The past 11 months have been a whirlwind for 26-year-old Cyrene Quiamco of Little Rock, as she has propelled herself into a Snapchat celebrity.
Since late last year, her Snapchat campaigns have garnered attention from major corporations and celebrities, earning her thousands of dollars and invitations to some of the trendiest events. Her persona is in such demand that she will soon leave her full-time job as a web developer and focus full time on social media consulting and her Snapchat work.
It all started with the launch of her website the11thsecond.com where Quiamco, known as CyreneQ on Snapchat, created a community for artists, storytellers and other Snapchat creators.
“As the community grew, followers grew,” she said. “We started chatting each other out and it grew.”
Quiamco began illustrating celebrity selfies on the social media platform and said muscian Kevin Jonas noticed her drawings and began “chatting” them out.
Along with her illustrations of celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Disney characters and others, Quiamco also creates videos which she said tell a story. In November 2014, NBC’s “The Voice” took notice and offered Quiamco her first paid gig.
Since, Quiamco has done several snaps for brands, which she describes as an “interactive commercial.” She has been paid between $5,000 and $25,000 per snap, with each taking just a couple of hours of work. She declined to say how much each individual brand had paid.
Earlier this year, Disneyland invited her to snap about its new Frozen attraction, and, in August, MTV hired Quiamco to interview celebrities on the Video Music Awards red carpet.
“I was shaking hands with the biggest stars and getting paid for it,” she said. “It’s something I would pay to do.”
Here’s a video of Quiamco at the VMAs:
Quiamco’s social media stardom has come while working full time as a web developer at Verizon Wireless, a job she will leave by the end of October. She said she gets daily requests from companies seeking her to snap for them, but, so far, she has only had the time to do about two or three per month.
“I get requests daily, but I pick which one fits my image,” she said. “It’s important to be choosy because the product you advertise represents you. I will be taking more once I leave my job, but I’ll still filter them.
“And, it’s important to keep a balance between branded and unbranded work or people will lose interest and the account will feel very commercialized and lose its impact.”
Quiamco, who graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in graphic design, has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Business Insider and more. This year, she was nominated for a Shorty Award, which recognizes social media standouts.
She attributes her success to understanding social media, particularly Snapchat, where account-holders are unable to see how many followers they have. She said her snaps receive 35,000 or more views per day.
“Snapchat is so much different than other social media,” she said. “You can curate your story and campaign in real time, ask questions and your audience can snap you back in real time. Curating a story in real time has more engagement. People are not just passively watching, so it’s more effective than other campaigns.”
Personality also plays an important role.
“People want to see more than just an artist; they want to see the people,” she said. “Personality and creativity are the recipe for a good promotional campaign.”
Even though she will soon be a full-time social media maven, Quiamco said she plans to stay in Little Rock, despite offers to move to California and New York. She said it’s cheaper for her to live in central Arkansas and pay for plane tickets to wherever she needs to go. Plus, her family and friends still live in the state.
“Living in Little Rock didn’t stop me from getting opportunities,” she said. “I don’t see a reason to move somewhere where the cost of living is a lot higher. I’m comfortable here.”