Coming back into the social media world I am noticing how watered-down everyone is. It's ANNOYING AS HELL. But before I dive into this rant-post, understand my background and try be as open-minded as possible.
I've had Instagram for years (duh) but this year I decided to change my content. I went from promoting my girlfriend's photography to documenting and blogging my natural hair journey. Everything began April 2018 when I had a little over 530 followers. Fast forward to July 2018 and my follower count is 853. My following grew because I KEEPS IT 110%.
Going into this, my intentions were to track the growth/health of my SEVERELY heat-damaged hair, build and CONNECT with naturals all over the world (not just in Atlanta), and share my crazy-ass life experiences visually on Instagram and on my blog.
My intentions are STILL the same, however my views of social media drastically changed when I began studying the dreaded "Instagram Algorithm". If I can briefly sum the algorithm up: Instagram made it so the most RELEVANT content gets viewed first. Your online engagement is what drives this whole thing. When you comment, like, and actually ENGAGE in a post that you like, Insta will make sure that post is top priority. Instagram wanted to make the whole social media experience more organic by prioritizing the posts we care about the most.
That is completely understandable. They want to keep it as organic as possible; cool beans. We actually need more of that on this planet.
But here's where I get lost -- Instagram Influencers and Follow to Unfollowers.
According to PixLee, an Instagram influncer is someone that has an established credibility and audience; who can persuade others by virtue of their trustworthiness and authenticity.
Authenticity.... Keep up guys; by definition "authentic" means not false or copied; genuine; REAL.
Instagram Influencers as well as businesses owners use their follower count to make themselves seem more credible. Bottom-line: the more followers you have, the more authentic you appear to oncoming/potential followers.
These "influencers" are using methods to "out-smart" this system, thus bringing us to the main reason why social media management is ANNOYING AS HELL to me. The wonderful "follow to unfollowers" make this entire process an emotional roller-coaster (I am being dramatic, but really serious).
Let me walk ya'll into the bull I experience on a daily basis. So, I'll post QUALITY content (of my hair, dog--whatever) to my page with a bomb ass caption. Normally, I'll throw in a few relevant hashtags to push my content to the right direction. Throughout the day, I'll get some of the most random followers that completely disregard my posts, but abuse my "follow" button. In the beginning I'd follow them back because, duh, like I said my focus is building real connections with the natural community. After a few days, the "unfollowers" will -- guess what UNFOLLOW me! My mind was blown and still is, so please tell me in my comments what's authentic about that.
I literally had to learn to weed through the bullshit bot pages and ignore the new folks. These followers were the ones with 12k followers only following less than 100 people back. It was maddening!
This whole method disrupts everything my brand stands for. Regardless of whatever, I promised myself and my following that I will remain as organic as possible. Ya'll get the real me through instagram and blog--through every post! I am going to continue to engage and be the example of what I want to see more from an "Instagram Influencer" until these flaky people die down.
To be honest, I would rather have 853 REAL followers for months that genuinely support me and my journey than 52k instagram robots with zero engagement or likes. These "Influencers" are trying to beat a system that was designed to rule out the real from the fakes.
My rant is done for now, but I am sure I will be back. I am still in the process of learning how social media works, but if you understand the dirty parts of the game first you will be able to fly over all of that and be the brand your followers deserve.
Love&Light
I've had Instagram for years (duh) but this year I decided to change my content. I went from promoting my girlfriend's photography to documenting and blogging my natural hair journey. Everything began April 2018 when I had a little over 530 followers. Fast forward to July 2018 and my follower count is 853. My following grew because I KEEPS IT 110%.
*Disclaimer: this rant is not just about IG followers; I will get to the point in a minute :)
My intentions are STILL the same, however my views of social media drastically changed when I began studying the dreaded "Instagram Algorithm". If I can briefly sum the algorithm up: Instagram made it so the most RELEVANT content gets viewed first. Your online engagement is what drives this whole thing. When you comment, like, and actually ENGAGE in a post that you like, Insta will make sure that post is top priority. Instagram wanted to make the whole social media experience more organic by prioritizing the posts we care about the most.
That is completely understandable. They want to keep it as organic as possible; cool beans. We actually need more of that on this planet.
But here's where I get lost -- Instagram Influencers and Follow to Unfollowers.
According to PixLee, an Instagram influncer is someone that has an established credibility and audience; who can persuade others by virtue of their trustworthiness and authenticity.
Authenticity.... Keep up guys; by definition "authentic" means not false or copied; genuine; REAL.
Instagram Influencers as well as businesses owners use their follower count to make themselves seem more credible. Bottom-line: the more followers you have, the more authentic you appear to oncoming/potential followers.
These "influencers" are using methods to "out-smart" this system, thus bringing us to the main reason why social media management is ANNOYING AS HELL to me. The wonderful "follow to unfollowers" make this entire process an emotional roller-coaster (I am being dramatic, but really serious).
Let me walk ya'll into the bull I experience on a daily basis. So, I'll post QUALITY content (of my hair, dog--whatever) to my page with a bomb ass caption. Normally, I'll throw in a few relevant hashtags to push my content to the right direction. Throughout the day, I'll get some of the most random followers that completely disregard my posts, but abuse my "follow" button. In the beginning I'd follow them back because, duh, like I said my focus is building real connections with the natural community. After a few days, the "unfollowers" will -- guess what UNFOLLOW me! My mind was blown and still is, so please tell me in my comments what's authentic about that.
I literally had to learn to weed through the bullshit bot pages and ignore the new folks. These followers were the ones with 12k followers only following less than 100 people back. It was maddening!
This whole method disrupts everything my brand stands for. Regardless of whatever, I promised myself and my following that I will remain as organic as possible. Ya'll get the real me through instagram and blog--through every post! I am going to continue to engage and be the example of what I want to see more from an "Instagram Influencer" until these flaky people die down.
To be honest, I would rather have 853 REAL followers for months that genuinely support me and my journey than 52k instagram robots with zero engagement or likes. These "Influencers" are trying to beat a system that was designed to rule out the real from the fakes.
My rant is done for now, but I am sure I will be back. I am still in the process of learning how social media works, but if you understand the dirty parts of the game first you will be able to fly over all of that and be the brand your followers deserve.
Love&Light
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