Bethany Mota: YouTube influencing entrepreneur

Every YouTube episode Mota releases gains 3 to 5 million views, showing incredible brand loyalty by her viewers. The amazing thing is that she has built her empire up entirely from her bedroom.

Her YouTube channel is generating an estimated US$40,000 per month and has garnered over 300 million views since she launched it.

Mota, who lives in California, is an iconic inspiration to pre-teens everywhere who’ve ever struggled with boredom, shyness and bullying. She is also showing how a truly influential social blogger can build a business through a passion.

She credits being engaged with her audience for her success. She has the instinct to listen rather than preach to her audience in a very focused customer-centric view of her business, which belies her teen years.

Every time Mota posts a video she will make sure to go to the comment section, and reply to all their comments.  Along with her YouTube following, she also has 2.4 million fans on Instagram. That’s more than Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Glamour and Cosmopolitan combined. 

With the launch of the Bethany Mota Clothing and Accessories line at Aeropostale, Mota has gone beyond merely blogging and become a fashion product creator and apparel brand.  

The line features more than 60 pieces of clothing and accessories that inspire individuality with floral designs, gypsy whimsical dresses and funky denim to couple various playful accessories. She’s apparently so hot at the moment that brands like J.C. Penny and Forever 21 also want to work with her.

Brands are craving this kind of authentic engagement and positive association that they can’t hope to achieve on their own. The trick for Mota will be keeping it real and not being swayed to endorse products for money that she doesn’t believe in.

It will also be a challenge for her to keep answering all the comments, as her time will be more focused on other commercial activities and she will have to employ a team to do this.

Time will tell how well she copes with this growth and these challenges but it’s an inspiring entrepreneurial story of social influencer turning comment into a goldmine.