Blogger Spotlight: Romaine Coonghe, Junior Style

Spotlight with Romaine Coonghe author of UK’s leading kid’s fashion blog, Junior Style. The site showcases the latest children’s fashion from iconic brands and leading independent designers to boutique retailers and emerging brands. Romaine spoke to us about what makes the blog different, the challenges of using social media, finding the best marketing mix for designers and marketers, the work that goes on behind the scenes and more

Why should people read your blog? What makes it different? Junior Style is committed to nurturing the emerging designers and concept shops that you won’t hear about anywhere else. We keep our readers ahead of the curve in the sense that we ‘break’ the labels that go on to become stylists and editors picks.

How do you measure the success of your website? Numbers don’t lie—we monitor hits to our website and social media shares but balance the data-driven approach with anecdotal evidence, like testimonials from readers, for example.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? If you’re passionate about blogging in your niche, be sure your’e offering something different—there is a lot of redundancy and homogeneity out there in blogging. Try to find your own unique angle and voice.

How do you work with marketers and PRs? We have a range of services that we provide to marketers—from competitions, to editorial features and social media support on our channels—and we work together to find the best marketing mix based on the goals of the designer or retailer.

How do you use social media to promote/share content? What are the challenges? We like to be where our readers are on social media. Obviously, childrenswear is very image-driven so we try to share the best content, especially when it features one of the brands or retailers that we work with and love. The problem with social? It’s 24/7, particularly for our global readership. We have to be strategic about our timing for that reason.

What can PRs do in working better with you? Currently, we work with some great PR companies and are always kept up to date of new brands they represent.  I am lucky to have established great relationships with the PR companies that I work with over the last 12 years.

What has been your blogging highlight? Nothing is better than hearing from an emerging designer that their sales shot up or they were contacted for an editorial in a larger publication following their exposure on Junior Style. Happily, it happens a lot!

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? We have been working behind the scenes on a brand new website as well as an expanded menu of services which unfortunately I’m not able to elaborate on at the moment, so you’ll have to follow us!

What does the Vuelio blog ranking mean for your blog? It is such an honour to be included in the Vuelio rankings. It’s validation of the team work and all the love that goes into Junior Style, from the brands and retailers we work with, to our network of stylists and contributors.