PatchCast: The Design Twins Talk Pizza, Pillows, Perfect Persona

Editor's note: Patch is launching a regular audio feature called The PatchCast in which social media influencers nationwide chat about what they do, how they do it and more. Joining us this week are Julie Lancia and Jodie Kammerer, the sisters behind The Design Twins. If you're interested in appearing on the PatchCast, send an email to dan.hampton@patch.com and tell us what makes you an influencer.

PLEASANT HILL, CA — Julie Lancia and Jodie Kammerer have a gift for home decorating. Every day, The Design Twins, who grew up in Connecticut and now live in the suburbs of Seattle and San Francisco, post stunning home decor photos for their hundreds of thousands of followers.

In the fall, pumpkins and candles are the props of choice for their brilliant yellow and orange hues. That changes with the seasons. In the winter, couches are covered in snow-white pillows while bright red blankets and sleds add a splash of color. And, of course, there are multiple shots of ornate Christmas trees that rival what you'd find in the North Pole.

But talent alone isn't why the twins have about a half-million followers between them, and it isn't why companies want products featured on their Instagram accounts. Their secret sauce, or "je ne sais quoi," as they call it, is authenticity. What you see, they say, is what you get.

"What we've seen studying Instagram for over four years is that authenticity is craved by audiences," said Kammerer, who now lives in Pleasant Hill, California.

That authenticity is why people believe them when they say Post Corner Pizza in Darien has the best slice of pepperoni in the country. It's also why followers believe their homes can appear spectacular and professional.

The twins are known as "influencers," a term that has rapidly evolved and boomed since the advent of Instagram. It's an exclusive club. These people know their audience and often spend years cultivating their feeds to meet the insatiable demand of content-hungry followers.

Usually, influencers get a lot of free swag. (For the twins, that translates to a plethora of pillows, wreaths and decorative signs.) The best and most successful influencers graduate from free-product posts to paid content, earning hundreds or even thousands of dollars for promoting a brand in a single post.

"We can't feed our families on pillows alone," Kammerer said with a laugh. "That's the joke. But it is true."

It's a full-time job. Influencers work long hours, often waking up at 6 a.m. and finishing at 7 p.m. A typical day includes scheduling photo shoots, staging scenes, snapping and editing glamorous shots, and then crafting perfect, engaging captions to accompany the post. But the day doesn't end there. Influencers also update their blogs, newsletters and plan out future projects.

For the twins, the job also entails running workshops and retreats. Recently, The Design Twins hosted a three-day workshop in Texas where a group of 50 women learned how to use Instagram, have self-confidence and value their work. When the twins started home decorating as a hobby, that wasn't always the case. It wasn't until after companies repeatedly sought shout-outs that they realized their time was valuable.

"We started to realize that we did have some value. And we also started to realize that when people sent us 'free' stuff, that there was work involved," said Lancia, who now lives in Sammamish, Washington. "We started to put those two pieces together and said, 'Hey, how can we use our time? And how can we justify all the work that we've put into this?'"

You can do that when your photos get more than 14,000 likes.

Photos credit: Julie Lancia and Jodie Kammerer