I’m going to be frank; I’m getting a little bit sick of seeing posts about what kind of content we should be creating and how we should be focussing on one thing to attract new followers. There’s been a huge influx of ‘social media experts’ telling us to hone our offering and concentrate on just one thing so that people know what they are getting.
Consistently inconsistent
The problem is that some days I don’t even know what I’m getting. I am made up of so many different facets and angles and idiosyncrasies. My passions aren’t streamlined and my interests aren’t linear. They chop and they change, as does my mood and my confidence. So for me, drilling down on one area and striving for some kind of consistency just ain’t ever going to happen.
What bugs me most though, isn’t that I can’t keep up with that kind of thing (I’m more than happy in my own lane thanks) but that the message nowadays is to tone yourself down, blend yourself in and do what has been proven to work. When did sticking to a formula and to ticking the same boxes as everyone else become so ‘on-trend’?
The ‘same’ game
If followers follow because what they see fits neatly inside a box, then doesn’t that suggest we’re all becoming just a bit too square? Why do you need to only show one side of you to be ranked higher in an explore page. The irony of exploration being exciting and about finding something different shouldn’t be lost. What seems to be the case is that people looking for new things to follow are served up a big old dollop of the same.
Listen, if you want to post a mirror selfie with a pure white background and dove grey accents, do it! Knock your own socks off. But don’t do it because you think that’s what you need to do to be ‘liked’. Don’t do it because everyone else is. Find the spark inside you and let it tear off into the sky, bursting with colour and passion and individuality. If you only want to talk about baking or beauty or baked beans for all I care, then do it! Dedicate yourself to what you love. But if you want to wrap yourself in every subject and exhale everything that makes you, you then do that! Don’t be scared to just let who you are come out.
Fit a mould
There may well be some social media rule book but aren’t things always more fun when you rip up the rules. Authenticity is underrated and having to try so hard is really quite exhausting. Don’t we teach our children to just be themselves, to embrace exactly who they are and never be afraid of showing it? Perhaps we need to reteach ourselves too. So, I’m sorry to all the folks saying I need to target my market but my market, just like me, is made up of more than one single thing. I don’t want to fit a mould. I want to spill out over the edges of it, I want to burst out of what I ‘should’ be doing and put a big middle finger up to the idea I can be contained. So yes, I will follow the tips and the tricks and I will gain more knowledge (I’m not bashing the expert accounts, they really do have some good stuff), but I won’t be stripping myself back to suit what social media wants, because the only thing that matters is what I want and I just want to be me.
No Comments