Hello, beautiful! I hope this blog post sees you well. My week is off to a great start & I hope yours is too! Social media isn't all it's cracked up to be. Behind every perfectly curated feed is a whole lot a mess to get there. I have been at this blogging thing for almost 4 years. I don't have +10K followers nor am I an Instagram model. Just a lady with extensive fashion knowledge trying to spread the good word while helping you establish a wardrobe you can confidently conquer your world in. My following has grown but it is small yet mighty. I've never had to pay for followers or likes which could be considered a mistake by some. What I'm trying to say is there is no right or wrong way to blog. I don't have all the answers & I am certainly not perfect. Through my journey I have personally experienced some things that have hurt my brand so I'm sharing them with you today & how I fixed them!
1. Taking a Collaboration that didn't fit my brand
I feel like the general census when starting with a blog is that you will take any brand collaboration you can get. I know I felt this way. This isn't necessarily the right thing to do. Sure free stuff is enticing but will your audience be into it? Is this a product you are proud of & can stand by to suggest to your following? I want to say it was either my first year or second blogging I partnered with this small website out of NYC called, Clubbing Girl. Now they did have super cute accessories that were not really "clubbing" material. But if you have been following me for some time you probably get the sense you will not find me at a club.
How to fix this? Only accept brand partnerships that align with you, your brand, & your audience. Think about whether or not you would recommend the product to a friend.
2. Tagging the Wrong Person in a Post/Photo
This is SUPER embarrassing & actually happened to me recently like with in the past month or two. I had gone to a conference back in April & met a lot of people. Well I'm better with faces than names so I accidentally tagged the wrong person in a picture post. Honest mistake but not one I really want to keep making.
Luckily, I noticed it & it never came up so I simply untagged the wrong account. My biggest piece of advice to you is that if you are unsure don't tag! Or just do further research so you can tag the correct person.
3. Posting without a Purpose
Not sure if you have noticed or not but I have been a lot more active on the website & on our social media platforms in the past 7 months. I kind of had a wake up call in January. I took a webinar which in a figurative sense smacked me in the face. The webinar challenged you to think of what you offer your readers. It hit me like a ton of bricks, I had gotten into the habit of just posting outfits & talking about them opposed to offering you real, relate-able, & applicable fashion advice that you come to me for. First, I just want to say I am so sorry about that! As you know I work full time on top of this so it is easy to get in a blogging slump.
I turned this around by intentionally posting. Every post from the birth of it's concept is planned with a purpose to give you advice that you can use in your everyday life.
Well babes, that's all I've got for you today. I have had a lot more mistakes throughout my blogging journey but these are by far the biggest. I hope you can learn from me! If you aren't interested in blogging at all just keep in mind that I am human no matter how "nice" my pictures or feed look. (chances are there are a million bad pictures behind each good one)
Talk soon!
