What does it take to become a social media phenomenon? It’s a lot of hard work, according to Maya Washington, or Shameless Maya as she’s known to her online following. The YouTube star is famous for her daring makeup transformations into stars like Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj and now works with major brands, including CoverGirl. To date, she has nearly a million subscribers on the video platform and more and 180,000 followers on Instagram alone. And she did it in just four short years.

On Wednesday, Washington was among the invited guests to speak on the Millennials Rising panel at BET Networks’ Leading Women Defined Summit in Miami. The artist/media personality was joined by fellow social media influencers Justine Skye and Pauline Malcolm, Vice President, Sales, of Maker Studios. The panelists lead a conversation about how they have leveraged their personal brands and built partnerships with business that recognize their power.                  

Backstage, Washington chopped it up with CentricTV.com’s Kela Walker about her three keys for growing an audience and killing it on social media.

“I would say first is content,” she said. “What are you talking about? Have that be very clear, whether that’s a mission statement or a goal. Just know that for yourself. Number two is consistency. Be consistent with your content. That will allow viewers to expect and look forward to when they can view your content. Like how shows are advertising ‘watch us Tuesdays at 9 p.m.’ The closer that you can be consistent, the better.”
In terms of finding content that clicks with viewers, she said it’s all about finding a balance between creating exclusive content and capitalizing on trending topics.  “Be aware of what’s happening in the world around you. For me, I would bounce back and forth between doing videos that I wanted to do just for myself, which may or may not have done very well in terms of view count, and then I’d bounce back to, ‘OK, Beyoncé just released an album. Let’s do a Beyoncé transformation.’ In terms of growth, if you want numbers, piggyback off of what’s trending while producing original content.”
For complete coverage of Leading Women Defined 2016, visit centrictv.com.
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(Photo: Phelan Marc / BET)