I’m ridiculously, and some might say inordinately excited today. Why are you so excited, I hear you cry?! Well, dear reader, I have reached the dizzy heights of 1000 followers on Instagram. I recognise that this is not a lot of followers in comparison to many others, but it has been a hard slog to get there. Without sounding trite, I want to be as authentic as possible on my social media so you will never see ultra slick reels, I rarely follow social media trends – unless I genuinely like them, and there’s usually a discarded bag or pet in the background of most of my mirror selfies – yes, I gave up on the tripod when that extra bit of effort didn’t gain me any extra traction! My stories are odds and sods from my life and me rambling on about random everyday uselessness whilst walking my dog. It’s hardly highbrow!
Previously I had an account that had 1000’s of followers but I was hacked four years ago. And because Meta makes it so difficult to get back into your account, I had to close it down completely and start again. And it’s been a slow process. Many of my previous followers who didn’t know me or engage with me chose to block ‘my account and any associated account’ – I don’t blame them; they were protecting themselves. However, that meant that couldn’t follow my new account, and neither will they even see it to make that decision.
A few people had suggested that I buy followers or boost posts, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to grow my account organically and truthfully. Besides, even though I had relatively fewer followers, I had great engagement and I much preferred it that way! So, why was I so excited to hit 1000 followers? In truth, vanity. It just looks so much better on your grid, somehow more credible! It does also open doors for some brand affiliations (possibly) and, as it turns out, a plethora of other ways to monetise my account, or to engage with my followers so watch this space! Although, to be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll even utilise them but it’s nice to know that they’re available!
But this is just another way of entering into life’s popularity contest. It certainly appears that way on the tin anyway. More followers = better content, nicer, funnier person. In my experience, that is certainly not true. There are plenty of big accounts that I question how they got there because they bore the pants off me, and smaller accounts that I believe should be much bigger! But it’s human nature to want to be liked so seeing those numbers creep up makes you feel like you are doing something worthwhile and, let’s face it, keeping up to date with your social media is extremely time consuming so it feels like some sort of compensation! Some people feel like it’s a necessary evil, I don’t agree, I think it’s fun and when used properly, it can be a real for force for positivity. And that’s the beauty of social media – there’s something for everybody and, if you want my advice…if it doesn’t light you up, scroll on by.
By the way, if you want to find me, I’m @mrsstylewright
