A 23 year-old influencer bought a house in the Hamptons and Gen Z is losing it.
What the reaction means for the creator economy.
Halley Kate (TikTok 1.2M and IG 146K) a well-known influencer, recently made headlines by purchasing a house in the Hamptons. This significant milestone in her personal life garnered a lot of attention from her predominantly Gen Z audience and the media. Let’s look at how this purchase will inspire more content creators, businesses to support content creators, and a changing job market for Gen Z’s.
Background:
If you’re like me and thinking who the F is Halley Kate, here’s a brief overview and a look at some key factors that contributed to her "blow up":
Early 2022: Halley Kate began to gain traction with her relatable and trendy content on TikTok. Her videos often featured lifestyle tips, fashion, beauty routines, and personal anecdotes, all presented in a fun and approachable manner.
Mid-2022: Her follower count surged as more of her videos went viral, and she became a well-known name in the influencer community. She joins in on viral TikTok trends and adds her unique spin on it.
Late 2022: Halley Kate solidified her status as a TikTok star with a dedicated fan base and increased opportunities for brand partnerships and collaborations. Her willingness to share both her successes and struggles created a strong connection with her audience, fostering loyalty and engagement.
2023 - 2024: Regular posting and maintaining a consistent presence on the platform kept her followers engaged and attracted new ones. Collaborating with other popular TikTok creators and influencers expanded her reach. Her commitment to providing fresh content helped maintain her momentum.
The Story
Influencer Halley Kate announced via TikTok her purchase of a house in the Hamptons - an affluent area on Long Island known for billionaire and celebrity vacation homes. She shared the news through a series of posts and stories on her Instagram and TikTok, showcasing glimpses of the property, its interiors, and the gorgeous surroundings.
Audience Reaction
Halley Kate’s audience reacted mostly positively. Importantly, his is one of the first examples of content creators living the American dream and serves as proof that the creator economy offers a lucrative career path.
Support and Congratulations: Many of her fans congratulated her on this achievement, expressing admiration and joy for her success. You go girl!
Inspiration: Some followers found her purchase inspiring, seeing it as a testament to what they can achieve through social media and entrepreneurship. Halley’s success sparked a wave of content that reveal content creator income potential and break down the many revenue streams that creators can earn a living from. The job market is tough out there - very few positions are available in a market flush with highly qualified people. Adding inflation and a rising cost of living, many people are seeing Halley’s Hamptons house as proof that we don’t need to follow a traditional corporate career path to achieve success. Many roads now pave the way to the American dream. Speaking of which, did I mention she also bought a Land Rover to drive to her dream house?
But no success story is without its critics. Here are some negative reactions to Halley’s house:
Criticism and Envy: There are always gonna be haters! Especially for a pretty young self-made girl.
Inauthentic: Some followers felt that such displays of wealth might be out of touch with the realities faced by many people, especially in the current economy. For influencers who have built a following sharing their lives and appearing relatable to their fans, a material success like a Hamptons house may drive a wedge between creators and their fans.
Privacy Concerns: Halley got doxxed after this. People found out where she lived and posted her address online while texting her personal phone number.
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Halley Kate's Hamptons house highlighted the significance of social media influencers in culture while proving that conversations about wealth, success, and authenticity are still important in the digital age. I’m thrilled for Halley Kate and hope this inspires more content creators. TAKE NOTE: just because you see a viral 10-second video on your feed doesn’t mean it’s easy to gather a loyal audience. You need discipline, creativity and authenticity - all lesson’s from Halley Kate teaches us.
I summarized Halley’s top tips for TikTok growth so we can all be neighbors in the Hamptons:
Halley’s tips for TikTok Growth
Top tip: consistency
Everyone starts at 200 views, you have to keep going.
When starting out, pick a topic you like and are passionate about:
Two routes you can go:
Overshare best friend approach: Lifestyle content, like you’re having a FaceTime, spill everyone about your life, similar to her style of content, as well as Alix Earle, Kennedy Eurich
Nichè and aesthetic route: Focusing on 1 topic and diving deep into that topic
E.g. Nara Smith focusing on cooking videos with a speciality approach
Becoming known for the one unique thing that you do
Tag brands in your content - they do take note of that
Affiliate/commissionable links like LTK and ShopMy
When Halley started out she was posting 8 times a day - it sounds crazy but from the large amount of content you can see what content resonates with people and create more content that performs well. You can also make the videos private that don’t have a lot of views so that when someone visits your page they only see how engaged your community is, which in turn instills trust in a new follower and increases follower growth.
It is not embarrassing to post on social media. Yes, people will send links about you in their group chat and make fun of you at first, but as long as you are posting content that is genuine and authentic, who cares? It’s weird if people care.