Chris Han

Social media expert, fashion blogger and influencer, Chris Han, explains the importance of defining your brand language and how the right photography can grow your business online while building a connection with your audience. Read her advice on how to best sell your brand on today's most popular social media platforms.

1. Why is photography important for the growth of a business online?
For any business online, your customers won’t be able to touch and smell your products or talk to you. Good photography will be a powerful tool to quickly capture your targeted audience and help them learn more about your brand. A lot of people are visual learners like myself. I love brands that use entertaining and meaningful images. A good photo often creates the relevancy and affinity between a brand and its customers. Such influence usually happens just in a blink.

2. Could you tell us about the process of discovering your brand language?
A brand is like a person. Discovering my brand language is the process of defining my style and personality. I always think about what voice I want my audience to hear and what message I want them to receive. For my personal brand and social media, I am trying to build a community where women empower each other through Instagrammable looks. I tend to use feminine and romantic visuals with optimistic languages.

3. What were the steps involved and challenges you encountered in building your brand online?
My passion is fashion. I have loved fashion since I was little. I never would have thought about sharing my personal style through photography until social media was created. I had my first blog in 2005, sharing my poems and street photography. I joined Instagram in 2011 and slowly figured out how it worked. I didn’t gain much of a following when I was posting anything back then. After I started my MBA program at University of Southern California in 2015, I re-branded my Instagram to @chrishanxoxo and built a website (www.chrishanxoxo.com). Then, I turned my side hustle into a profession. Instead of posting random photos, I strategized my content and posted consistently. More brands started to notice my channel and my Instagram following also took off.

Every business is different. However, you can always follow the general guideline to build your brand online:

1. Define your customer and know what they like.
2. Create and curate relevant content on your page
3. Engage with your audience regularly and cultivate the community around your brand.

My biggest challenge is that I have to keep up with the trends to stay relevant. I think this is the same challenge for all influencers and marketers. I always get inspirations from other channels and my influencer community. Stay open-minded and keep trying the new things for my audience. Remember, you can always delete a post if it doesn’t work.

4.  What is the creative process behind curating your online content?
I create content that ties into my topics – fashion and beauty. When I work with a brand, I create content relevant to my topics if I truly love the products. First, I will build a mood board for the shoot. If it’s a sponsored post, I will fully communicate with the brand to agree on the content idea and messages before the shoot. For the actual shoot, I am open to go beyond the mood board and take as many photos as possible. It’s the same idea for video content. After the selection and editing, I will schedule the post to make sure that it is published during the most engaging hour for my audience. Yes, a beautiful gallery using same filter, similar tone and similar images was trendy 3-5 years ago, but I don’t worry too much about the 3x3 grid anymore. Each post is a story, and it should be relevant and engaging.

5. What is your definition of social media success?
While following and engagement are still the key considerations, successful social media channels are usually entertaining yet inspiring. I define a good social media by quality content. By the end of the day, it’s still social media. The power is shifted from prints to real people like you and me. It’s different from Vogue magazine or National Geography. I never take the “social” part out of social media. A successful social media post should spark conversation and connections among the audience and encourage them to share their thoughts. Always put the audience first.

6. What advice do you have for business owners and entrepreneurs on how to best use photography on social media to attract customers and grow their brand?
Work with professional photographers who have the skills and understand your aesthetics. Don’t use cell phone photos or stock images. Do invest in good photography to build confidence for your customers. Build a story around your brand through quality photography. The brand should work closely with the production team to turn the vision into each photograph. After the content is published, assess the photo’s result and incorporate insights into your next production.

7. Tell us about yourself and your background in photography.
I have been taking photos professionally for 6 years. I mostly shoot fashion and beauty editorials. My models are actors, singers and artists in Hollywood. I am a social media influencer who shares fashion and beauty content every day. I love taking photos for my own channel too. I enjoy the process of transforming my vision into stunning images. Photography is how I express my fashion aesthetics and relate myself to my 1 million followers on social media.

8. What sparked your interest to become a fashion and beauty blogger? Which platform did you use first?
I got inspiration from my family and social media itself. My mom used to be in the fashion industry back in the 90s. Her style influenced me, from Chanel shoulder-padded suit, plastic chokers to vintage slip dresses and turtleneck sweaters. My husband Robert is a professional photographer as well. Taking photos of each other used to be our fun thing to do as a couple. Before Instagram, I I had already shared some of my images on my blog. After Instagram was launched, it unleashed my potential, and my photos reached a much broader audience.

9. Which platform do you prefer now and why?
Instagram is still the most popular platform. It’s photo-friendly and content-driven. Most of my followers enjoy Instagram, and most of my brand partners are building their Instagram presence for marketing. People stay with Instagram for its community more than its features.

10. What gear do you photograph with?
I use Leica M10 and 50mm f/1.4 Summilux for obvious reasons.