Another day, another #selfie for Kim Kardashian West.
In an era of voyeurism and reality television, West and her family climbed to the top of the web-based hierarchy.
Though criticized for their alleged lack of talent, celebrities of this magnitude hold the most valued skill in the digital age — understanding their fanbase and catering to them with social media.
West dominates social media by maintaining a spot in the top-followed users on Instagram, her favorite social medium. However, she uses each social medium to her advantage, like using Twitter to engage with her audience.
“I really love Twitter, I love communicating with people. It’s an amazing focus group,” West said in an interview with Re/Code, a technology news and analysis website, at its Code Mobile event. “I would ask people what color fragrance bottle should I use — this shade of pink or this shade of pink? And I would Twitpic a photo, and I would get a response back. And it was fascinating to me, and I would use that real information and use it in my everyday life.”
Myleeza Mingo, a 21-year-old public relations senior at University of Louisiana at Lafayette and self-proclaimed No. 1 fan of West, engages with her via Twitter regularly.
“After the divorce [with Kris Humphries], she got such bad press, and people were really hard on her,” Mingo said. “I knew she was going through a hard time, so I told myself that she needed someone to defend her on social media.”
Around 2011, Mingo created a Twitter devoted to West, @MyleezaKardash.
“She would always reply,” Mingo said. “I would say about 70 percent of the time I used to tweet her, she used to reply to me, and it was so strange. I was like ‘Wow, she has millions of fans, and she always replies to me.’”
After interacting with each other on Twitter for some time, Mingo said they finally met in person at a fragrance appearance in Mississippi. Their friendship developed from there with another meet-up at a Kanye West show and several tweets and Direct Messages exchanged.
But in early August, Mingo’s dreams came true. Kim flew to New Orleans to have lunch with Mingo for her birthday, and Kim gifted her a signed pair of Yeezy Boost 350s. The event was filmed for this upcoming season of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
“That’s really all I wanted to do [for my birthday] was sit and talk to her, and she really made that dream come true,” Mingo said. “The power of social media brought us together.”
At the time of print, Mingo’s Twitter has more than 20,000 followers, many of which are just as Kardashian-obsessed as she is.
“It feels like a community. It feels like a big, virtual family,” she said.
Kardashian-devoted accounts like Mingo’s comprise many of the accounts Kim follows on Twitter and Instagram.
Mingo’s story is proof of Kim’s social media success. Kim’s strong fanbase on social media, as well as her interaction with it prove her tech-savvy talent.
But this success isn’t limited to one member of the famous family nor is it limited to social media.
Kim’s half-sister Kylie Jenner is notorious for her Snapchat stories, where she posts her day-to-day activities with her family, friends and rapper boyfriend Tyga and answers questions from her fans. Jenner holds the title of the most-viewed person on Snapchat.
Jenner is also involved in the latest franchise of the Kardashian-Jenner clan — mobile apps.
Though the “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” mobile app game was released last year and has since received praise, the family now participates in a new type of mobile app — subscription service apps that are focused on a singular person.
They aren’t the first ones to participate in this new genre of apps. Tyler, the Creator released his own Golf Media app in the spring. However, the Kardashians’ and Jenners’ subscription apps are, of course, the highest ranking apps in the iTunes App Store.
They deserve this status for the content of their apps and how well that content caters to their audience.
Kylie, Kendall Jenner, Khloe Kardashian and Kim have been at the forefront of fashion and beauty trends in recent years, so they’ve channeled that into their apps.
“[Women] are very drawn to them and are constantly looking at them and stuff and looking at their body image and what they put out there … like clothes makeup and all that,” mass communication sophomore Lauren Tumminello said.
Women want perfectly contoured cheekbones like Kim, so Kim’s app contains beauty tutorials with her makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic.
Kendall, who is noted for her modeling career, takes fans behind the scenes at fashion week in her app.
And, of course, the sisters’ minimalistic, monochromatic style penetrates clothing trends worldwide. So, each sister’s app has a section where they breakdown their luxury brand outfits and include a feasible, affordable option for fans to recreate the look themselves. Kylie’s includes outfits as dressed down as athletic wear and as dressed up as red carpet premieres.
Mingo brought up a good point about the apps.
“I personally relate more to Kim, but the younger generation could relate more to Kylie,” she said. “I think because there’s so many of them, each [sister] probably relates to a different age demographic.”
Not only does each sister relate to a particular age demographic, but they also relate to particular personalities.
For example, Khloe’s fans wanted to know more about how her kitchen is organized, so she has a few videos on her app detailing how she organizes her pantry and kitchen counter.
These viewers relate to Khloe and are probably homeowners themselves and likely older than 18-year-old Kylie’s teenage fans.
“I like them because I guess how they portray their personality to their fans,” kinesiology senior Jillian Dean said. “You really get to see more of their personal lives.”
Say what you will about the Kardashian-Jenner family, but one thing is for sure — they know their fanbase, and they know what to do to appeal to them. What are they famous for? Being remarkable business women, that’s what.
Sarah LeBoeuf is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Alexandria, Louisiana. You can reach her on Twitter @sleboeuf23.

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Javier Fernández