Hot Topic and Their Social Media Success: How Influencers could Help
Remember that store in the mall that you always avoided because it was too loud, and it only catered to a person with a certain type of style? That store was Hot Topic, and it has completely evolved. That store with the loud music and black walls is now the home to merchandise for nearly every Pop Culture Fandom. Hot Topic has done a great job using their social media channels, especially Instagram, to build it’s community and communicate with their fans.
Along with posting original content, Hot Topic utilizes User Generated Content to further promote their products and solidify their reputation with their audience. Being that Hot Topic is now a shop that is more popular amongst a larger demographic, it could be fun to see their new audience’s favorite micro-influencers partner up with them. A benefit for a brand to partner with a micro-influencer over a macro-influencer is their audience. If you notice an influencer who has a ton of engagement on their posts, but maybe 9–20k followers compared to an influencer with 20k-50k with less engagement, the micro-influencer clearly has a better following. Their audience is dedicated to them, they enjoy their content, and they care about what they have to say. Someone like this with a dedicated following that could benefit Hot Topic is Paris Cosplays.
Paris Cosplays is a popular cosplayer on social media with almost 600k followers on TikTok and almost 10k followers on Instagram. She cosplays characters from various fandoms, and sometimes creates her outfits out of balloon art. Being that Paris Cosplays has such a solid fan base, and those fans seems to also be interested in franchises that Hot Topic has merchandise for, I think she could be a great partner for the brand.
Hot Topic not only sells apparel for everyday wear, but they also sell apparel that can double as costume or cosplay pieces. A good plan for Hot Topic’s partnership with Paris Cosplay could include providing her with some of those cosplay-style pieces, and asking her to do a photoshoot or a TikTok video wearing those pieces in her costume. This will not only promote their items, but it will promote their store and website. It will make a new audience aware that Hot Topic can be a place for cosplay materials, as well as other fandom related products. Hot Topic can also repost and share Paris Cosplay’s content like they do with their other user-generated content as well. Doing this, they are continuing to build their community and reputation, and expand their target market/demographic even further.
I truly believe that Hot Topic has rebranded themselves successfully over the years, whether that was from the help of social media or not. To further expand their reach and grow their audience, partnering with social media influencers could greatly benefit them. Paris Cosplay’s could be a perfect candidate to start with. Hot Topic has partnered with influencers before, but they were never a consistent partner. Keeping Paris Cosplay’s on board could be beneficial to both of their brands, and be that start of a beautiful friendship.