Here’s one for the beauty book: a 16-year-old blogger helped a design-your-own shoe company, Shoes of Prey, triple its web traffic and achieve its best day yet. This came after she posted a nine-minute video to YouTube to explain the site’s value, promote shoes she designed herself, and encourage subscribers to comment. One out of the 93,581 that responded won free footwear.
The bloggette known online as juicystar07 maintains an impressive YouTube presence: 15 million views, 50 million upload views, and almost 300,000 subscribers. And while she mostly gushes on about fashion, makeup, or her latest hauls from Forever 21, her posts routinely rack up 400k views. She’s part of a growing number of power-users-turned-influencers, a group that makes a grand impression on their followers.

New-media stars that are brand relevant and trustworthy to consumers—juicystar07, AllThatGlitters21, or other web-grown celebs—can work their magic quickly; the teen’s bump drove 200,000 visits in a single day. Traditional marketing usually can’t accomplish such growth in months.

Endorsements like this translate as natural extensions of the user’s personality. As such, the paired-up relationship between brand and curious customer begins most organically. And with the kind of hits generated (in this example, at least), we’re talking some serious brand exposure—sans interruption. Sure, the YouTube personality may still get paid off in the end, but their faithful, grassroots fanbase and earnest approach to conversation (instigated, mind you, on the brand’s behalf) are to die for. So what are you waiting for? Step to it!

(via PSFK)