Inventing Anna has been a hit Netflix show for several weeks now. People are enthralled with the show because the story is so mind-blowing. How could one young girl capture the attention and fool so many rich and powerful people? Here is a quick recap for those that have not watched the show, or the extensive news coverage from years ago.
Anna Sorkin, formally known as Anna Delvey throughout the hit series, came from a poor immigrant family. She came to New York City with piles of cash and essentially, made a name for herself in one of the biggest cities in the world under the guise of being a rich German heiress. People were drawn to her because of her attitude, style, and overall wealthy appearance. She tipped in hundies like it was going out of style. She knew in a city like New York money talked, and she was going to be loud.
Anna Sorkin ended up borrowing, stealing, and cheating everything from stays at high end hotels to free food. She started rubbing shoulders with all the right people in hopes to get access to multi million dollar funding from banks to open a club, and establish herself as a New York elitist.
Once she ended up stealing from a person that really couldn't afford it, and was not too embarrassed to go to the police did all of her lies come out and she was arrested.
As I was watching this show, and even for days after it finished, I still was trying to wrap my head around the fact that this nobody came in and took New York by storm. Money couldn't be the only reason why she was able to infiltrate some of the powerful inner circles in the elite world. Could it?
I admit I became slightly obsessed for the next couple of days. I read articles about her, looked at her old Instagram photos that was taken with celebrities and the rich and famous. I started following her current Instagram all to find out what it was about her that tricked so many people.
Then it hit me.
Anna Sorkin created the ultimate brand for herself under the name Anna Delvey.
After I started looking at her story under a marketing view point, a lot of what she did is what branding specialists, social media and digital marketing managers tell their clients to do all the time. It is something that influencers know all too well. If you create a brand for yourself that resonates with your target audience you will eventually get the attention of those people, and if you do it right you will get that attention quickly. Not that I tell my clients to trick people into liking their company, nor do I condone tricking or stealing in ANYWAY. 
Just want to be 100% clear on this.
But with the internet and social media so readily available all you need to succeed is a killer personal or business brand, plus a few other marketing strategies up your sleeve.
Inventing Anna : Inventing Your Brand
Identify Your Target Audience
Like Anna, when creating a brand you have to know your target audience. In her case, her target audience was the New York elite. She started positioning herself in front of them by staying at the high end hotels and going to high end events. She also was spending and tipping in large quantities, enough to get people talking. When creating your brand you need to find out where your target audience is. Are they on social media? Do they frequent certain types of establishments? What is their annual income? Do they have kids? Etc. Once you can narrow down your target audience and find where they spend their time, you can certainly start to promote yourself where they are.
Analyze Your Competition
When Anna came to New York City she quickly realized who was going to be an asset to her, and who wasn't. She looked for strengths (who could help her) and weaknesses (who couldn't).
Once you know your target audience you can go look at how your competition is marketing themselves. Look for strengths and weaknesses. What they are doing good, and what they are missing that you might be able to do that would separate you from them. Now that you know what you can do that they don't, move on to how you can be unique.
Exemplify what Makes You Unique
What makes you unique? In a crowded social world it is harder to get noticed than it is to literally insert yourself into someone's life, like in the show. You need to be different to get your customers attention. By using proper branding colors, the right voice, and the right type of posts you will be able to attract your ideal client visually, and then by allowing them to get to know you.
Networking & Building a Reputation
Anna got herself out there. She got into the social circles (HA Pun Intended) by making herself look like someone they needed to be associated with. "She's high end, she is a German heiress, if I don't get in with her now I will be too late and I will miss out." She built a reputation for herself as someone that is important and you need to do that with your business. You want your customers to love you so much that they promote your products for you!
That is how influencers became a thing. Major brands realized the value in user generated content, plus it is free marketing! It is absolutely something that if you are able to get for your business you will want it.
Inventing Anna: Marketing Genius?
Finding Your Platform
Now that you have created your target audience you need to figure out which social platform they are on. I mean, I am assuming you are wanting to promote your business on social media, and if you are a virtual service or ecommerce, your target audience is going to be much larger than a local mom and pop shop that is only serving their local community. But not only that, people expect you to have a social account now. If you aren't on social media you are losing valuable customers! But not every platform is going to be right for your business and your target audience. So really delve in to find out which is the best for you.
Decide the best way to promote your business (video, images, etc)
You have your brand, you have your target audience, you have your platform, now you need to decide which is the best way to promote your business. Will it be short or long form video? Static images? Live videos? Right now, video on social media is KING. All social platforms are moving towards video, thanks to TikTok. TikTok is one of the fastest growing social platforms out there and because of this, many social platforms are left trying to keep up.
So really consider adding video content to your marketing strategy.
In the End...
Everyone in Inventing Anna was trying to invent or enhance their brand. The journalist Vivian was trying to recover her brand from a previous publicity nightmare. Anna's "friends" were using her connections to try to climb the social ladder or get high end clients. Anna's boyfriend invented a story about immigrating because stories sell and sold his story to get funding. The lawyer knew that taking this high end case would elevate his brand and force lawyers to take him seriously. Every decision we make in our lives influences our personal or professional brand and how others perceive us. It's how we choose to brand ourselves that is important.
