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About Amy Heslop
Amy Heslop began creating content as a way to share pictures with friends. Her content creation career started when she was approached by a clothing brand that asked if she would consider creating content for them. The clothing brand offered her a voucher to pick an outfit.
Amy shares, “I was a student at the time, so it was something really cool to do that I started alongside university. It was right as university was starting that I got approached, and I just went along with it from there.”
A post shared by Amy Heslop (@_amyheslop)
Today, she has worked with 40 to 50 brands and was recently approached by Sintillate Talent, an award-winning influencer and talent agency, about joining their roster.
Empowering Others Online
Amy Heslop shares that it was terrific to meet other like-minded individuals when she started creating content.
“We all have a similar goal of wanting to influence and do well and use our social media for the right reasons. I get a lot of support with mine, even just sharing affirmations and positive quotes. I think sometimes you forget how big your impact can be on people when they follow you, so that was a huge thing that I definitely learned.”
When she shares positive affirmations and quotes online, Amy notes that she always receives a handful of messages in response thanking her for sharing the uplifting message.
“I think that’s one of the amazing sides of having a social media platform that you can use it for that reason.”
Developing New Skills
Content creators wear many hats, from photographers, writers, social media experts, and more.
Amy Heslop explains that she has learned and developed many new skills along the way as a content creator.
“I think because I was a student for the last four years of content creation, I loved to be able to have my part-time work, studying, and then content creating.”
Amy adds that this busy schedule of working part-time, creating content, and studying, helped her develop excellent time management skills. Today, despite her busy life, she doesn’t struggle to keep up with content creation because she has years of practice.
Joining Sintillate Talent
“What I love about them is they do a lot of really important campaigns that aren’t just growing your social media. They do a lot of mental health awareness, and things like that, [which] is so important to individuals within the agency.”
Amy has also had many fantastic opportunities through Sintillate Talent, helping her to grow her social media presence.
Dealing with Trolls Online
Every creator will deal with hate at some point during their career. This is how Amy handles hate comments.
“When I first started, I noticed that if I did get hate comments, I was very insecure because of the comments and would really dwell on it, and it would upset me because there’s a person behind this [comment] that has this opinion and has taken the time out of their day to write about me. It really did upset me.”
However, as Amy has grown online, she has developed different ways to cope with hate comments and trolls.
“I’ve grown as a person to kind of take what they’re saying and just be like, okay, they have this opinion… That’s no reflection of who I am as a person, it’s something to do with them, and it might be them projecting their insecurity or something like that.”
She notes that she is fortunate only to receive hate comments occasionally. However, dealing with these comments can still be challenging, especially if they catch you on a rough day.
“It hurts, and you’ve just got to try and deal with it in the best way you can, which I think is blocking, reporting, ignoring, and just reminding yourself and being surrounded by good people.”
Amy shares that she will sometimes screenshot the negative comment and share it with other members of Sintillate Talent. She consistently receives a flood of positive responses, which uplifts her once more.
Her advice for influencers struggling with hate?
“Make sure your network on the Internet is surrounded by good people and people who can empower you and things like that because that has an impact on you and how you deal with things. Now, if I was to get something like that, I would probably just laugh it off because I know that’s nothing to do with me. I can’t change a person’s opinion of me, and it’s just one person.”
She reminds people consuming social media that it’s important to realize that influencers are real people.
“They [Haters] forget that someone’s reading it on the other side, so I think it’s so important to constantly remind yourself that it’s not a reflection of you and to try not to let it get it to you.”
Partnering with Lounge Underwear
One of Amy’s favorite collaborations has been with Lounge Underwear, a ‘Comfort Made Sexy’ underwear and apparel brand.
“I’ve done it for two to three years for them – it’s the Lounge Underwear Breast Cancer Awareness campaign. It’s called Feel Your Breast, and they do an iconic Pink song that they have, and they sell them.”
For this campaign, Lounge Underwear offers reduced delivery fees, which are put towards a breast cancer charity.
“I was quite emotional when they wanted me to be a part of it because I thought that’s such an amazing campaign.”
Amy notes that her underwear and travel posts also tend to perform best on social media.
What’s Missing in the Creator Marketplace?
Amy Heslop hopes that social media will return to more organic engagement in the future.
“A lot of the time with social media now, the only way your posts can really be seen is if you pay to promote it, and I think that’s 90% of the influencers I talk to, that’s their biggest struggle because it’s so easy for your posts now to get lost and it’s hard to boost it unless you pay for it.”
She would love to see social media platforms take a step back and return to what was working previously.
Amy’s Biggest Goal Moving Forward
At the end of 2022, Amy Heslop plans on getting back into creating YouTube videos. She loves creating travel vlogs.
“My main goal is to focus on growing my YouTube channel alongside my Instagram because I love taking content from my Instagram, but I love that people can watch a video and see more than just a picture. They can actually feel like they can get to know me and things like that, so that’s my main goal for the year, and I’m excited to get back to doing that.”
Amy DeYoung is a freelance blog post writer covering influencer marketing and business topics. As the daughter of two business owners, she’s been fascinated by all things business from a young age, which led her to graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree in business. When she’s not typing away, she spends her time reading nonfiction books and mystery novels, baking scrumptious desserts, and playing with her dog.
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