February… a month packed full of my favourite F words!
I’ve got an action-packed February ahead of me and I can’t F-ing wait to get started. Films, Fringe World, foodie festivals, fashion, flowers, flights and fun in the sun thanks to Club Jetstar, with my $60 flights from Perth to the Gold Coast. Remind me to tell you about my $133 Perth to Singapore return trip and Club Jetstar in general when I get a moment!
You can follow a lot of my misadventures over on Instagram BUT I’d like to point out… I’ve given myself a few rules and regulations when it comes to social media this year. Hoping you won’t hold it against me but living life to the fullest in the real world with my little family, is where I’m having the most fun right now. The land of social media living is always going to fail by comparison and going to have to wait.
MY APPROACH TO INSTAGRAM AND SOCIAL MEDIA THIS YEAR
PHOTOS
There will be no staged or styled to within an inch of their life shots, even for the occasional sponsored or collaborative post. I’m following a ‘One Shot Wonder’ approach with my new Sony Xperia Z5 phone camera, in that if it doesn’t happen in the first or second shot and within 60 seconds, then it just doesn’t happen.
All these shots will include the hashtag #oneshotwonder, feel free to play along.
I appreciate it’s not going to look picture perfect but then again, my IG feed never has. I understand it is probably keeping things a little too real but I kind of need and crave that right now. I want to be in the moment, not behind the phone or camera. I know the time, effort and outtakes it takes to get those picture-perfect IG images, I also know the gifted products and income that can come your way when you look a certain way but with three teen daughters, I also worry about the picture-perfect message we are sending and the unrealistic expectations we are placing on them and ourselves.
The slight exception to my #oneshotwonder rule will revolve around a photo challenge and workshop I will be partaking in later in the year. This will be my time for experimenting with the 23mp camera on my new phone. So there’s no confusion, I will be tagging these photos with a dedicated hashtag as well. I still won’t be sharing staged photos but I’ll possibly be taking more than one shot to get the right shot!
LIKING AND COMMENTING
Even when we have sponsored campaigns running, I’m limiting myself to 5 – 10 minutes of social media time each day. This doesn’t leave much time for scrolling to catch up with all my favourites online and offer some support by hitting the like button or dropping a comment. Rest assured, I’m not online liking random and utter crap or someone’s fan of a fan page. Not that I have anything against that. The fact remains, I don’t have nearly enough time to offer the support I would like to my favourites, so why would I go there?!
This approach which I’ve been taking for the past 6 months or so, doesn’t mean I’ve dropped my support though. If you’re working on a project or you’ve spotted a giveaway worth casing and sharing with our Aussie Giveaway Club or you’ve found something worth casing (& sharing) feel free to tag me in or send me the link. Just don’t spam me, I get enough of that in my inbox.
SOCIAL MEDIA IN GENERAL
You only have to look at our stats (another 230k page views last month) compared to what goes on, on social media (considering I do social media, blogging and publishing for a living), to know firstly my heart isn’t in that side of things for AMC and secondly that we’ve never placed an emphasis on our own social media channels.
In a nutshell, the website is our little piece of online real estate, the bit that we own outright and have full control over. It’s the membership and email subscribers (through the website) that we’ve focussed on over the years. Almost 6 years now. It is how we will continue as well.
We closed memberships off late last year and may look to open it up again briefly later this year, following a small revamp and niching down, with an option to opt in or out for existing members. Membership gives you access to our sealed section and quarterly newsletter.
SPONOSORED/COLLABORATIVE POSTS AND DISCLOSURE
Rest assured, if an image, post or campaign is sponsored it will be disclosed. For the record, sponsored refers to paid campaigns and collaboration is used when a product or service has been gifted in exchange for a shout out on social media and/or a featured post here on AMC.
Like most of last year, we will only be taking on a handful (if that) sponsored posts this year. It just isn’t how I like to run things. Those campaigns will be mainly businesses or products I’m already supporting or that support one of our nominated local charities. We will occasionally be posting affiliate links within posts but these will also be disclosed.
Occasionally, I will pay to use a service or product that I want to rave home about on social media which may then lead to a collaborative or sponsored campaign down the track or I’m still using a gifted or sponsored product or service several months or years later. In these cases, the lines of disclosure can become a little blurred and I often feel the need to tag #notsponsored so there is absolutely no confusion.
Which brings me to a conversation I would like to have with YOU about how you prefer to see things run?
SUPPORTING LOCAL FIRST AND FOREMOST
Where I can, especially in terms of giveaways and promotions here on AMC, I prefer to promote and use local businesses, charities and products. The majority of our recent end of year virtual party ‘Gifts and Giveaways’ promotion, had me personally purchase local products from my favourite designers and businesses.
This is my way of giving back to our local community and continuing to support my local favourites. We followed the same approach for our Christmas gift giving on the home front this year with great success and will continue to adopt this line of gifting for all of 2018.
When I say local, a lot of the time I’m referring to Perth. A place we now have the privilege of calling home but I’m also talking about Australia in general.
Having moved 24 times around the country, there’s a number of places I think of as having been my home at one point or another. All with favourite people, places or products that I like to seek out either online or when we return for a brief visit.
We also have an Australia-wide audience and it’s with this in mind, that we are bringing a new series to AMC in 2018 called ‘Local Loves’. I can’t wait to share more details but for now, it’s time we got the giveaway party started for this month. February… only how many sleeps until Christmas?
AUSSIE GIVEAWAY LINKUP FEBRUARY
You can review our linkup guidelines and meet our co-hosts Jody (Six Little Hearts) and Felicity (The Baby Vine) HERE. Although, Felicity is currently having a little time out with a new bub keeping her suitably distracted.
What are your plans this month? Anything exciting to look forward to? What should I be casing on the Gold Coast next week?
I love the one shot wonder idea! I make rather pathetic Insta posts, which are also usually one shot wonders. I have zero time to ‘share the love’ on the platform too. I’m a bit of a failure when it comes to social media in general – just click and run…
I’m with you as far as zero time goes on IG right now. Too busy in the real world. 😉
Ahh I love your new social rules – how are they going? x