Is Blogging For Me? And Other Questions You Probably Shouldn't Ask Yourself.
Sure, the 9-5 grind offers financial security, a steady income, health benefits, and something I can proudly take home to share with my family, but I believe that here I do something more than just work: I influence. The life of an influencer is more than just posting gorgeous but airbrushed selfies with products, it’s also about the hustle. Getting your posts out consistently (which I don’t do), getting your engagement numbers up (currently at 8 visitors for last month), and ultimately finding a way to stay relevant and worthy of key endorsements (if I tag a post with #ad, someone has to sponsor me, right?) It’s actually…a lot of work. I argue with a friend of mine about this all the time: does maintaining a blog or acting as an influencer really take any work? My friend would say no. She’d argue that it takes no brains to post a picture and add a few hashtags. She’d say it’s all based off shallow marketing and there’s no real strategy behind it. To that I say, shallow marketing tactics is a strategy! I know this because I am falling to them constantly. I’m looking at you, sponsored Instagram ads selling me cheap home decor from an unverified Chinese seller.
Blogging and influencing, while two very different concepts at their cores, tend to be linked together in today’s digitally and visually driven world. While the two aren’t exclusively related, there is a disturbing overlap, especially in travel content. I like to consider myself square in that middle of that Venn diagram, as someone who can effortlessly (and gorgeously) dance in the delights of both content creation, information sharing, and vanity. Let’s look at a list of popular myths and truths surrounding content creation online.
Myth: Only beautiful people can become famous online
Truth: A strong brand is more important than a pretty spokesperson.
While it certainly helps to be photogenic, it’s possible to be successful without a model body and face. If this person isn’t reliable in their posts, if they sell products that have garnered terrible reputations, and if they seem to be inauthentically pushing products, followers and fans will take notice. True, beauty is a form of branding, but followers are far more engaged when there is a cult of personality. Eventually, substance matters. Instagram is a tricky place because it’s so reliant on stunning visuals to keep engagement up, but you can’t overlook the importance of authenticity in garnering a following. If you are able to sell yourself as someone who is especially entertaining online, who offers consistent and reliable information, or who has built a strong message into your page that resonates with people, you’re just as likely to earn a following as the person with the perfect face and features. Creating a brand around your service is far more important for long-tern engagement than simply posting a bikini pic on the beach.
Myth: Content creation, especially on Instagram, takes zero effort.
Truth: It takes strategy to seem effortless.
As Kourtney Kardashian once said, and I paraphrase, looking effortless actually takes a lot of effort. I think the Kardashians are the perfect example of this very concept. Why should I care, and am able to quote off the top of my head, a Kourtney Kardashian line from season 17’s finale episode? Marketing, baby. Say what you want about them, but that Kardashian clan has, ehem, rebranded, the world of marketing. Famous simply for being famous. But perhaps there is more to them than what meets the eye. Has any other family, or particularly, any other mother, turned their family, their name, their style, and their figures, into more recognizable, more culturally influential, and more profitable ventures? No one stumbles upon that level of success for such a prolonged period of time without strategic marketing genius.
Myth: It’s not a serious profession.
Truth: If you can scale-up your services and earn an income, does that matter?
In a study conducted by ____, it found that students at _____ believed that they would be performing a job that hasn’t been invented yet. Now, I’m sure these students were thinking more along the lines of tech and computer skills, probably working with AI of some sort, but if you think AI will be the only field that emerges in the next 30 years, you’re ignoring the one simple fact that humans are inherently selfish beings. And what comes with that selfishness? Vanity and self-aggrandizement. The internet was inconceivable at its creation, earning an income through instagram seemed impossible, yet here we are, with millions of websites created by individuals for no cost at all. Self-starters working outside the parameters of a traditional career path of showing up to an office 5 days a week, 8+ hours a day. Instead, people got creative. They turned to the internet for free publicity and a space to create and share beyond their inner circles. Not every post will go viral, but the opportunity to have your business seen by a new audience is sometimes the only opening you need to make that one sale that.