Influencer
Influencer AnnaSoSwede on Creating for Playboy and Time Management as a Creator
Managing a full-time career and creating content for Playboy and her social media accounts are enough to keep AnnaSoSwede busy 24/7. Today, she shares her tips for staying on top of it all and growing on social media.
About AnnaSoSwede
AnnaSoSwede is a full-time Director of Sales and Events at the Hotel on Rivington, playboy bunny, and content creator. As Director of Sales and Events, she runs events for multiple venues across the city. However, the pandemic halted this work in New York City during lockdowns, prompting Anna to move to Miami.
One night, she was at a nightclub dancing and was captured on camera. This clip of her dancing went viral, receiving seven million views within the first 17 hours. After this, her other social media accounts continued to grow steadily. She has continued to expand her accounts with fresh content.
AnnaSoSwede’s Creative Process
Anna shares, “I think it’s important to, first of all, look at what’s trending and then try to make that into your own type of niche and just find your own flavor within whatever is super popular at that point, and then I think it’s also extremely important to be true to yourself. When you start doing content, if you only do what other people do and what other creators are doing, there’s not going to be that much of a difference.”
She adds that the difference is minor because social media is a huge place with many talented individuals. Therefore, it’s essential to find your own thing and a specific way that you record, edit, or capture this thing.
Anna’s usual content consists of fashion, fitness, and lifestyle topics. She enjoys posting dancing, gym videos, and other content that showcases her personality. Anna loves infusing her personality into everything, whether it’s a gym video or a chatty video. However, she shares that many of her viral posts are seductive fashion shots.
AnnaSoSwede’s Biggest Challenge: Finding Time
Social media comes with many challenges for creators. Anna’s biggest challenge with content creation is keeping up with it because it’s a very time-consuming job, and she works full-time.
“Unfortunately, I feel like I haven’t had enough time to grow that into its actual potential. I’d say time to grow. That’s definitely my biggest challenge.”
Another challenge is measuring success online. Some creators measure this by tracking engagement or monetization opportunities. Anna shares that she used to measure her success more by following but now measures it more by opportunities and monetization.
She explains, “I get paid more through the Playboy creation than I do through Instagram. Different outlets pay you differently, but you can still make money out of doing reels on Instagram, and there’s a couple of them I’ve made pretty good [with].”
Creating for Playboy & Other Brands
One of Anna’s biggest brand collaborations was with Daniel’s Leather, a huge clothing company in New York City. She walked in one of the company’s shows, which provided Anna with many networking opportunities and exposure. This exposure led her to connect with Playboy.
Anna creates content for Playboy, including photoshoots and modeling. Some of her most popular videos for them have been fun videos she’s taken herself rather than professionally taken shots.
She adds, “I started working with them back in October, and it’s been a journey. It’s also been an incredible networking tool for me because they’re very inclusive. I get invited to a lot of things which has been incredible and then just having that brand behind you as a creator has definitely made me feel more valid.”
Time Management & Staying Inspired
As a busy professional, AnnaSoSwede must keep a close eye on her time to keep all aspects of her life running smoothly.
She explains, “I’m a very disciplined person… Every day is the same thing. I get up at five. I go to the gym. I work out for an hour and a half. I get ready. Every day, I try always to show up to work and meet my clients looking my best because you never know who you’re going to meet. Being in the industry that I’m in if I don’t do that, I feel like it’s harder for me to feel like people are impressed by you.”
However, she shares that despite her discipline, her busy professional life does dominate everything. She typically doesn’t spend much time socializing unless it’s at work or at work-related events.
“It’s hard. It’s definitely hard to balance the time. I try what I call self-care nights, and then I try to sit at home on my couch and not answer calls, texts, or social media and just give myself that one night a week where I’m completely disconnected.”
One of the reasons Anna pushes herself is because she sometimes felt overlooked as a middle child to a ‘perfect’ older sister and athletic brother.
“I think the fact that I felt like no one really believed fully in me that way made me very determined to be successful with everything I do. I come from a very competitive family in general. When I moved from Sweden to the US, it was survival of the fittest… It’s really hard to establish yourself as a person in the industry.”
Anna is also inspired by the success she has found. When she’s in public, it makes her day when a stranger recognizes her. She has also had experiences where an old coworker has called her to tell her that they saw a group of people watching her videos in public.
She explains, “When people recognize you, it’s a fun thing to experience for sure.”
The Future of the Creator Space
Anna is excited to see the Free the Nipple Campaign take off.
She shares, “Women finally aren’t stigmatized and forbidden in the same way, so I think it’s great that we’re getting more outlets for women to just be who they want to be and whatever form and shape that they are. I would love to see more inclusiveness and empowerment and women supporting women.”
Unfortunately, social media still brings a lot of hate and negativity because people can hide behind a screen and leave nasty comments without being penalized. Anna would love to see more people embrace others and more women supporting women rather than delivering this hate.
“I’m hoping with the system changing and women being empowered that maybe they can create less of that portion that comes with social media. I’m very fortunate. I think a lot of followers are extremely sweet and empowering people, but it would be a good thing for humanity if we had less of that.”
AnnaSoSwede’s Advice for Creators
Anna’s biggest recommendation is to find other creators and ask them questions, ask them for their advice, and gather as much knowledge as possible.
She notes, “Include this in your daily habits as if it’s part of your job, even though it might not be at this point. I think those are definitely a couple of steps that would help you keep creating and getting bigger.”
