Making an Instagram account for Operation Happiness was something I always thought about doing and the initial few months of quarantine gave me the time to finally sit down and make it! While the website is my main focus (and my baby), I figured that another way to gain some new readers and exposure was by creating an Instagram account to advertise my new posts and spread some more positivity. Plus, it was at the beginning of the pandemic and I figured everyone could use some more smiles. April 5 marked one year since the account launched and boy have I learned a lot. So, let me break it down for you.
You are not going to have 1 million followers overnight.
I hate to break it to you, I really do. But you simply will not be hitting Justin Bieber level numbers overnight...or even after a year. Or at least, I haven’t. AND THAT IS OKAY. It took me some time to realize that in order for something to organically grow, it takes time. The fact that over 550 people follow me on there is so wonderful. I remember how excited I got every time I hit a new “milestone” number, whether it was 100, 200, 250 or 550. Would it be fun to have more followers? I mean, sure. But I don’t want to MAKE people follow me or make them feel like they HAVE to. I want them to follow my account because they like my content and they want to! So if right now, that means 550 people follow me, so be it.
Don’t get caught up in the social media scene.
This was hard. Initially, I was planning every single post in a separate app to make sure that my grid looked cohesive and flowed well together. I was posting about smoothies and skincare favorites and workout routines. Although those are things I do enjoy, they weren’t Operation Happiness. They were things that every other blogger or Instagram influencer I saw was posting about and I felt like that was the only content people wanted to see. My sister gave me a major reality check and made me realize that that wasn’t the kind of content I NEEDED to be doing because that isn’t the kind of content people want or need to see from me. I made a video announcement saying that I was going to “start over” and post my kind of content. I stopped worrying about how my grid looked and whether or not it was the “right” stuff to be posting and just stuck to my roots and posted what I enjoyed posting, which were things pertaining to my blog. I swear, for a split second it’s like I thought I was an INFLUENCER or something. Like, come on. People really don’t care what my favorite lotion is. (But if you do, it’s the Santorini scent by Skin Apothetique and it is AMAZING.)
Likes aren’t everything.
If you are a fellow small business or blogger account, you would know how hit or miss the algorithm is on that app. Some days you might have hundreds of people looking at your stories within 7 hours and others, you will have 62 views in 7 hours. Sometimes, you will get hundreds of likes on a picture and other times you will get 30. It can be discouraging at times, I will admit. Sometimes I worry that if a new potential follower comes across my account and sees that my most recent post only has x amount of likes, that they will click away and not follow because they think my account isn’t “legit” enough or worthy. Again, that all goes back to worrying about what people think and worrying about the numbers instead of worrying that the content you are putting out is genuine. It’s also hard to not compare your numbers to someone else’s. BUT JUST TRY NOT TO. There is literally no way to make any sense of the engagement nonsense. Just do you.
Try and be consistent.
I find this with the blog and podcast sometimes, but especially with having a business or blog account: There is so much pressure to constantly be putting out content and interacting with followers so you can try and get more and lose less. But, there are times when I am either experiencing writer’s block on the blog or posting block on social media. I don’t want to force things out so there have been times where a week goes by without me posting anything. I try to post on my stories at least every other day to stay in touch with my followers and keep up the interaction. I have also tried to plan out some content in my journal to keep up with the posting schedule. But, you know, life happens.
People in the community are so supportive.
No matter how many likes, how many followers or how many comments you get, I have found that the people in the online blogger community are SO supportive regardless. You can always count on them to lift you up. They don’t care about the numbers you have because they were either once in the same spot that you are, or they are in the same boat. It’s all about supporting each other and reading each other’s posts to not only boost engagement, but just to show that you care and to acknowledge the hard work. Because let me tell you, it is hard work. I have made so many friends through making this account, whether it’s a small fashion blogger, mental health blogger, college blogger, blogger blogger, whatever. Everyone just wants to help each other out and it’s really special.
SO…..If you are reading this and don’t already follow @operationhappinessblog on Insta...go and do that. IF you want. And if you already do, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING ME ON THAT PLATFORM! And if you have a blog or a small business and are thinking about making a separate account to try and reach a wider audience, I say go for it! But remember...do not expect Justin Bieber numbers.