Just before summer, I found myself falling out of love with Instagram. It frustrated me so much because I felt like Instagram was such an important aspect of blogging and that I needed to keep posting high-quality content on there regularly. Oh, and let's not forget Instagram stories, which have now started to me editorial style stories. This made me fall out of love with blogging and lose all my inspiration to create any content because I didn't feel like what I was creating was good enough.
So I decided to take some time off, a little step back from it all and to think about what I want and where I want my blog to go. In doing so I realised that I was putting so much pressure on myself to have amazing content for Instagram, that I had lost inspiration for it all.
When I started out, I used to just post on Instagram. After having had blogs in the past, I thought that just posting on Instagram with long captions would satisfy me and give me the outlet I wanted to share what I liked without all the work that a blog takes. However when I started Instagram, I would just take a few snaps throughout the day and share them, I didn't spend ages taking photos or setting up loads of props to make them look a certain way.
As much as I enjoyed doing that, I felt like I had more to say than that so I created this blog and started sharing my thoughts and interests on here.
Just before taking my break, I found myself I scrolling through Instagram and seeing all these amazing photos. Photos that people spend ages taking and editing, and I felt like my Instagram needed to be the same in order to grow. So I would spend hours setting up props, staging photos and going out taking outfit photos in bulk just to have content for Instagram... Then I would spend hours editing all these photos and making sure they fit my theme. Also, let's not forget the amount of money I was spending on props.
Don't get me wrong, at first I enjoyed it. However, working full time, blogging and running Bleet all takes up a lot of time. So add spending hours getting Instagram content and I was left very tired and stressed.
So during my break, I decided that I would spend the month preparing content to come back in full swing in September. That way I would be on top of everything and not find it as stressful. This worked, for blog content, but not for Instagram. I would look back at my Instagram photos and instead of seeing memories or meaningful images, I saw hours of me stressing over getting the perfect shot and that's not what I wanted.
I wanted to be able to look at my Instagram and remember days out and meaningful things that I had decided to share with the internet. I wanted to see reality. However, as I said before, I work full time so I'm not really out and about that much. So sharing two photos every day that represents reality would be kind of boring, as they'd probably be me sitting at my desk. Fun eh?
So I threw everything I've been told about how to grow my Instagram out of the window. No more staged photos, no more schedules and no more theme. I want my Instagram to represent my reality and not the reality I feel like I need to put out there in order to be successful as a blogger.
I've started sharing photos that I want to share, from days out or just from a post that I've uploaded that day, and now when I look at my Instagram I feel happy. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have the kind of lifestyle that means I have content to be posting all the time, but I don't. Maybe one day I will and then my Instagram will change, however, for now, that's how I plan on doing it.
Ever since I started posting what and when I want, the pressure I felt with my blog has gone. I'm writing again, I feel inspired and motivated. My Instagram may not grow, I may not get many likes on photos but I'm not an Instagrammer, I'm a blogger and my blog is my main priority.
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