We were lucky to catch up with Aria Walton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Aria, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Initially, I started modeling when I got accepted to be in the running for Miss Universe Canada. From there, a talent agency scouted me and then I started posting in instagram which led to growing my page and it led to brands reaching out to me as an influencer. The acting part happened through being noticed because of my influencer style instagram as well. Acting was always my main goal though.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Sure. I’m a model and actress. While I was in university studying to achieve my BA in journalism, I got accepted to be in the running for Miss Universe Canada. This is how I got discovered by a talent agency and I had a very successful modeling career for over a decade, appearing on multiple world-renowned fashion magazines covers like Harper’s Bazaar, L’Officiel (multiple times), Glamour magazine and many more. I also have built up quite the social media following so im a professional Brand ambassador/influencer for many different brands. In the acting realm I have appeared on Netflix, Univision, and a film named “Zombie Town” that is currently top 10 on Hulu. I have an upcoming lead role in a film this year. I can’t say too much about it yet, though. I have been lucky to utilize my journalism degree by writing a lot of press for many different brands, public figures and professionals via my PR firm, KW Publicists. All of these ventures keep me very busy and I prefer this entrepreneurial lifestyle over working a 9-5 for someone else.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I funded my business KW Publicists, which I started during the pandemic, with money I had saved from years of modeling.
How did you build your audience on social media?
When social media first came out, I was a disaster with it. I had no idea what I was doing, so a friend who is also a motivated business owner invited me to join her to attend a full-day social media course. After doing this course with my friend, I realized how strategic you have to be to grow your platform. People who are very very diligent with it even time their posts. There are certain days of the week and times of the day when you can have more engagement. There are also apps that can help you with choosing the correct hashtags for each niche. Utilizing hashtags will help you reach a larger audience and if you wish to keep your captions clean and decluttered you can post your hashtags in the comments of your post and the effect will be the same. It’s also very important to collab with different influencers and “share for share” to reach larger audiences. Even if you mainly use social media for business, it’s important to keep it authentic and to not only post about collaborations, because your followers also want to get to know you and be able to relate to you. A good rule of thumb is to try to post a brand partnership once every three posts, so you don’t bombard your audience too much with trying to sell products. Utilizing all these strategies and many more, I was able to grow my instagram and Facebook accounts. Now I’m starting to look into TikTok and YouTube although the strategy on those platforms are a bit different and I’m learning still.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/theariawalton
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100026565403921&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user
- Twitter: www.Twitter.com/theariawalton
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@theariawalton
- Other: KW publicists socials: Instagram: @kwpublicists Twitter: @kwpublicists Website: www.kwpublicists.com
Image Credits
Photographer: Gloria Caballero @gloriacaballero.ca Retoucher: Lidiia Tolmacheva @retouch_lidia