Influencers: Emma Watson’s weird Instagram strategy

Emma Watson has 25.8 million followers on her personal Instagram account, where she (or most likely an agency), posts about her feminist activism, UN work and movies. 

Three weeks ago, when Watson started promoting Beauty & The Beast, she set up a new account, @the_press_tour, solely to document her premiere and press junket outfits. It currently boasts 455,000 followers. Watson’s agency has been posting regular pictures of her clothes with captions. 

The common point between all those outfits: they are environmentally conscious, mindful of the conditions in which their makers work and have been validated by consultancy Eco-Age. Indeed, for a few years now, Watson has been using her fame, whether on red carpets or editorials, to promote a new way to do fashion.

Which is why I find the logic behind setting up a dedicated press tour Instagram account specious. Surely, promoting mindful fashion would have been more efficient on an account with 25.8 million followers than on one with 56 times less.

My best guess is that Watson’s digital team knew that with the upcoming press tour, they would be posting more frequently than usual, with posts more focused on fashion than usual, and worried that some people would unfollow @emmawatson as a result.