Harding alumna Emily Gemma has gained over 33,000 followers on Instagram, almost 4,000 page likes on Facebook and over 1,000 followers on Twitter due to her style blog, The Sweetest Thing.
After graduating with her MBA and a degree in marketing and professional sales, Gemma moved away from her family to be with her fiance, John, who was in medical school. She said she decided to start a personal blog to keep her family and friends updated on how the couple was doing. In the beginning, she said she updated it up to twice a week. She said that after about a year, viewers stumbled on her postings and began commenting. Fans asked questions about how she did her hair or what mascara she was using. Due to the massive response, Gemma said she began creating video tutorials and other posts to answer the questions of her newfound fan base.
Aside from her regular readers, small businesses, such as boutiques, began contacting Gemma.
“They would ask if they could send me a box of clothes and if I could wear them in my blog and review them,” Gemma said.
After a few months, a larger scale of companies took interest in The Sweetest Thing. H&M was one of the first corporate companies who wanted to work with Gemma.
“I never intended to have a blog,” Gemma said. “Then companies just started paying me to do their advertising for them and paying me to mention them in my posts.”
Gemma said she believes public relations companies that handle PR for larger businesses invested in her because of her large following on Instagram.
“When I got the first ‘big’ email, I kind of thought it was a prank,” Gemma said. “I screenshot the email and sent it in a group message to my mom and sister, asking them if they thought it was real. I definitely thought it was a joke and not real at first.”
Gemma said she believes it is important for her to stay true to herself and stay as budget-friendly to her readers. The Sweetest Thing is somewhat time consuming. She said she updates her blog five days a week. She does her best to shoot multiple looks at one time so that she has material ready to post periodically throughout the week. She said she hopes her blog continues to grow, and she is excited to find out where her future in it lies.
Gemma can also be found as a feature in the Dec. 2013 – Jan. 2014 issue of People Style Watch.
