Girl Power Marketing (GPM) founder Annie-Mai Hodge entered the industry through “pure luck and a bit of nepotism” and went on to build a huge and dedicated following online.
Sharing marketing advice, social media updates and relatable work situations on socials has helped her create a loyal community. GPM has 92,000 LinkedIn followers, an Instagram audience of more than 24,000 and a founder with 52,000 LinkedIn followers and a Top Social Media Voice accolade.
Hodge always imagined a traditional career trajectory with a university degree leading to a job in a similar field, but after she was diagnosed with anorexia, her plans changed. “I quite literally was rotting in bed for a couple of years,” she tells CORQ. Then, her mother got her a job as an assistant at the digital marketing agency where she worked, and Hodge has never looked back.
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In 2020, she started the GPM Instagram account – it grew to 1,000 followers within one month and the following years saw a steady influx of fellow marketing aficionados. “This year has seen GPM skyrocket – we now have the nicest community of more than 150,000 across socials, which is honestly such a dream,” Hodge says.
GPM’s content is a mix of updates about social media platforms, resources for marketing professionals and relatable memes for marketers. Hodge has discovered that the content either needs to be educational or funny to appeal to her audience – a strategy she uses across all social platforms. Her LinkedIn post about free marketing courses has more than 3,100 likes, 370 reposts and almost 100 comments, while another post about why she started GPM has 6,900 likes and 786 reposts. Only 0.45% of LinkedIn posts have more than 500 likes, so Hodge is clearly on to something.
Annie-Mai Hodge’s advice for brands
Her advice for brands or creators wanting to build a LinkedIn presence? “Just do the damn thing by getting started. Once you’ve done that, then experiment, fail, learn and try again because that’s the only way you’ll find out what works for you,” she says. Understanding how your brand is different and what it can bring to the platform is also crucial, as well as a clear understanding of how to cut through the noise on socials.
While it is important for brands to stay informed on the latest social media trends, Hodge highlights that not every brand should be jumping on the latest viral moment. She says: “Just because Duolingo is acting unhinged, doesn’t mean your small accountancy agency needs to try and replicate it.” A brand doesn’t need to weigh in on every discussion on socials – take Milani Cosmetics interfering in the Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial by saying Heard couldn’t have used its product to hide her bruises prior to their 2016 divorce because it wasn’t released until 2017. The brand faced backlash for meddling in a domestic abuse case and contributing to the memeification of the trial.
Going into 2024, Hodge believes brands need to be humanised. Audiences are moving away from perfectly curated façades, they want behind-the-scenes content and genuine connections instead. “It’s why influencers like Alix Earle have exploded onto the scene because although many people can’t relate to the fact that she’s rich, they can relate to her struggles with acne, her outfit fails and her drunk tales,” Hodge points out. The GPM founder believes the amount of people working from home following the pandemic and the rise of artificial intelligence are other contributing factors to the need for humanisation. “Brands should be looking at how they can become truly authentic and what content they can produce that emulates who they are, what they stand for, their realness, their perfections and their flaws,” she says.
By Dina Zubi, CORQ news and features writer. Picture credit: Annie-Mai Hodge
