Don’t Be A Pusher

In the past few years, we’ve noticed a shift in social media. What used to be small mom blogs, delicious recipes or fitness tips, is now a product pushing platform. All of a sudden your favorite food blogger is sharing links to purchase shoes or another celebrity started an alcoholic beverage company. This type of insincere influencing is ruining our nightly doom scroll.

Creating an authentic following means partnering with brands that align with your brand. Showcasing and sharing items that you truly enjoy, not ones that are obvious money grabs. So, how do you “influence” the right way?

  • Find Your Niche. Find what brings you joy or reflects your brand’s culture. Don’t choose a subject you aren’t passionate about. Be authentic in what you want to share and stick to it. Once you’ve found your niche, you’ll find your people.
  • Be Selective. Choose brands that you actually use and love. If you’re a food blogger, partner with an Olive Oil brand (Graza is my fav!) or a cookware company. Reach out to the company of a product that you already use and ask if they’d be willing to give your followers a discount code. This creates trust with your followers that you are promoting products that they’ve already seen you use before the brand deal. 
  • Be Consistent. Social media is all about consistency and it takes a lot of work. Share on your Stories daily and keep your feed up to date. Don’t let too much time go in between your activity or Instagram’s algorithm won’t prioritize your account to your followers. 
  • Be True to Yourself. While we all love Blake Lively, she didn’t stay true to herself. Her new brand Betty Booze, a spiked seltzer, is probably delicious but did she forget she doesn’t drink alcohol? Choosing to open an alcoholic beverage company seems off-brand and strictly a money-grabbing opportunity. When creating your account, stay true to yourself or your followers will catch on quickly.
  • Lastly, Don’t be Ms. Norbury. Don’t push your followers to constantly have to purchase something. You want your account to be engaging; not an endless advertisement. Your followers can tell when you’re not being genuine so sharing yet another commission link will get old fast. 

Let’s make social media fun again!