#Trending: HELLO! UK

In 1988 HELLO! launched in the UK market, pioneering the ‘celebrity weeklies’ sector and quickly becoming a household name known for its exclusive access to the stars, accurate reporting and award-winning publishing philosophy. The Hello! group’s editorial philosophy is based on traditional family values of positivity, trust, respect and honesty which set HELLO! and iHOLA! apart from its competitors around the world.

HELLO! features exclusive interviews, uplifting coverage and world-class reporting of showbiz and historic events. It also has an aspirational lifestyle section showcasing fashion, beauty, health, food, interiors and entertainment – all presented in high quality, glossy format. HELLO!’s digital touchpoints continue to grow and evolve, including video which offers unique behind-the-scenes footage of interviews, photoshoots, red-carpet and event coverage. In the UK alone, HELLO! reaches more than 600K adults every week, with exportation to more than 60 countries, making it the country’s #1 exported women’s magazine.

Speaking to an ABC1 audience with primary demographic 55+, followed by 35-54 and then 18-34. The print edition has a readership of 1,752,000, which is no small amount factoring the decline of the medium in today’s day and age. Digitally speaking, HELLO! brings in 14 million worldwide unique users online (7 million in the UK), 2.1m likes on Facebook, 193K followers on Twitter, 31K followers on Instagram and 10m+ monthly unique viewers on Pinterest.

In this post, we’ll take a look at the key lessons to be learnt by going straight to the source: Social Media Manager, Anna Johnstone. Previously a Features Writer at The Sun and GLAMOUR, Anna has contributed to BBC Three and The Assistant Room. Now she spends her days handling HELLO!'s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest accounts - but still manages to make time to post on her own feed, finding London's best restaurants and things to do. 

On Sticking to Your Pillars

HELLO! adheres to certain specific editorial pillars on which its foundation is built: world exclusives, royalty, celebrity, red carpet, fashion, beauty and lifestyle. From creating genuine relationships with celebrities to foster exclusive picture-led profiles, to getting up close and personal with the royal family – the magazine plays to its strengths and champions the content that has become its trademark. Across social media, Anna ensures these core topics come through loud and clear as an extension of the brand, no matter if demographics differ: ‘Our social audience tends to be slightly younger than our magazine and online readers, but they have to love celebrities and royals. It’s red-carpet coverage and breaking royal news that wins for us, so anyone in the world who appreciates that can follow us!’

On Knowing What Works

In that vein, Anna keeps on top of the posts that perform best on each platform to ensure she can continue to actively drive engagement with her content plan. ‘I personally love the royal tours. It’s when I throw away the rule book and post numerous times on Instagram, every hour of the day. Whether it’s Meghan Markle hugging a schoolchild or Kate Middleton giggling with her kids, they’re guaranteed great engagement which makes it super rewarding.’ She continues, noting the benefits of switching things up a bit from time to time: ‘I experiment a lot too - any positive news (babies and engagements in particular) really work, and red carpet outfits that get people talking. We can’t resist a bit of fun - we have an office corgi, Henry, who also makes a few appearances...’ In terms of aesthetic, Anna aims to take her time choosing eye-catching covers to entice readers into her stories from the explore page: ‘I love using close-up faces as because we predominantly cover recognisable figures, I want it to be as clear as possible.’ Whatever your strategy, brands must be platform specific. A one-size-fits-all approach isn’t the greatest idea when it comes to the varied social media. Despite focusing hard on very particular content to keep consistency and maintain its identity, HELLO! knows each platform has a very different audience. According to Anna: ‘Our TikTok and Snapchat content is young, fun, and hugely reactive, while our other platforms reflect more what we cover on site. Facebook is used for sharing our articles, Instagram is used for visual storytelling, and we’ve recently started focusing our Twitter on video content. That being said, our red carpet access does incredibly well on TikTok, so there is a crossover - check it out!’ This also extends into HELLO!’s multi-faceted tone of voice: ‘Tone is very different from the magazine, but it’s even very platform-specific. Instagram is a much younger tone, but Snapchat is even younger than that. It’s actually a lot of fun altering your voice for different platforms! Teen language is always constantly evolving, so it takes a bit of work to get it right, which I hope we do. I’m a little addicted to TikTok so learn through there.’

