How These Three Instagram Influencers Promote Positivity On IGTV
By: Kate Talbot
Tags: Deepica Mutyala, Zolee Griggs, Influencers, Lele Pons, Instagram Influencers

The relationship between social media and mental health has become a hot topic. With Gen Z and millennials spending almost an hour per day scrolling through Instagram, it’s bound to have an impact. Luckily, many creators are bringing positivity to their communities with the content they create on topics like health and wellness, beauty trends, political issues, entertainment, and much more.

The recent launch of Instagram TV (IGTV) has allowed them to educate, inspire, and build relationships through longer-form video storytelling. Now, in addition, to going live or posting photos, videos, and stories — they can connect with their community through another visual medium.

Meet these three influencers who educate and inspire their communities through their messages of empowerment and individuality.

Lele Pons

With 28 million Instagram followers, Lele Pons is one of the most watched and adorned creators. Once known as the “Queen of Vine” she easily pivoted to Instagram and now earns the title of “#1 Digital Creator on Instagram.” Her community followed suit and lives for her fun skits, dance moves, comedy, music, and her recent IGTV cooking show “What’s Cooking.” On each episode which garners over 1 million views, she attempts to learn how to cook with her friends and other top creators like Anwar.She explains, “I don’t know how to cook at all, but I have a cooking show! I want to show people that it’s OK if you don’t know how to do something. You can always learn and have fun while doing it. It’s important to step out of your comfort zone every once and a while!”

It’s that can-do attitude that resonates so well with her community. “One of the things I love to do is reply to comments,” says Pons. “When I post a new video and there are always comments from people who tell me how they were having a bad day and the video made it a little bit better. Being able to put a smile on someone’s face or make a person’s day better motivates me to make content! I love making people happy.”

By partnering with other creators and taking risks outside her comfort zone, Pons is able to produce IGTV content that makes you feel like you’re there learning to cook with her. This attitude allows for her authenticity to shine. Whether you’re a creator with millions of followers or just starting out on your own social video execution, you should always want to show a vulnerability that helps brings a community together to laugh and smile.

Deepica Mutyala

One of the most prominent South-Asian beauty entrepreneurs, Deepica Mutyala, found success as a YouTuber and has used that power to cultivate a community known as TINTED. Her passion is to feature women who are underrepresented in media and campaigns and highlight “all the shades in between.” Her reasoning to do so was, “I wanted to build a community bigger than myself. I wanted there to be a centralized hub where you could see all different standards of beauty in one place and realize you’re not alone. By launching a digital community, we highlight individuals from all walks of life.”

She brings this to fruition on IGTV with the series, Hue To Know, which features people in the TINTED community that have incredible stories to share. These include Alok Menon, a gender non-conforming writer to Neelam Hakeem, a black Muslim female rapper, to Marwa Atik founder of Vela Scarves, creator of veils for fashion-conscious Muslim women. “I want to build deeper relationships with our community and make the content about them. It’s not about your race or ethnicities — we want to be a cross-cultural platform that helps the community recognize the commonalities we have, and I think exploring and spotlighting individuals identities has helped us realize that.”

By showcasing beauty standards that aren’t always represented in media, Mutyala is able to galvanize a community to feel empowered in their individuality. She can connect with people from all walks of life so that they can feel happy about who they are. With her “Hue To Know” show on IGTV, she is using the power of Instagram Takeovers to have other creators in her community share stories effectively and engagingly. In doing so, the TINTED mission comes to life through various voices and social media storytelling that is aligned with her content strategy and execution. The power of Takeovers in social media storytelling can help a community increase reach and be stronger from other creator’s inspiring stories and content.

Zolee Griggs

Zolee Griggs is a Gen Z influencer on a mission to empower through her initiative Grl2women — — where she encourages teen girls to submit videos encouraging confidence and positivity. Her background as an actress and blogger allows her to be confident on camera, while genuinely understanding and connecting with her audience both online and off. She does so, by hosting meetup brunches for girls 14–20 years old to talk about career paths, relationships, beauty, health and wellness, and educational passions.

In her IGTV video, “My Journey” which has over 16,000 views she inspires her demographic online to unlock their power and strength as young women. She digs deep into her self-awareness to craft content that’d bring positivity to her fans. “I regularly get comments from girls about how they are not as accepting as they want to be of their hair. I then try and talk about my hair in uplifting ways or gives tips about how they can work towards being more loving to themselves.” Because of this, she receives direct messages from her fans saying, ”You inspire me to wear my hair natural, accept myself for who I am, or I relate to this video you made.” It is through her commitment to creating content for her generation that she’s able to be a role model. She enthuses, “If I’ve helped or inspired my community in some way, that makes me happy, it’s the biggest reward.”

Through her video content, Zolee can understand the issues surrounding her community. By tapping into conversations that are happening, you can craft relevant content enabling high viewership and discussions that’ll bring about change. Knowing your audience and empowering them through honest discussions will be beneficial for building trust and creating a long-lasting community.

Ripple Effect Of Positive Communities

With women supporting women, it creates a ripple effect of empowerment and positivity. Digital communities are becoming such a powerful force — as we live our lives more online — that the relationships formed have an incredible impact in shaping our identities and connecting with those around us.

If you want to learn more about social media and marketing insights sign up for my newsletter.