Oversaturated: The Silk Sneaker’s Shloka Narang On Standing Out in the Blogging Sphere

By Sierra Mayhew June 16, 2019 0 Comments

I would like to introduce you to my new series called “Oversaturated.” This all began as a project I was doing for school and I am now bringing it to my website with a feature on Shloka Narang from The Silk Sneaker. This project was inspired by how saturated the influencer space has become. I will be meeting up with and highlighting different bloggers in New York City this summer to share how they stay unique and true to themselves in their roles as a blogger and influencer. If you like this series, be sure to leave me a comment so I know to keep writing them. Enjoy!

Shloka Narang, the blogger behind The Silk Sneaker, has a way with words. Scrolling through her Instagram page, you see constant conversation. Every single person who leaves her a message or comment receives a personalized response. Narang takes the time to respond even to users who leave comments as generic as a heart-eye emoji. Actions like this have built a strong sense of community for The Silk Sneaker, making the followers feel like they are part of the brand.

This was not the career path she intended on when she first arrived in London.

Initially planning on entering the film industry, Narang’s career took a surprise turn as she recognized she wanted more of a business aspect to her work. She began blogging as a hobby with her group of friends and is now supporting herself through blogging full-time. She brings together luxury and high street fashion to create engaging content for her entire audience.

There is something about Narang that makes her different from other bloggers. Her personal style and cultural background — she was born and raised in Mumbai, India — have created opportunities for her to stand out in the oversaturated industry.

Her existence in the space as a minority has also given her the opportunity to resonate with a niche of people from her home country of India and other people of color. She is able to tailor advice on color choices and beauty tips to what looks best with their skin color.

Narang told me the unique and inspiring story of how she accomplished the title of a full-time blogger while staying true to herself and building a community.

What inspired you to start your blog?

I didn’t always know I wanted to be a blogger. To be very honest, I didn’t actually know what blogging was until I moved to London for university. I came to London in 2012 and I studied film production for my first year of university. I didn’t enjoy it at all … there was no balance between the ultra-creative side and the ultra-business side … I switched to business marketing but I was missing that creative outlet.

Fashion was always something that I enjoyed and loved so it turned out that my friends were like, “Oh why don’t you start a blog.” Suddenly, I started doing more research and realized there are so many fashion bloggers … it was really honestly just for fun as a creative outlet while I was in university and while I was working as well to just do something for myself.

Where are you from?

I was born and brought up in Mumbai, India, and I lived there for 18 years.

When did you switch to a business mindset?

It switched to a business mindset the minute brands started approaching me. I was under 10k [followers] at the time and that is when I realized I started to foster a community in that sense. People were buying something under my recommendations or trying a style because I said to. I realized there was something there. That’s when it switched to a business mindset.

How do you stay motivated to keep it updated constantly?

There are days that are really hard of course. It functions just like a business so we do strategies and quarter reports. At the same time there is so much creativity and so much fun that goes behind it. So much fun creating content and that’s what keeps me motivated. Creating something beautiful and having followers who engage with me and I appreciate that. At the end of the day, it’s being lucky enough to do what you love.

How did you transition to full time?

Sometime in the last year. I was doing a lot of freelance work. First I worked in PR and then I started doing freelance content creation. Flatlays were very popular. Brands would come to me and say, “We want you to make this but we don’t want you to post it on your feed, we want to post it on ours.” It became like a studio function in that sense. It was a good and steady source of income, but what I needed was to focus more on my blog. The transition was not as hard as I thought it would be. It was natural. It started happening when I said no to freelance work more and yes to blog work and one started to outweigh the other.

Do you have a place that’s best for focusing on your projects?

Yes. I have a home office space which has a giant mood board that is facing my desk. When I sit there I focus really well. The other place I focus well is at cafés where I’m outside and around so many people.

Have there been any times that you have felt like you wanted to stop blogging? What inspired you to push forward?

Everything is cyclical. Everything in life is ups and downs. There are obviously months when the blog is down instead of up. Or Instagram is not going as well as I wanted to. Or you get into a slump where you have no good ideas.

What really motivates me is what someone said to me, which was, “You can’t enjoy the highs if you don’t have the lows. Because if you don’t have any lows then the highs don’t mean anything.” I always have in the back of my head that there will always be another high and this is just a phase that I have to get through. I take a step back and I’ll give myself a personal day and do nothing and then come back and approach it with a fresh mind because when these lows happen it exhausts you emotionally.

How does your heritage influence your subject matter and experience in the blogging world?

My Indian heritage first influenced my blogging with the name. It’s called Silk Sneaker because in India we wear silk saris and we are the biggest exporter of silk. It is a luxurious fabric.

In many ways, my Indian heritage influences the things that I post about, especially when it comes to beauty content. There are a lot of girls who post things like, “the best lipsticks you can wear,” “the best foundation.” When I try those shades they don’t look good on me. I talk about what girls of color like me can wear to sort of get that similar look or the products that suit us or the colors that suit us. What we can wear and how that can work for us. It influences how I think of those types of things.

