ENJOYING INSTAGRAM AGAIN

​Working your ass off to reach that next milestone on your social media. Posting multiple times a day, liking dozens upon dozens of photos and commenting on every Tom, Dick and Harry’s account just to get your account noticed. It is hard work, and I realised… it doesn’t have to be.

When Instagram first launched, I never really got in to the hype of it for a long time. Back then, I wasn’t really concentrating on my blog and so I didn’t make time for my social media accounts either. Looking back, I wish I did stick at it and built up my account before the whole algorithm thing happened – but let’s not get too stuck on that topic, as it sucks.
 
When I did start to focus on my Instagram, I would get really worked up trying to get to the next milestone. Wondering if my “grid” was good enough, were my photos right for Instagram or even if anyone liked me? I cared too much about what others thought about me. I stopped posting regularly and I still wondered why people weren’t following me and why my numbers were dropping. People stopped commenting and I wasn’t being tagged in anything. It was frustrating. 
 
Then, one day, it dawned on me. Of course no one was going to engage with my feed, I wasn’t doing anything. Nothing. I was just scrolling through the explore page, tagging my friends in funny memes and videos. Drooling over amazing #OOTD posts and taking a screen shot of inspiring images to refer to at a later date. That was it. My account was just dormant. 
 
Then, it was about this time last year that I decided that I was going to put more effort in to my interests, because I adore blogging and the whole Blogosphere. Obviously, I don’t enjoy the negativity that can come along with writing a Blog, but that’s a subject for another time.
 
I became more comfortable with styling my outfits to be shot for my blog and I had the balls to post it on my Instagram. Even though I have barrels of confidence, I felt really nervous to post full outfit posts and constant selfies with my classic “moody bitch face” – because I hate my smile. I hit that button, and the posts were live.
 
The love I received was incredible and I felt that little buzz and it felt amazing. I really wanted to invest quality time in to Instagram. So I went through the accounts that I followed, and unfollowed accounts that didn’t bring me joy. I stumbled across new accounts that were created by others with similar interests and style and it felt amazing. I was connecting with others on a whole new level. 
 
Every day now, I have DMs waiting to be read from amazing women and the occasional message that no one asks for. You know, the creepy ones. But, that is cool, I just report them to the Instagram Police and move on with my life. For a wee while though, I think I was trying to be someone that I am not.
 
I have a very sarcastic and sassy sense of humour, and if you don’t truly know me, and were to overhear me talk to a friend, you might think I were rude. But trust me, I am not. I just have a sick sense of humour. So when I would write captions, I was worried that this attitude of mine would insult people. So I kind of hid that side of me. 
 
Even in my Instagram Stories, I wanted to be “perfect” and not show the world who I really am. But, I loved that there were others that did let their audience in to their lives. So, I decided to take a deep breath and be myself.
 
When my moustache needs to be bleached, I do it and take a selfie and share it. When my skin is bad, I do not to use filters. I NEVER airbrush my face or body – simply because I don’t know how. I write whatever I want in the captions because I realised that I can’t make everyone like me, so why am I trying so hard? I think I have done that all my life. Tried too hard to be friends with everyone, and guess what? I just don’t have the time or the energy anymore. I am done. 
 
So I am just going to use Instagram to follow people that I believe are interesting and if others want to follow me because they think that I am interesting, well then Welcome Aboard. I hope you enjoy the journey.
 
To connect with me on Instagram, just search for @thelipstickdaily or click [here] and I will see you there.

What do you love most about Instagram?
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