Friday, February 3, 2017

My Bookish Persona

At first it seemed like an odd idea to create a separate Instagram account for the sole reason of featuring my writing and photos of books. After some thought though, I wondered why I hadn't taken that step sooner. In the past I had tried posting pictures of the books I was reading on my personal Instagram, but not many of my followers really appreciated them, mostly because they were friends from school or just not really into the whole "reading" scene. Since my books and reading lifestyle are important in my day-to-day life, I decided to join the #bookstagram community. Now I can interact with other readers and discuss what books are interesting at the moment, and make recommendations to my followers. 

It could be very easy to portray myself differently on my various social media platforms, but personally I've found that the only element that really differs from platform to platform is the content I choose to post. Sometimes I find myself questioning if my captions on my #bookstagram account make me sound too sweet or bubbly, which I definitely don't seem like in real life. Other times I wonder if my followers would think I'm the same person in person as I portray online. I try really hard to stay consistent with who I really am, and what I share on my various profiles. I may sound a little more talkative online, but my views, interests, and character are all the same. 

In a way, I think that having a themed Instagram has helped me settle into a more consistent persona in real life too. Just knowing that people do actually care about what I have to say has helped me become more confident when interacting with people in the real world. I know that others may struggle more in striking a balance with creating their social media personas. My personal experience has been easier because I'm not trying to create a new "me," but rather find an audience who appreciates my content.
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2 comments:

  1. Alexis K WatsonFebruary 4, 2017 at 10:12 PM

    Hi Britney! Did you find that when you made a seperate instagram account for books it was hard to gain followers? What is your following base like and what techniques did you use to attract people to the page?

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    1. UnknownFebruary 6, 2017 at 4:04 PM

      Hi Alexis, thank you for your comment and questions!

      In terms of gaining followers, I think that would depend on what I was expecting or hoping to achieve. When I first started out, I was just excited to get a few followers because I was starting with a clean slate. I now have 500+ followers, which I'm pretty happy with. To other Instagram accounts who have thousands of followers, my follower count might seem pretty low. However, I'm more focused on making sure my profile appeals to the "right" audience, not just anyone.

      As for techniques I've used, I often participate in monthly photo challenges using specific hashtags. I try to find less popular profiles with similar content and interact with those accounts. Recently, I started using Likestagram which is a bot that goes through and likes photos from different hashtags for me when I don't have time to so. This method has been super helpful, as it's helped me discover other accounts and has made mine more public.

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