In Ask an Influencer, Business of Home explores the creator economy. This week, we spoke with design creator Claire Randolph.
For her fast-growing online audience, a peek inside Claire Randolph’s Los Angeles apartment offers a window into the decorating habits of another generation—staid pieces of upholstered furniture sit alongside an extensive china collection, embroidered pillows, vases full of blue and white hydrangeas and a framed photo of former President John F. Kennedy. While those touches may not belong to Randolph’s generation—the design creator graduated college in 2022—she’s become a virtual ambassador of sorts, offering viewers online with her firsthand knowledge of what it takes to curate a “grandmillennial” space.
All of this comes naturally to Randolph, who trained her eye for interiors while watching her mother and grandmother curate their own homes during her childhood in Dallas. By age 15, she had already dipped her toes into the content creation field, establishing a fashion blog that became so popular, she was receiving invites to fashion week events by the time she started high school. After studying social media marketing at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in L.A., she tried her hand at social media consulting for a brand. When she was let go from the position, she saw an opportunity to build her own platform.
“I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to start my own TikTok, and I’m going to have more followers than you,’” says Randolph. By the time she started her account in 2023, she was pleased to discover that her already well-honed niche in vintage-inspired decor combined with her content creation background allowed her to hit the ground running. Today, her audience of 32,900 followers comes along virtually on shopping trips, antique-hunting expeditions, home design moments and hosting opportunities as she showcases her grandmillennial aesthetic.
Ahead, the design creator shares how she opens a dialogue with her audience, the value in creating content outside of your niche and the preparation that goes into making videos that are dynamic and attention-grabbing.
Start a dialogue
From the moment Randolph decided to go all-in on social media, she knew that posting consistently was key to tapping into TikTok’s algorithm and establishing a steady stream of content for her would-be audience. It’s a strategy she recommends to others in search of building a platform—but only when the content in question brings something worthwhile to the audience’s feed.
“There are so many creators who post every day, but they’re not offering anything to anybody. There needs to be an ask, and there needs to be an offer,” she says. “It’s interesting because when you start out, you have all these new people that are following you, and you don’t really know them that well. But you start to know them as they follow you. [Now] I have so many girls and guys who have followed me for so long—I know their names and their comments.”
To understand what your audience is looking for, Randolph says, the answer is simple: ask them. From the beginning, she made a point to respond to those who were engaging with her content, answering comments and DMs in order to get a sense of their questions and interests. Along with honing her content accordingly, the strategy had opened up a dialogue with her followers that continues to yield results—such as on a recent post asking users to tell her “the tackiest, worst, most diabolical interior design decisions you see people make,” that’s garnered nearly 900 comments and counting.
“Or one of the tactics I use a lot is asking for their opinions. I’m like, ‘What do you guys think about this?’ Or ‘Would you guys do this if you were in this position?’” she says. “I’ll post a video and be like, ‘Hang this here or here on the wall?’ and that drives so much engagement,” she says. “People want to feel like their opinion is being validated, and they want to feel like they’re being listened to, and it’s a personal connection with your followers when you’re asking them their personal advice on something that’s going to be inside your home. It’s a way to be personal with them.”
Develop a home base
“Niche down” is a piece of advice frequently deployed in social media spheres, used to encourage content creators to develop a more specific point of view—to differentiate themselves from other users and to garner a target audience more quickly. For Randolph, that part came easily.
“Because my stuff is more niche—my style and the way I decorate—I think that’s what drives people [to follow me,]” she says. “It looks curated, like everything has a place, and [with] old stuff and new stuff. I have stuff from the 18th century in my home, and then I have stuff I bought at Target two weeks ago, and it works. That factor is a big reason why people watch my content.”
Just because you find a solid niche, however, doesn’t mean you need to stay there. Over time, Randolph has diversified her content, allowing her audience to get to know her better while providing a mix of content that feels consistently fresh.
“It’s evolved. I started mostly just doing home [content]. Then I started showing my face a lot more, and I started showing my boyfriend, and I’d show cocktail recipes and cooking and my outfit and political views, and it’s grown the more I’ve gotten comfortable in my community,” she says. “Having a niche is so important. And then once you establish that niche, you can start branching off and doing other things.”
Plan ahead—then punch it up
Many of Randolph’s TikTok videos are fast-paced, full of quick and varied shots—whether it’s eclectic finds in an antique store or vignettes from around her personal space—that are condensed down to roughly a minute-and-a-half on average. The behind-the-scenes process, however, is far from off-the-cuff. Some of those same short clips, Randolph says, can take up to six hours to make, between filming, editing and adding voiceover. One of the most time-consuming parts of the process is that last part—though it’s also the most crucial to getting viewers to stick around.
“I try to make the way I start my videos strategic: I want to hook you in the first couple of seconds. If you look at my videos, you’ll see that the first couple seconds of each video is something that sounds shocking, or like ‘I had this problem, and I fixed it this way,’” she says. “You have to keep the audience’s intrigue throughout the whole voiceover.”
Despite the heavy lift required to craft each clip, Randolph is eager for viewers to pick up on the production quality of her content—a way for her not only to signal her seriousness to followers but also to those interested in working with her. “I think my strategy of putting a lot of work into my videos has helped me a lot,” she says.” I think that drives people [to my page], and I think that also drives brands who want to work with me. [They know] they’re going to get a high-quality video no matter what.”
