each follower, along with emojis. This makes her fan base feel acknowledged and appreciated for their support of her brand. Not only that, but she engages with her fan base on twitter by being involved in the ordering and distribution progress of her products, while keeping her followers up to date on everything going on from shipping issues, website crashes, to refunds. While she uses Twitter to maintain a connection with her fan base, she is clearly using it to its advantage as a marketing tool by retweeting fans that buy her products. 
                                   

And finally, Carli Bybel uses her Twitter for other purposes besides fashion and beauty, such as her travels, raising money for different causes, advocating for animals, and volunteering. Carli is a vegan, and is constantly trying to educate her followers on why she strongly believes in veganism. These are all more personal topics compared to her more well known image of a beauty guru, and portraying this side of her on social media allows her to seem more "real" to fans. Carli Bybel not only uses Twitter to uphold her self image in front of an audience and convey her personality, but skillfully uses her status as a micro-celebrity to uphold and gain a following. 

Sources: 

Marwick, Alice, and boyd, Danah, “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter,” Convergence May 2011 vol. 17 no. 2 139-158, http://www.tiara.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/marwick_boyd_to_see_and_be_seen.pdf 

Bybel, Carli. Twitter. 2016-2017. Accessed April 23, 2017. https://twitter.com/carlibybel