The online world is awash with social media influencers making their stamp on different industries from travel and beauty to lifestyle and fashion. One blogger in particular is making her mark on all four. Scarlett Dixon – known to her tens of thousands of followers as Scarlett London – began blogging in 2011 when blogging was a relatively new, on-the-rise trend. She openly admits that back then, she didn’t realise what she had created was a blog, all she was trying to do was increase her online presence to support her pursuit into the Journalism industry – little did she know that six years later she would be blogging full time and adding huge brands to her portfolio!
The daily life of an influencer isn’t as simple as perhaps the world imagines. So, Scarlett walked us through a day in her shoes…
7am: I woke up, prolonging getting out of bed by scrolling through Instagram and seeing everyone's picture-perfect breakfasts (mainly acai bowls and avocado on toast), made myself some tea and sat at my desk to catch up with my emails.
8am: I then attempted to make my own breakfast of avocado on toast on gluten free bread with paprika. It never does look the same as the pictures on Instagram, but tasty all the same.
8.30am: I took a long shower to wake me up and did my make-up. I take extra care with my make up on filming days like today.
9.30am: I sat down to film for my YouTube channel. My videos range from chatty videos about something that has affected me recently, to haul videos. As a viewer, it may look like a simple set-up (a girl filming in her spare bedroom) but behind the scenes there is a lot of ‘techy’ equipment involved – microphones, lenses, tripods, light boxes etc. and believe me, every angle counts!
10am: I had a conference call with my management agency regarding brand collaborations. I like to stay very involved with the creative process of my sponsored content. My thought process before accepting any sponsored work is firstly 'would I genuinely use or buy this brand/product or do I already?' and secondly ‘how much creative input they will let me have?’ If I'm just relaying a brand's message, it's probably not going to work for me, but often brands are great at accepting you know your audience best and know what will entertain and engage them most.
11am: I then sat down to edit photographs for my blog and social media that I recently shot. Although I do work with photographers and videographers, I'm very lucky that my boyfriend is very involved in my blog (because it is a lifestyle rather than just a 'job' after all). He enrolled himself on a few photography courses to learn more about composition and the workings of a camera, because he wanted to help me improve the quality of my photographs. I edit all of the photos myself and then upload them onto my site admin.
12pm: This was dedicated ‘tweak time’ to the blog post I am working on. Today this is a post on ‘what my best friends have taught me’. Often, I find it's the posts that are spontaneous and come from the heart that do the best. I am very open on my blog but there are certain things I wouldn't talk about. My sounding board of sharing/over-sharing is 'would I want my dad to read/know this'? My dad reads my blog and even has a twitter account so he can stay up to date with my tweets!
1pm: Lunchtime! I usually catch up with a YouTube video whilst eating my lunch – I love Lydia Millen, Claire Chouquette and Zoella's vlogs in particular.
2pm: Editing time on the video I filmed this morning. I studied Multi-Media Journalism at University, where we were trained in video editing and production, if I hadn’t had this experience I'd have absolutely no clue!
4pm: Videos can take a long time to edit as you have to find royalty-free music to play in the background and then export in a high res quality! Once it was finished, I uploaded it to my channel (which depending on the video length can often take an hour or more).
4.30pm: Another check of those emails. Each day I try to only look at them at certain intervals, otherwise it can overwhelm all the other tasks I have to do.
6pm: I travelled into the city for an overnight stay as I have a photo-shoot early tomorrow morning for a fashion brand I've been working with.
7pm: Whilst in the city, there’s an event for a hair brand that I'm going along to. The events are lots of fun and a great place for networking. I think influencers in London, myself included are very lucky that we have so many incredible events and opportunities available to us.
9pm: I collapsed into bed and scrolled through Instagram before getting my beauty sleep. I often struggle to stay up past 11pm unless I've had a nap during the day, plus I don't want to miss out on the Instagram 9pm window to upload my shot of the day!
To find out more about Scarlett, please visit www.scarlettlondon.com or to work with Scarlett, please contact Amelia Neate [email protected]
