Arielle Charnas began her blog 9 years ago in New York City, and her reasoning behind creating it is that she wanted to impress a boy (relatable, right)? The name of her blog from the beginning is called “Something Navy.” One of the best things that Arielle says that stuck with me in her biography was, “Something Navy, what does it even mean? It’s who I am today which is what is so wild. Those two words represent my entire career, basically my life because after all, that is what blogging is.” This stuck out to me because it represents social media, blogging, and this lifestyle. Your name, your handle, your title, defines you. It is what people use to reference you, you no longer are a person, you are a brand.
Above is one of the first pictures that Arielle ever took of her outfits for the world to see. Her blogging career did not take off until her boyfriend that she created the account to impress broke up with her. The end of this relationship forced her to take her energy and time to dedicate to creating this for herself. And now Arielle is the owner and creator of her own brand that is now sold at Nordstroms. Her first collection sold at Nordstroms drove more than 1 million dollars in less than 24 hours. She so quickly sold out of all of her clothing online, it turned into a competition for consumers to get. She just released her fifth collection and is introducing new pieces like childrens wear.
One of the biggest markers and significant moments of her career, was when she changed all of her instagram handles. Her personal instagram and blog instagram used to both be under the name of somethingnavy. However, when she first created her brand with nordstroms she changed that name to ariellecharnas and created a somethingnavy brand account. This was something that was talked about because it was such a huge change for her. Now her fans and followers weren’t calling her somethingnavy, we began calling her Arielle. I feel that this represents the change of influence and how this instagram handle completely defines the life of a social media influencer.
To analyze and really break down the digital story of somethingnavy makes one realize how influential and honestly difficult her life has been. Being a social media influencer does not just come with benefits of receiving luxury brand clothing, but it has so many downsides. Since day 1, Arielle has been open about her anxiety and depression that comes from social media and the life she lives. On her first blog post sharing her story she says, “here are days where I love what I do more than life itself and there are days where I cry from the pressure, the insecurities and the negativity that surrounds my account and I’m sure many other bloggers accounts.” Arielle is someone who so many girls and women look up to as a leader in a man’s world. However, with fashion and blogging women dominate. Arielle is someone who maintains a family, a relationship, a brand, and a blog all at the same time. According to an article on emeraldinsight they state that social media influencers “The “nobodies” of the past are now the new “somebody’s” demanding the attention of communication professionals who seek continuous engagement with targeted consumers throughout the various channels of the social web.” Arielle is the definition of an influencers story of becoming nothing to something, and her something that she has created is amazing and inspirational.
Not only has Arielle become a success on instagram and in the social media world as an influencer, but her entire family has as well. Her husband, Brandon, now promotes certain brands like Bandier and Jaja Tequila on instagram, right by her side. Her two daughters, Ruby and Esme also have their own instagram that Arielle and Brandon one, but still has more followers than most people do on instagram. With the release of her new children’s clothing line, Arielle is using her ability to influence and brand on as many outlets as possible. She is one of the smartest, best, most influential bloggers I think our society and generation has seen.
Below is the different instagrams between somethingnavy, Arielle, Brandon, and her daughter’s account. Normally on Arielle’s account most of her personal life is represented and shown on her instagram stories. I personally, pay more attention to her instagram stories rather than somethingnavy’s stories.
In class we discuss the honeycomb model and how it represents how users are engaging with social media. The honeycomb model has six different structures; presence, sharing, relationships, identity, reputation, groups, and conversations. This entire model can be used when analyzing and discussing somethingnavy’s success. For example, using the idea of Identity – Arielle has created her identity by revealing herself, revealing things not just about her clothing but about her values and her life. By being open about struggling with depression and anxiety, by sharing that this account was created to impress a boy, makes her more of a human being in the consumers and eyes of the media. Another part of the honeycomb that I feel relates to the somethingnavy team is the idea of groups. This idea says that groups are “the extent to which users are ordered or form communities.” In her social media world, she is not just “somethingnavy” or Arielle. She is her family, she is her husband, she is her children, and she is the community that follows and supports her.
Overall, while her life comes with perks and benefits, it is the values and ideas that her brand was founded on that makes her so popular in our society. It is amazing the things she has done and the empire that she has created that makes her truly inspirational and important on social media.
Works Cited
Charnas, Arielle. “My Story Part One.” Something Navy. February 16, 2018. Accessed March 21, 2019. https://somethingnavy.com/story-part-one/.
Gensler, Sonja, Franziska Völckner, Yuping Liu-Thompkins, and Caroline Wiertz. “Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment.” Journal of Interactive Marketing 24, no. 4 (November 2013): 242-56. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109499681300039X.
Hanlon, Annmarie. “Digital Marketing Models: The Honeycomb Model.” Smart Insights. August 02, 2017. Accessed March 21, 2019. https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/digital-marketing-models-honeycomb-model/.
Kietzmann, Jan H., Kristopher Hermkens, Ian P. McCarthy, and Bruno S. Silvestre. “Social Media? Get Serious! Understanding the Functional Building Blocks of Social Media.” Business Horizons54, no. 3 (May/June 2011): 241-51. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681311000061.
Norman Booth, Julie Ann Matic, (2011) “Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions”, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 16 Issue: 3, pp.184-191, https://doi.org/10.1108/13563281111156853
Jaymi Zimmerman Abroad 