Tag: COS

Today is a bit of a personal post for me, but I felt it was about time to share. After watching Sophia Hilton from Not another salon’s ranting about how Instagram is ruining people’s real life expectations (If you haven’t seen it check it out here.) It got me thinking that she has hit the nail on the head the way social media has created lives, that we are finding impossible to reach. If you have been following our blog for a while and remember when I had a blog called Naybeautymua, you would of known that I really, really liked Instagram at the beginning. With its right there, right now captured moments, when no one cared about filters and themes it seemed such an innocent platform. On a good day I was receiving anything up to 350 Likes (I know thats not ground breaking) and my followers were growing steadily, there was a real sense of community and I enjoyed the engagement. The time I was spending Liking and commenting to keep the engagement up was exhausting! I would post twice a day to keep up. It all came to ahead when I wanted to take some time away to have a holiday and not use my phone at all. I found it hard, I felt like I was missing out and realized then, it was time to take a step back. I was so scared of losing engagement, if I didnt like everyone’s post or comment right there and then, then what would happen?.

Then Instagram introduced the dreaded InstaStories and the dreaded Algorithm, there was so much more to keep up with and to watch. Every good Blogger knows you need your social media platforms to raise awareness of your blog so people read it, and brands in turn want to work with you because you have the following. But what people dont tell you is Blogging is a 24hr, 7 days a week kind of job, if you want to be successful. Then on Easter weekend on Twitter, where many well known bloggers were outed for buying followers or likes. What ensued, with others jumping on the band wagon, it left a bad taste in my mouth and I realized everything you could be working for could all go in one night. With Insta becoming more annoying, all you read on twitter feeds is constant moaning from fellow bloggers (and rightly so) about engagement. I wish all bloggers could unite and just boycott Instagram, as it is not a fair platform any more.  I decided for my own mental health, to completely unplug. I took a month off social media. I discussed my feelings with my husband and he suggested why not put all my efforts into our hair salon business instead. I change my handle, to our salon business and stopped engaging so much, and just posted when I had a new blog post or hair and makeup look to share. When I checked my statics I found that my main referring sites was not Instagram and that it was only no.4. so would I really notice a difference?.

So, what has been the consequences of my actions?. This was back in February, 6 months down the road now. Within a month my followers dropped (only a few hundred) and my likes dropped, 6 months down the line Im lucky if I get to 100 likes per post and my PR work has dried up a little, but to be fair its become more manageable balancing with my other job (Makeup Artist) and a full time mother to three kiddies. I will still blog, I found it relaxing and I love reading blogs, but I just dont put the same importance on it as I used to. I feel happier and more content for it. Its giving me more head space to create better content, and I figure at some point people who like what you do will find you and enjoy it, as long as you are enjoying it thats the main thing. So, come on sack the numbers and just keep creating good content for you.

I have rambled on enough, and it feels good to off load. Just a quickie about my standard uniform ATM. White shirt and Mom jeans what more could you ask for! What are your thoughts about Instagram? Would you give it up? Let me know below in the comments.

White Shirt COS Similar | Next Mom Jeans (old) Similar | Shoes Topshop Nude Mary Janes

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