Are you a microblogger by choice or did you find yourself here? If you could choose to be a megablogger instead, would you?

I am a microblogger because I am under 100k [followers]. I would love to be a Chriselle Lim or Aimee Song but it’s less and less about how many followers you have. You could have a million followers and also have 500k followers and still be as successful because it’s more about fostering a sense of community. Instead of having a million followers I would rather have less of that and have an engaged community. Where all my followers value what I am saying and I value what they are saying.

How are you able to use your blog to create a community?

The most basic way about the community is that I have a lot of crossover on my blog, Instagram, newsletter and Pinterest, and I can see some of the same people interacting in different ways. It is also people engaging with what I am saying, whether it’s in the comments [or elsewhere]. It’s come to a point where I feel like I know my followers and they know me. It is really friendly and nice.

How do people find your blog posts? What form of marketing and SEO do you use?

Instagram has its own mind, but I think mostly people find me because someone else has posted me or their friends are following me. Every now or then I pop up on the explore page or hashtags and they find me that way. Instagram is a bit of everything.

With my blog, a lot of it comes from Bloglovin, which is an RSS for bloggers where girls go and pin their favorite bloggers. I get a lot of direct content from Google. I blog about things that are classic or timeless and incorporate a trend in there so I rank in an SEO way as well, and that brings a lot of direct traffic which is good.

Do you find it difficult to support yourself while blogging at The Silk Sneaker?

Yes, it is definitely hard. It is not the steadiest income. There are months where you have more and months where you have less. It was a big adjustment for me to wrap my head around that and budget around something that is not steady.

If you could have only one blogging tool, which would it be?

Probably my iPhone. I could write my posts from my phone, take photos from my phone. If I really had to I could do it from my phone.

Now that the industry is becoming more and more saturated, what do you think the next move is? Will blogs ever die? Is there a new place we should be looking?

That’s a big question about blogs dying off. Only because the industry is so saturated and everyone can whip out their iPhone and take a photo and it can be pretty. At the same time, people are looking for authenticity. They want something real; it’s not just about doing it for the gram. Blogs provide that level of authenticity that people sometimes miss. People are more likely and inclined to read the blog. It also gives more value than one Instagram post. When I want to say something that is more value added like actually give a tip or actually say something that I write a blog post. It provides that authenticity that people are looking for. You want to hear what the girl next door is saying, what is she doing?

If you could wear only one trend for all of 2019, which would it be (assuming your closet is just the basics other than this one item)?

Hair accessories! I’m a big hair accessories person. I have been wearing headbands since I was a kid. My mom used to make little gardens in my hair with butterfly clips and flower clips. I have always loved hair accessories. That is my favorite trend, I would say.

When did you first start collaborating with brands? What is that experience like for you?

I remember the first one actually, back in the day. It was a big brand and it was on a gifting basis. It was from Nip + Fab, I remember when they sent it to me and it was one of the Kardashians who was the face of it. They sent products and wanted me to post about it. That was pivotal moment where I was like, “Whoa, this is quite a brand.”

When did you start blogging?

The end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. It was right in the middle. Before that, two of my other friends wanted to start a blog and the three of us had a blog together. Everyone got busy with work and university and I decided to do this myself.

When did you start creating your beautiful and unique flatlays?

I remember that I discovered what a flatlay was because Margaret Dine is one of my favorite influencers. When I started following her, she was doing these amazing flatlays. It was definitelyin my first few months of blogging and they sort of evolved from there.

What type of content does the best for you and is most reshared?

It’s something we evaluate quite frequently. It’s a very interesting mix. Either it’s that super cute natural shot that is me in outfit in front of a nice simple background, something that is full of flowers, a super tropical location — or something that is quite dramatic. So an incredible dress, or I did a photo recently in my living room with all of the hair clips going down and that did amazing. And flatlays always do well.

How many skills did you need to build your blog to this point? Did you take any courses?

Lots of readings and resources, but no formal course.

What kind of people do you collaborate with for your blog (e.g., photographers, editors, assistants, interns)?

I have an intern and she’s awesome. She’s a lot of fun and she helps me with content. Very recently, I now have a manager who helps me handle all the projects that I have coming through [and does] all the brand outreach. I went for someone who was a freelancer because it is easier to have one person fighting for you who isn’t bogged down by agency politics.

What’s the most important part of what you do?

The most important thing when it comes to what I do is being myself because that basically filters into being authentic. That’s a buzzword, but it’s really the concept of being selective with my work. This is so important because my followers can see right through something that is not right. I have seen the way they interact with other bloggers. I have seen other bloggers sometimes make a mistake and how people react to that. The same is with brands. The most important thing I do is just be honest. The foundation of my community is that they come to me because they trust me and trust is the most important foundation for everything. Without that there would be nothing.

Check out The Silk Sneaker, Here.