The curious case of Candice Galek

I do most of my social media on Linkedin. April 4 2016, one of the people I was a first connection with posted a picture of a girl in a bikini.  The next day, another of my followers was re-posting, (sharing?) pictures of females in bikinis. I unfollowed these first two. With the 3rd one I noticed the source for all of them is the same. Candice Galek, CEO of Bikiniluxe.com posts as much on Linkedin as I do, has 26k LI followers, (3x what I have).

Titles of some of her most effective posts:
Is This Appropriate For Linkedin? – UPDATED 45k pageviews
5 Things Unhappy People Don’t Know 10k pageviews
4 Habits of Respected Leaders 6.5k

Titles of less-effective posts:
Is it Appropriate to Talk About Politics on… 268 pageviews
4 Surefire Ways To Motivate Your Employees 149 pageviews
20 Things You Should Ditch From Your Closet 134 pageviews

When I clicked on her name, LI gave me two choices, to Follow or to Connect. For the present I am choosing neither. On Twitter she has 10.4k followers with less than 500 tweets. Clearly she is using social media well.

I decided to send a Facebook friend request. She graciously accepted. Today she posted a link on Facebook that fills in some of the missing pieces about her story.

"One entrepreneur who has recently managed to go viral is Candice Galek, founder of Bikini Luxe, an online swimwear retailer. Bikini Luxe does much of its marketing via traditional social media platforms, including Facebook and Pinterest. However, it was Candice’s decision to focus on LinkedIn that turned heads."

Apparently her viral post was Is This Appropriate For Linkedin? The Forbes blog goes on:

"When Candice’s posts on LinkedIn started to go viral, the social network’s content algorithm kicked in, proactively deleting her post and profile picture without her notice. Rather than reach out in righteous indignation, however, Candice chose to engage intelligently with the team at LinkedIn.

After speaking to high-level employees of the company on a near-daily basis, Candice managed to get all of her posts and pictures put back in place. In fact, she is now has her own follow button, and her posts now generate almost as much engagement as well-known business leaders like Sir Richard Branson and Bill Gates."

On 4/23/16 I see this Linkedin post:

So I read the article in the Examiner:

For those whose mail boxes are routinely inundated with Victoria's Secret catalogs, change is afoot. The company recently announced that it would no longer be issuing catalogs starting at the end of the year. The brand is also eliminating its swimwear line, choosing instead to focus on athletic wear, lingerie and its popular beauty products. 
...

The swimwear game has also become more competitive with sites such as Beverly Swimwear, Bikini Luxe and Everything But Water offering high quality suits in a variety of options. Many of these retailers also offer a better variety of plus size suits that are more flattering on voluptuous women.

Victoria's Secret is a strong brand. This is going to give Bikini Luxe a little more running room.