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Bethenny Frankel is not hurting financially, but she’d like it known that if she met the right tycoon, she’d ditch this whole social media thing.
“I would definitely retire—like, if I end up with some billionaire on some big boat,” Frankel told ADWEEK chief content officer Zoë Ruderman in a main stage conversation at Social Media Week.
It was a startling admission for the influencer with 3.8 million followers on Instagram, endorsement deals from brands like L’Oréal, and a reported net worth of $80 million.
Then Frankel thought twice. If a billionaire installed her on his megayacht, she said, “I would end up doing social media on the boat.”
This candid, rapid fire, and sometimes contradictory truth-telling is classic Frankel—and the essence of her personal brand. Millions of fans consume the Miami-based grandee’s posts and take her advice on everything from skin creams to espresso machines because they know she’s the real deal: blunt, irreverent, unfiltered.
Addressing a full house of social media mavens eager to crack her code, Frankel shared half an hour’s worth of her experiences as a self-titled “accidental influencer.” Accidental, because Frankel’s social-media career is her second act, built with the help of a fan base from her eight years on Real Housewives of New York City.
And while that’s a head start that few would-be influencers can count on, Frankel is a big advocate of learning on the fly and happily dispensed advice for aspirants to her line of work.
Be realistic about your odds
It seems like almost everyone feels that he or she can be an influencer, but the truth is that not everyone can. Just because you enjoy success as an entrepreneur or other professional doesn’t mean that you have the personality to translate that to social media stardom. “I see a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners that can’t help but want to promote themselves,” she said. “But not everybody can do it, and you have to really know if you can. It has to land.”
Authenticity is cliché—but also essential
“Be honest, be authentic—this is what I’m doing,” Frankel said. Authenticity might be a worn-out marketing bromide, but it’s also what fans and consumers want. Influencers won their place in the culture because “the world got so sick of filtered B.S,” she said. And so your social accounts should be unapologetically you, because “we cannot play smart and stupid at the same time.”
Appeal, but don’t pander
Frankel has seen plenty of celebrity influencers “kissing the ass of brands that don’t notice them [or] care about them. They don’t want you.” So do your thing and build your audience, but don’t stoop. The influencer who tries too hard, she said, is akin to something we’ve all seen in high school: “You’re in the cafeteria trying to get the cool girl to be your friend.”
If you blow it, move on
Frankel related that if one of her comments lands with a thud, she doesn’t try to fix it. “There’s always another show,” she said, meaning: another chance to post. Frankel related that she’s “advised a lot of very famous influencers with millions of followers” that “when they get sucked into something” that’s contentious or dicey, to just keep going.
The social media world “is not real,” she told the audience. It may feel that way, but “it’s not [actually] happening.”
Despite her admission that she’d retire from social media today if the money was right, Frankel clearly has no plans to do that. In fact, she’s looking to bulk up her staff. “danielle@bethenny.com—we’re hiring,” she said, pausing to joke that “we’ll hire everybody” in the audience.
But no, seriously, “we need a social media shooter creative person with me who has good ideas,” Frankel said. “We need three different positions.”
