Bella Hadid, currently one of the world’s top and most successful supermodels, has a face recognizable nearly anywhere. So recognizable, in fact, that her 22.5 million Instagram followers might actually be more interested in pictures where the model does not showcase her looks. For example, when Bella Hadid posts about her personal life, a larger percentage of her followers like her pictures when she shares the frame with other people, such as her mom or her boyfriend, as opposed to when she poses solo. Followers are much more interested in learning the specifics of Hadid’s life than they are in seeing attractive pictures of the model. I hypothesize this is because, as a model, Bella Hadid posting another picture of herself doesn’t do much to generate hype – her followers understand she is attractive and has many solo photos to share. Therefore, millions of people choose to follow her in order to learn more about her life and to have a looking glass into with whom she spends time and how. I’ve attached a graphic which showcases how a picture of scenery, representing where Hadid spends her personal time and where she chooses to travel, generated twice as many likes as a solo shot of her latest Michael Kors modeling campaign. However, when Bella Hadid does post about promotional work, solo posts generate much more likes than when she shares the modeling spotlight (33% of followers like her solo modeling work in comparison to only 3% liking her shared campaigns), Therefore, regarding professional work, Hadid’s followers are much more interested in seeing new content from the model alone, rather than content she may share with other models. This can translate to Hadid’s followers being more interested in her personal successes and growth as a model independently, than modeling work which is not specific to herself. From this data, models can conclude that in order to generate more likes and interest in their content, they should post more about their candid personal life than their attractive modeling shots. Additionally, when a model does choose to promote his/her modeling work, they should be selfish in this regard and focus on personal successes in order to draw 10x more attention from followers, than when they attempt to share the spotlight.
