Content creating is hard as hell. I love taking pictures and posting however I don’t always enjoy the process. When I went to school for photography and graphic design, I didn’t feel like I learned much except the basics of how to take pictures – I’ll always feel this way. However, “real content creators” have taken the fun out of that for me. So much so that I’ve started taking pictures of every single thing and scheduling when I’ll post instead of just posting when I feel like it. Which is, in fact, what has taken the fun out of it and placed the complications into my content creating. 

First, I need to talk about this “real content creator” term because I’m trying to figure out what makes someone a “real” content creator when most of us take and edit our own pictures anyway. I feel like we put too much emphasize on the amount of followers someone has which is where the “real” comes in. Did y’all forget people still buy followers too? Truthfully, I’ve seen people with thousands of followers and didn’t enjoy their content more than some with a few hundred followers. Which I’m sure we’ve all seen but I still felt it was important to point out because the amount of followers someone has doesn’t mean those people have all the answers. That fact alone is something I had to learn after paying for so much advice from different creators.

Second, the uniformity of everything is driving me insane. I’ve gotten the advice of posting similar pictures in a row, making sure colors match in pictures which I still have no clue what that means, to figuring out what time(s) works best for my followers so that I can post. Most of my ideas pop up randomly because my life is all over the place. My kids don’t cooperate for pictures all the time, I don’t show my face and I don’t go anywhere so full body photos are complicated and I hate not posting when I come up with an idea because it’s like 10 at night. There’s no way we’ll ever beat the algorithm if we have to base everything we post and when we post it off of what works best for everybody else. It takes the natural feel out of things when scheduling is involved because I start to feel like I have to post something even when I have nothing to post. If you truly care about someone’s content it doesn’t hurt to type their name in and see what’s new. I’m not understanding why it has to be directly on your feed for people to see it because I’m sure we all expect someone to look us up as well. 

Engagement is the next killer in my book. Like I said previously, I have purchased so much advice from people for tips to help me with my Instagram and blogging and in most of their top 1-5 tips is “Engage with your audience”. Now, here’s what gets me about these same exact people. THEY FOLLOW ME BUT DON’T ENGAGE WITH ME. So, I’m spending money on your advice that you aren’t even taking yourself? That’s not me saying they don’t engage with others because I can only speak for me. Liking my pictures isn’t actually engaging with me and when that’s the advice you’re giving why am I expected to feel different about the one or two double taps you give me every few months? If you’ve been following me more than a few months and haven’t commented on at least two posts, why do you even follow me? I can understand not being on socials a lot or not being able to connect with every single post, but I also understand that if you never see anything you like you shouldn’t continue to follow someone. I am famous for unfollowing people – and I always block and unblock them so they’re no longer following me as well – because they don’t engage enough, don’t post enough, or I don’t find their content interesting anymore. I don’t want anyone following me just because they want a follow back because I’m not even going through all of that anymore.

At some point you have to calm down, remember why you started, believe in your work and show it off. I understand that it can be nerve wrecking especially when you’re so confident in your work that you’re saying to yourself before you even post, “I know they gone like this” and only five people like your post. But what I’ve had to learn in those situations is those are the people that notice your work and having someone see it is better than no one seeing it at all. I know, I know that’s all way easier said than done. You feeling good about what you put out there is what matters most though. What I’m really saying is content creating should come naturally. You should and need to do what works best for you. I don’t post my face and I’ve had so many people tell me that’s a huge part of why I don’t have a lot of followers. However, I’m sticking to my “you don’t need to see my face to connect with my content” theme because I’m a firm believer in that and my audience will come when they find me and vice versa. DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU HOW TO DO WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU. Listen to all the advice and if you absolutely feel a need to then purchase some too, but only apply what you feel can work for you because I’ve had to learn that what works for them won’t necessarily work for me which is something that isn’t written in the fine print.