Meet our next #SomeoneSocial Allison Norton – Editor for LaurenConrad.com! With a bright feed and on point photography skills, it’s no wonder that she is also the co-founder of a Digital and Social Media Strategy company. Read on to find out all about her work, as well as her hot spots in LA!
Q: Introduce yourself to the Something Social LA community via your top three favorite Instagram accounts (any cute puppies and Instagram-friendly food accounts are welcome)!
1. @laurenconrad_com – Our LaurenConrad.com Instagram is my #1 favorite because we’ve put so much work into it over the years! It’s such a fun Instagram destination for daily inspirations, and we post a mix of food, beauty, fashion, and just fun finds.
2. @lucylaucht – Lucy’s Instagram is my ideal travel mood board. The way she captures moments during her travels makes me want to plan a trip every weekend!
3. @lumalist – Emma has been one of my Instagram crushes for a few years now. She’s an editor for the Australian digital wedding blog The LANE and has the best eye. I also had the pleasure of meeting her in person this past fall and she is a gem of a person.
Q: As well as a managing editor at LaurenConrad.com, you’re also a co-founder of your own Digital and Social Media Strategy company. What is some of the best business advice you’ve received? What is some of the best you can give to women looking to start their own projects?
My business partners and fellow LaurenConrad.com editors Ilana Saul, Rachel Rosenbloom and I started Polka Dot Media in January 2014, and it’s crazy to believe that we’ve just celebrated our three year anniversary! The best advice I’ve received along the way is to have open communication with your business partners and employees. Communication is the key to any successful relationship, and a business relationship is no different. For women looking to start their own projects, I would say just go for it. You can spend endless amounts of time planning every detail—and don’t get me wrong, planning is super important—but when it comes down to it, you will eventually need to take the plunge and dive right in. A lot of the learning will happen along the way once you’ve started pursuing your project, so go for it!
Q: You help run a website that covers a plethora of topics – everything from fashion to food to lifestyle. Where do you find inspiration for your pieces?
Our team gets together and has amazing brainstorm meetings where we discuss trending topics, DIY projects we’d like to try, recipes that our readers would enjoy making, and blog posts that each of us individually is interested in writing. It’s a great way to bounce ideas off each other, and it’s all one big collaborative effort.
Q: Tell us about your favorite piece you’ve written – what made it so appealing to you?
My favorite articles to write on LaurenConrad.com are ones about beauty, health and fitness, specifically ones where I experiment with new products or trends and report back about my experience. I wrote this post when I was on a skin cleanse diet for two weeks, and the results were incredible. I also wrote about my experience with my first palm reading in this past fall… it was fascinating!
Q: No matter who you talk to, everyone has an opinion on how social media has changed the world. How has social media impacted your professional life? Is that impact different than the one it has had on your personal life?
Since my whole job revolves around social media and digital media, it has really impacted my professional life quite a lot! I studied print journalism in college at USC, which feels ancient now. Little did I know at the time that I would later take everything I learned in my classes and transfer that knowledge to online platforms. Social media is a constantly changing and evolving beast, but it has also made for the most amazing career opportunity for me. As for personally, I think I view social media as a dose of creativity when I’m feeling uninspired. I don’t always have time to scroll through every single Instagram post on my feed each day (does anyone anymore?), although I’d like to be able to. But I do find myself looking at Instagram and Pinterest more often when I’m in search of new ideas for photoshoots or needing to feel creative.
Q: What advice could you give our readers who are looking to establish their own professional voice via social media?
My best advice is to keep a cohesive theme on each platform, and across all platforms. That means making sure your instagram feed has a theme and tells a story. When I discover a beautiful account that makes me wants to scroll down two or three swipes down their feed, there’s a good chance I’ll become a follower. So, not only is each photo important, but so is the flow you create with each photo collectively. As for establishing your voice… Be yourself! Find your voice, and keep it consistent in each post and caption. Don’t force it because that becomes very transparent.
Q: Leave us off on a positive #SomethingSocial note – if you could Instagram anything from anywhere, what would it be?
That’s a tough one! Right now, Nantucket is at the top of my travel list. So, my “dream Instagram” would probably be a photo of their picturesque shingled houses, surrounded by hydrangeas, of course. I’m thinking this might need to be a must on my summer bucket list now…
Quick Rounds:
Guilty pleasure song?
Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.” It reminds me of my girlfriends and is an instant mood-booster!
Favorite LA spot?
This might sound silly, but my Santa Monica bungalow is my happy place here in LA. It has the perfect dose of old Santa Monica charm. My roommate Jillian and I do a lot of entertaining and dinner parties at home, and the little outdoor patio is perfect for sipping rosé on summer nights.
Favorite social media platform?
Instagram. Pinterest is a close second!
Embarrassing celebrity crush?
Liam and Chris Hemsworth. Heart-eyes emoji!
If we looked in your closet we’d see…
Colors for spring and summer; black and grey for fall and winter. And lots of shoes!
Loving our #SomeoneSocial series? Tweet us @somethingsocial or tag us on Instagram- @somethingsocial.
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