On Upholding Brand Values  

HELLO! prides itself on positive, honest reporting. ‘We’re immensely proud of our brand values, so naturally our presence on social media has to reflect that’, says Anna. Last year the title launched its #HelloToKindness campaign which was supported by Liam Payne, the Beckhams, the royals and other celebrities. Online safety became a big concern for the brand and its readers, so it took a stand against meanness, abuse and intolerance on social media. HELLO! asked its users to join the hashtag movement by sharing a kind message, video or caption on Instagram – tagging a friend who has supported you or spreading kindness to someone in need and tagging the magazine. In Anna’s words: ‘Everyone is aware that social media can be an unpleasant space, but we try and keep our little pocket of the internet kind, safe and fun!’ Brands should truly examine their ethos and principles and ensure positive action is filtered down through all communication channels.

On Feeding the Trolls 

‘Unfortunately, that’s the downside of engagement, isn’t it? With every 1000 comments, there’s up to 200 cruel ones. I delete hundreds, and block repeat offenders, but the internet is a dangerous place sometimes.’ Says Anna. ‘It’s like a Hydra - the more comments you delete, the more bots come back.’ That being said, whilst Anna concedes many social media users have a tendency to compare themselves to others seemingly picture-perfect lives on instagram, she believes social media, if used correctly, can be a strong force for good: ‘Yes, we are oversaturated with tiny Instagram models and perfect families, but there are so many wonderful people to follow who embrace their stretch marks and cellulite, and aren’t afraid to rant about their kid’s eventful potty training.’ Brands should have a strong policy in place when it comes to mitigating harmful or negative online conversation across its own channels whether that’s fanning the flames or extinguishing the fire.  

On Organic Growth

HELLO! isn’t an outlet that focuses on growing its following or swelling its audience numbers. Instead it prioritises engagement and the rate of growth itself as a more valuable measure of success. Anna muses: ‘I think it’s less about the size, and more about the way you’re growing and the direction it’s taking. HELLO! Had a relatively small following when I first joined, but it grew by 100% in just under 11 months and our speed of growth is usually higher than our competitors. I care more about potential reach and our interaction rate than just our number of followers.’ Anna is a bit of a spreadsheet queen, coming from a finance background, she keeps an eye on all of the statistics across each platform to keep an eye on KPIs for the month: ‘I have some hefty targets to reach for 2020 so rely a lot on insights from last year. For example, checking which Instagram posts gained us the most followers – not just looking at engagement – and curating content around that.’ She continues, describing the trial and error approach: ‘We have recently experimented with Instagram lives and teasing content to be published at certain times, which generates a larger conversation than I would have hoped and having lots of different content (IGTV/Stories/Video/Feed/Lives) helps boost your Instagram presence, so we are always trying to dip into each.’

On Controversy

When it comes to affairs of the royal family or matters of celebrity, there is an inherent risk of controversy and scandal. Social media can cause a storm when it comes to negative headlines and for an outlet like HELLO!, this can very easily affect content plans. It’s important for publications not to be dragged into hashtag conversations that may be trending for the sake of searchability. ‘For some stories, we refuse to cover them,’ explains Anna. ‘For example, out of respect for the Duchess of Sussex, we didn’t publish any stories about Thomas Markle. We do have to be very careful with the way we cover. We would never intend to disrespect the royal family and I hope that our articles themselves make that clear. Obviously there is such huge national and international interest in them, so we use our platform to share positive news about them.’ In essence, its vital that the team keep on top of and remain sensitive to any changing sentiment towards their regular topics: ‘We often publish stories very fast so we have to post to social very quickly, which requires very speedy proofreading and constant monitoring of news and comments.’

On the Future of the Industry

‘Well, it’s not going away anytime soon! I think TikTok will be HUGE this year, and I’m excited to see how publishers use it, as at the moment it’s predominantly content made specifically for the app by individuals. I can also predict a lot more safety procedures; platforms really need to take a stand against bullying, as we as users can only do so much.’ As a social media professional, Anna seeks to immerse herself in the industry as a whole, taking learnings from other brands and keeping up-to-date with the latest developments and practices. The best way to figure out what the people want is to be an active and enthusiastic users and follower yourself. ‘Personally, I love the Washington Post TikTok account. I also love the New Yorker on Instagram, and the #feminism hashtag, because I love scrolling through inspiring stories on my morning commute.’

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