Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well. I’m in the process of moving so I have not been quite inactive off my social media platforms and I plan to come back real soon. I wanted to open up a discussion today that could very much be controversial and have mixed responses to but here it is; As much as I love sharing my thoughts on products and sharing tips & tricks on how to make up or skincare, I wanted to shed some light on a topic that isn’t really discussed and perhaps maybe you’ll find some of this relatable to a certain extent.
*Disclaimer: By no means am I trying to offend anyone, these are my own opinions and thoughts on the platform and the stuff I’ve seen in the past couple of years that have been bothering me.
- Follow for follow
No offense but this method does not work and it ruins the whole purpose of you follow the content you genuinely care for. When I first joined Instagram, I followed back pretty much everyone who followed me then realized that a lot of these accounts don’t have anything I care for so I did a mass unfollow spree. Also, stop dm-ing people to follow you back because this is just embarrassing. No one needs to follow your page unless they really want to. IT IS WHAT IT IS! Also, hate to burst your bubble but if you had content that served, you would have gained those followers without needing to beg every single person to follow you. Truth be told, friends. PS: Nobody owes you a follow back, sorry. - Hashtags to counter the algorithm/gain attention
Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. I’m sure the majority of people who use this think this is some life hack to gain likes and following but it’s seen as desperate and annoying. I actually check people’s hashtags to see how accurate and relevant they are to the photos and often, a lot of them are very spammy, copy and paste or just generic hashtags like L4L, Like for like, mass likes and etc. - INSPO-PLAGERISING
I know we can’t trademark anything from our photos, captions, and hashtags but I have caught a handful of people literally copying element by element of other people’s work to “stand out” and be seen as creative. It’s ok to be inspired and share whatever you want to share but if you’re legitimately copying other people’s photos for the sake of likes, validation and follows, maybe social media isn’t for you. - Constant complaints about the algorithm
As a fellow content creator, I know the struggles of growth here. Sometimes growth is slim and limited but that shouldn’t limit your creativity and ability to expand on your page. That being said, a lot of people who blame the algorithm for their lack of engagement are usually the ones who are simply in denial. YOU as a content creator have to understand and figure out whether your content is serving or not. YOU also need to be aware that if you don’t engage with others, your engagement will be low and stay that way. Maybe you need to change and switch up your feed’s style, write compelling captions, understand your audience + when to post and ensure you have relevant hashtags. There are many factors to posting on Instagram and how to get successful posts. You’re not guaranteed a successful post every time but the least you can do is try and be consistent whenever you can be. - Oversharing about personal details
Sure, share about mental health and spread awareness. I’m talking about the ones who are going on social media and spilling out their problems – whether being addicts, in debt and family loss. Sorry to burst your bubble but a lot of people social media won’t know what to do with the information you’re sharing and a lot of them simply don’t care. If you’re not in the right mental health space you should be in, seek help from your family & peers. People online do not know you and those details should be private. The more strangers know people about you, it puts your life at risk. - No/Low Buy Movements
No/low buys should be a lifestyle change and it should allow you to view things from a different perspective rather than a temporary ban. Like crash diets, these movements are not effective in the long run and only effective for the short term. Once the No Buy Cycle/Time ends, then most people are likely to return back to their old ways of shopping for unnecessary things – from hype, friend recommendations, impulse urges and etc. Regardless of the case, this puts you through a vicious cycle of “crash” movements. If you truly wanted to make a lifestyle change, you would do it without having the motives of getting a “reward” in the end. - Nudity/Soft Core Nude Images
Yes, be proud of your body! Good for you that you’re comfortable in your own skin but I think it’s really important to be respectful of our surroundings because you as the individual do not own the platform, place or the world and you should be considerate of those who are around you. I personally am not offended by soft nude images but they can sometimes make me feel uncomfortable because of my views. We also need to keep in mind that these sorts of images can set an example for the younger generation and perhaps even children so please be considerate and mindful of what you post because you never know who is seeing it. - Excessive Use Of Vulgar Language
Listen, I know it’s 2020 and there are children/teenagers who swear too but I think it’s also very important to again, be very cautious of what we post because, at the end of the day, it reflects us as a person. I don’t think it’s ever professional to cuss in general. Sure, I’ve seen people cuss here and there on their stories and captions but I’m talking about the ones who cuss all the time on their pages. I have trouble supporting these people because they often come off as negative and I really don’t need that energy anywhere near me nor will I allow it. There are plenty of words in the English language rather than resulting to using such vocabulary. - Just because it works for someone, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you
I’ve seen a lot of people “sUdDeNlY” change their feeds to try to be relevant and become popular. There is no secret trick to a successful page, you’re going to have to invest a lot of time in it to allow it to grow and that means you will need to engage with people, be responsive to your comments and even messages and also be consistent with your content posting and content style. The moment you change your style, your existing followers who already followed you will notice the change and they may or may not want to continue to support that. Instead of trying to find tricks, you need to understand what YOU like and how you’re going to make it work on YOUR feed. Nobody has this answer but yourself. - Reposts, unless you’re a brand
Brands repost content creators work to express their appreciation of their support to the brand and share exposure for the content creator to gain follows or interest on their page. I find reposting pages completely pointless and I find it even more disrespectful that they go ahead and repost your images without consent. Content creators spend a long time to put their pieces together, please be considerate and not repost for your selfish reasons. The content piece is not free for you to use because you can’t make your own.
d o r k i f i c a t i o n 
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