Turning passion into profit: Student social media influencers use their content creation skills for marketing
Like many students, Aubrey Seat and Talia Silver traveled over spring break, but the work didn’t stop there. It was Friday of spring break when Seat and Silver, co-founders of the marketing firm SilverSeat, had just returned from their Costa Rica trip at 5 a.m. that morning. The two girls sat in their shared dorm, smiling through a single video chat square via Seat’s Instagram page.
Even while they enjoyed vacation, the girls made content for the various brands they have deals with. Seat has an Instagram post containing American Eagle advertisements, and Silver has a travel vlog showcasing the soda brand OLIPOP.
The two girls started their TikTok page @lifeasroomies in early 2023, which was inspired by Seat’s work as a content creator for Liberty University’s College of Applied Studies and Academic Success (CASAS). After seeing Seat’s marketing work, Silver changed her major to marketing and began to help Seat with her CASAS workload. It did not take long for the girls to begin working toward their own business ambitions.
“We were working at school for Liberty, but what if we had our own business?” Silver said.“Let’s take this a step further and take our passion and do something that’s our own thing.”
The first deal they received was from the social media app BeReal in the fall of 2023, leading the girls to believe God had led them to this opportunity.
“It’s cool because I think we can point everything back to Christ in all this because brands reach out to us, which is so unique,” Seat said. “It was huge when we first started out because we didn’t have much content yet, but (BeReal) still found us somehow, and they were like, ‘Hey, we love your content, and we love that you do it together. We really want to make a 10-week contract with you.’”
With that, SilverSeat marketing was born.
Silver and Seat’s content creation process is more intricate than one would guess. The business partners begin with their “work walks,” where they discuss their future business endeavors, but they also do their best to be intentional in their evangelism while marketing. Silver shared SilverSeat’s viewpoint on online evangelism.
“God gave us a gift for business. It’s cool that we work with companies and we’ll get on these Zoom calls and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna market this product, but while we’re marketing that, we’re going to put in our morning routine and our Bible study,’” Silver said. “It kinda sparks some wheels turning like, ‘Wow, these are Christian girls.’”
The young entrepreneurs have spent two years on campus. Seat plans to graduate in May 2024, and Silver plans to graduate in summer 2024.
They did not start their freshman year off as roommates. It was only after three weeks of school that they even ran into each other. Seat credits God for allowing the two to meet and begin working together.
Photo provided
“We both came here with different roommates, and three weeks into the school year we met each other in an elevator and my roommate just suddenly dropped out. We didn’t know each other that well, but she wanted to move to my floor,” Seat said. “It’s so cool to see how God brought me my best friend and the best roommate I could ever have, and business partner.”
The girls have worked with 24 companies so far, including PacSun, YSL, Mellow Mushroom, Elevated Faith and Credit Karma. Seat and Silver do not have hard-set plans following graduation, but they are hopeful for the future of their business.
“Right now we’re just praying about it. Definitely long-term we’d love to be CEOs of our own marketing firm,” Seat said. “As much as we want to say at this point what (the future) fully looks like, … we definitely want to travel and do marketing for the foreseeable future.”
The business owners can be found on Instagram @aubruhhhh and @taliasilver and on TikTok @lifeasroomies. Check out their pages to see their upcoming travels and what brand they will work with next.
Napier is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion