Influencer
Going Viral On Instagram And Successful Book Marketing With Media Expert Devin Alexander
Devin Alexander is a three-time New York Times Bestselling Author, Celebrity Chef, and media expert. She has appeared on many national and local programs, including Good Morning America, The Food Network, Rachael Ray, CNN, and more. Her newest Instagram account, FitMomFitKids_, has also gone viral multiple times in the last few months. Today, she shares her secret to creating viral content and how she marketed her newest, best-selling book.
About Devin Alexander
Devin Alexander is no stranger to being on TV. Her first TV appearance was back in 2002, and she appeared on Good Morning America in 2004 on New Year’s Eve, which she considers one of her most significant breaks. Devin also spent ten years as the chef on NBC’s Biggest Loser and wrote all of their cookbooks.
These experiences gave her the background and desire to help parents encourage good-eating habits in their children, leading to her latest book.
The Land of Secret Superpowers: Vegetables
Devin’s new book, “The Land of Secret Superpowers: Vegetables,” was released on January 24, 2023, and became a #1 New Release on day two. Her book also sold out on Amazon.
“The Land of Secret Superpowers: Vegetables” is Devin’s first publication for children with a specific audience of toddlers and preschoolers. In this illustrated book, she encourages children to open themselves up to trying new foods and sets them up to be healthy humans.
Devin Alexander shares, “In working with the Biggest Loser contestants and a ton of families with kids, I realized that kids were a lot more apt to eat vegetables if they knew what the vegetables were doing for them. If you tell a kid you have to eat your spinach, or you can’t eat dessert, you could set them up for an eating disorder or something like that.”
Instead, Devin Alexander recommends educating kids on the benefits of vegetables. For example, explain to kids that spinach makes them strong, carrots help them see better, and avocados give them lots of energy. She shares that kids are much more likely to eat their vegetables when they understand what vegetables will do for them rather than being forced to eat veggies.
She adds, “My philosophy is why ever suggest that they’re [vegetables] not the greatest thing in the whole world. As adults, we have the power to treat them like they’re candy, to treat them like they’re a treat, to treat them like something that your kids will like. If you wholeheartedly buy into them and you lead by example and eat them in a way that they taste good because you’ve cooked them, kids are more apt to eat them.”
Marketing Her Book
Devin Alexander took a multi-faceted approach to market her book. She had a giant launch party paid for by different sponsors. In return, Devin is featuring them in her social content. For the launch party, she invited representatives from major hospitals, pediatricians, and other health experts.
Devin Alexander also leveraged her newsletter and social media accounts to share about her book’s launch. On social media, she did a luxury swag bag giveaway.
She adds, “I did hire a traditional Hollywood publicist to do the whole media blitz of the TV shows. I’ve been on some newer ones, and we’re reaching out to magazines. I’m also a featured chef for Albertson’s right now.”
Viral Videos on Devin’s FitMomFitKids_ Instagram
One of Devin’s Instagram accounts, FitMomFitKids_, shares helpful and innovative tips for busy moms. She started this account last summer and had a video go viral in the fall when her account was still small. In a couple of months, her account has had several viral videos receive millions of views.
Devin Alexander has noticed that when she shares the same content on TikTok, it performs poorly, which she finds interesting.
She explains, “It’s good content, or 60,000 people wouldn’t have shared it. It’s interesting or innovative or entertaining or something. I’m one of those [people] who steady wins the race, just keep doing it, which is why I keep doing Devin Alexander [her personal Instagram], but I can’t help but wonder how content can do so well on Instagram and not on TikTok.”
All of her viral videos featured different parenting tips. For example, one reel talked about the many toys and kiosks placed strategically in stores and malls to inspire kids to ask their parents for the merchandise.
“Basically, my solution was to tell my daughter that she couldn’t have anything, but we’d take a picture for Santa, and then at the end of the year, we would decide what she really wanted, and she could have a present from Santa. It’s worked like a charm.”
Devin’s daughter skipped many of the tantrums that kids have during their “terrible twos” as a result.
Another viral video discussed how brands control what kids want at the grocery store by making junk food featuring their favorite TV characters. Devin offered an alternative solution by showing other parents that she added Paw Patrol stickers to healthy foods, like salmon, to entice her daughter to eat healthily.
The Secret to Creating Viral Content
Devin Alexander shares, “The hook is really important on the videos…. Honestly, I cut some of them [the hooks] off. There’s one I’m about to post, and the whole sentence is ‘the one thing super moms do to get their kids to want to eat vegetables,’ so everyone wants to know what the one thing super moms do.”
She adds that creating unique content with tips your audience hasn’t heard a million times is essential. For example, her video about adding character stickers to healthy foods was original to her. Devin hadn’t seen her friends or other content creators doing this and decided to share it. This reel now has over 1.2 million views.
Future Plans
Devin plans to continue evolving her FitMomFitKids_ Instagram account into a giant hub of helpful advice for busy moms. She also wants to integrate other experts she admires into her content to continue sharing exciting content.
She notes, “I’m a solo mompreneur, meaning I don’t have a business partner. I don’t have a life partner. I adopted my daughter from foster care, and I just adore her, so I don’t want to take too much time away from her. So, it’s taken me a little bit longer to launch a lot of the things that as a single girl, I would’ve launched a lot faster.”
Devin also plans to evolve her Instagram account, Devin Alexander, to share more inspirational content and aspects of her life, like travel and her personal journey.
