Op-Ed: Instagram

Happy Hump Day y’all!

Yesterday, I read my girl Dana’s blog post about what she’s learned since she started blogging 5 years ago. It got me thinking about why I started blogging myself 2 years ago. If I knew then what I know now, who knows if I would have started my blog in the first place. The countless hours of Instagram engagement, finding your niche, curating your feed…it’s a LOT! But at the end of the day, I love creating content to inspire y’all and that makes it all worth it.

Back when I worked in corporate, when someone would mention my name around the company I worked for, they would remember me as “the stylish girl who always dresses so cute”. And whenever I would be out and about, someone would always compliment my outfit and asked me where I got x, y, and z. I started CCB Diaries because I wanted to share my personal style with the world. I had no idea that you could even make money from blogging. Nor did I care. And to be frank, I still don’t make enough to “live on”. I love working full-time and even if the blog did start making enough for me to live on, I’d still keep working. I just wanted to show the world that fashion is merely what you buy but style is how you make yourself stand out.

I know that Instagram is a blogger’s “bread and butter” but I’d rather focus on my actual blog content. Plus, I don’t have time to be on Instagram all day engaging with folks to grow my following. I’d rather be living my life to the fullest every day and being present when I spend time with my family and friends. If I died tomorrow, would my Instagram followers be at my funeral? Nope. Nor would my epitaph read, “she had 7k followers on Instagram”. Most people buy their likes and followers these days anyway because they don’t actually want to put in the work to grow an authentic presence. And y’all know who you are. And so does Instagram. Yeah, I said it #sorrynotsorry. Side note: shoutout to Fohrcard for certifying my following as authentic on Monday. My follower count/likes/comments numbers don’t define me. They never have and they never will. But having an authentic following does define me and I wear that badge proudly. I feel like I can legitimately call myself an influencer now. And it is proof that if you keep creating dope ish, drinking water, and minding your own business that someone will eventually take notice.

Going forward, I intend to focus on creating the content YOU want to read about. I read all of your comments, Instagram DMs, and emails and keep them in mind when setting my editorial calendar. So far, y’all want to see more content related to my lifestyle (especially meal prep and fitness). And I’m working on it! Don’t worry, the fashion slayage will continue on the blog. Because I slay 24/7/365.

xoxo, CCB