Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karly Wilson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Karly, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

My business is social media and I’ve developed a strategy working with local businesses and non-profits to help spread awareness in a relatable way.

It’s an interesting question about hiring a team or company to manage your socials. I’ve managed accounts, consulted and partnered in many different ways but the truth is, no one knows your business like you do. Instead of the traditional account management, I work with a business to create the content for their pages + boost the important promos, events, milestones, giveaways on my page for maximum exposure.

These partnerships create a much a higher return on social engagement, growth and keeps my accounts top of mind while also providing awesome content for them.

Karly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Karly Wilson and I turned my social media account @raleighisgrowing into a social PR firm where I serve the community in terms of awareness, local businesses, events, news & non-profits.

Different from a typical influencer account, Raleigh is Growing is more of a community page where our followers can see themselves doing the same things we are, as locals. We post about growth across North Carolina, news, restaurants, bars, and we partner with local businesses to help spread the word and host events.

Raleigh Fashion Fest is our biggest event, happening on May 17th, 2023 in Smoky Hollow. The ultimate local shopping event featuring a runway show, local businesses, food, drink, live music & DJ all while giving back to The Women’s Center, our local charity partner. This Spring we’ll also be giving back to The Grey Muzzle Foundation with our Pet Fashion Show! Our Fall event will be at the new Raleigh Iron Works on October 19th, 2023.

I love being about to give back to the community as well as offer an alternative form of marketing to local businesses so they can reach people they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to do.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Growing an Instagram page, completely organically from 0 to nearly 40k followers is no easy task. I started the page in 2018 but #raleighisgrowing started way before that. My husband was working at Lenovo in tech sales before ultimately leaving and going into his Real Estate career. As a Raleigh Native, it was just something he said all the time, with every announcement of growth coming to North Carolina.

When he left Corporate America in 2018, we were driving and brainstorming on the way to the beach for Labor Day and I had this crazy idea. What if i turned the hashtag into a social page where we focused on growth and a look into our lives as Raleigh locals, just like our friends, in a super fun way.

The first two years I spent just being consistent and putting out good content. Working for free and making all the connections I could, spending time building my strategy and watching the steady growth. By the end of 2020, I hit 10k followers. I made a decision that I needed to monetize the account with the amount of time, energy and effort it takes to keep up the page. Since then, I’ve had to increase my prices (due to demand/growth), created consulting & PR firm and successful spearheaded tons of community events that make an impact.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my audience on social media by creating original content that people truly care about in a fun and exciting way. It’s not all about me, it’s all about Raleigh. Where to go, what to do, what’s new, what’s old and being preserved and what’s coming ahead.

Being consistent and constantly pushing myself to create the best content and write the most compelling captions, while still keeping in unique, engaging and doing it my way. Creating compelling content for others is what makes you grow. When you do good work, people will share and relate to it; and bring their friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: raleighisgrowing.com
• Instagram: @raleighisgrowing
• Facebook: /raleighisgrowing

Image Credits
Headshots: Negin Naseri