Meet Zakiyrah
Storytelling is key when it comes to captivating an audience via social media.
However, when everyone is telling the same story you can get lost in a sea of content creators. That’s why Zakiyrah Ficklin dominates her lane!
More than a storyteller, Zakiyrah is a truthteller that mentors her audience using her real life experience.
When did you start your influencer
journey? Why?
I started my lifestyle influencer journey in 2015 when I launched my non profit, H.E.R. Foundation working with young girls.
Through that I was able to nurture relationships and make connections. In 2016 I launched my first book, Her 20 Somethings and I was able to begin building my personal brand and meeting different people.
I began being interviewed for magazines, podcasts, radio, and tv and adding value to my personal brand.
Today, I’ve heard from many people that I’ve inspired them in a major way and I’ve been able to partner with several brands.
Why do you think social media is important to incorporate into a marketing strategy?
Social media is important to incorporate into your marketing strategy because a lot of your potential customers are utilizing social media.
Using social media allows you to connect with a larger group of people and be able to share as much information as you would like.
What social platform holds your biggest audience? (IG. Twitter. Facebook. Personal Blog.) Why?
Instagram holds my biggest audience.
I love instagram because it offers a variety of ways to reach people. There are options to just post photos and tag people, add Insta-stories, which are great for engagement purposes, going live, and now IGTV.
What attracts your audience to your platform?
My authenticity is what attracts people to my platform.
I try to share pieces of my story with others and always make sure I give practical examples of what I’ve done, and then also some of the products and experiences I use.
What are two of the most positive moments you’ve experienced with your brand this year?
This year, being able to still hear testimonials from people about how much my content has inspired, influences, or help them in their life.
I also launched a new segment to my brand called, Calm Her Co., which is a platform that focuses on self-care.
I was able to share my truth and connect it to products and many other people have been challenging themselves to operate in self-care.
How did you recover from a discouraging moment you’ve had with your brand this year?
There was one point where I was not consistently keeping up with posting content for myself. One thing I did was start being more intentional with scheduling out my content.
How do you plan out the content for your brand’s social media account?
I typically come up with all my captions and put them all in the notes section of my phone. Then, I will add them to Instagram, add the caption, and then save them to the drafts and once I am ready to post just go ahead and post.
How do you plan on increasing your visibility over the next couple of months?
Over the next couple of months I plan on doing a couple of things.
First I want to create more engaging content to open up a more intimate space for my followers. Then I plan on partnering with other influencers to get my brand in front of other people’s audience.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to be an influencer?
I would tell anyone who wants to be an influencer to be your authentic self.
Create an environment where people would want to engage with you. You do that by creating thought provoking questions that would make people want to have a conversation with you.
Also look into creating more video content which will help with the engagement factor as well. Video people content is more engaging because people are more prone to watch something before they actually read it.
For more with Zakiyrah follow her on instagram @zakiyrah.
