Social Media

In the world we live in today social media has become a standard of everyday life. Kids are ranking their coolness on how many followers they have and parents everywhere are judging how well they are doing at their parenting job based off of what they see influencers or family and friends posting online. I could be one of those "we need to get rid of social media" people, but I'm not. My career choices have made it so I can't avoid it. Whether it's for advertising my business or even this blog, I use it daily.

Want to know the trick to not letting social media consume you and your kids? You literally have to change your mindset and boost your kids self esteem. Obviously that is way more difficult than it sounds.

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Be involved with your kids and keep an open dialogue. When you have honest conversations with your kids they are more likely to be open with you. Remind them how creative and loved they are every day. Social media can destroy your self esteem. Be the parent that builds it back up, and always remember that nothing it what it looks like. I can speak from experience that what people post online will most likely not be reality. That perfect couple? Probably not so perfect. Those perfect kids? I promise no kids are perfect. That super model looking mom who got her body back after three kids? Filters, editing and possibly some body image issues.

Know what's crazy? If someone you follow makes you not feel good it's SO easy to hit the unfollow button to better your mental health.

Cheers,

<3 Bri

How To Improve Your Social Media Content

Social media has changed our day to day lives. Social apps are how we digest news, shop for items, and stay connected with our friends. If you are on social media and want to either grow your audience or just develop an online aesthetic that reflects your personality, keep reading!

 

First and foremost, social media should be SOCIAL. You should be on it to have fun, create new relationships and enhance current ones.

If you run a business through your social media I know that posting and creating content can cause you stress or feel like a lot of pressure but it should be fun. If it is not fun, take a break. Your real life will continue without social media. I promise.

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If you are trying to focus on growth

Algorithms stay changing on the REGULAR so I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on that, but I do know 3 key things:

1. Stay consistent. Putting yourself on a posting schedule is a great way to do this. Create a content calendar and preschedule your posts. Honestly, easier said than done. I am currently still working on this myself.

2. Be involved with the trends but apply them to your life with a personal twist. An example is to use a tending or viral sound on TikTok/IG Reels. Then use it applied to a scenario in your life or business.

3. Be true to yourself. Don't just work with brands or businesses that do not resonate with you, your interests, and your integrity. This is going to show over time to your audience and it will keep your page authentic, so you attract the RIGHT viewers.

If you are trying to create a specific aesthetic or fit into a niche

This one is the fun one because it's the most creative part! I personally like to start this process by creating a Pinterest board. Start searching your interests, key words that describe your style, fonts you love or your favorite colors. After you've pinned about 40+ things, zoom out and look at your board. It should represent you and inspire your aesthetic or style in your posts.

You can also create a branding kit on Canva or PicMonkey by saving fonts, colors and templates that you can constantly use for your posts. This will create a cohesive look to your audience or customers and they will become familiar with your posts.

Choosing a niche to focus on will help brand your content. There are pros and cons to niching down on your socials but it is the fastest way to grow an audience because they will know what kind of content you consistently create.

 

Editing your photos and videos

Editing pictures is one thing that you cannot NOT do. I'm not talking about changing your facial features and creating a false persona but I am talking about adjusting angles, lighting and color enhancing. Think of your favorite people you follow on IG, 9/10 times they have a curated feed with presets and edited content. A lot of Influencers even SELL their presets through the Lightroom editing app so you don't even have to be good at photo editing. Check out my Lightroom editing tutorial on our TikTok!

Which editing apps to use?

There are so many to choose from and honestly with a little practice using them most of the options are going to give you the results you want.

Here are my favorite apps for editing my videos:

Inshot

Imovie

FinalcutPro

Here are my favorite apps for editing my pictures:

Unfold

Photogrid

Lightroom

Snapseed

Kunicam

 

 

@959jamz How i edit my IG pics! Most of my presets are from #cherryphotoclub check out 959jamz.com for more social media tips!! #socialmediatips #tiktokbeautyblogger #editingtips #lightroom #editingapps #photoangles #photoedits #fyp #tiktokbeautyblogger #picsart #igediting @Lightroom @lightroom #lightroomtutorial #wiblog ♬ Summer day - TimTaj

I hope this stirred up some creativity in you and inspired you to start creating art with your images, be authentic with your posts and have fun on social media <3

Creating Batch Content For A Consistent Social Media Strategy

What is batch content? Well, if you are a business owner, an entrepreneur, a brand ambassador, or anyone trying to sell anything you should be batching content. I got to hang out with another small business owner and we spent all day creating content together!

In this post I'm sharing what we did and how you can do it as well to make your social media game stronger and less stressful! As Benjamin Franklin once said, "By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail."

 

If you are doing any type of marketing, you need to have a defined purpose. Your posts should educate, inspire, engage, or entertain. For my first batch content day I chose to focus on styling outfits. I teamed up with Nicole, founder of GeminiXDenim out of Minnesota. She upcycles denim into custom pieces for resale, so an OOTD styling shoot was right up her alley. We rented out a space and got to shooting!

Here is our method: brainstorm ideas, plan, shoot the pics, edit and write out captions. We both brought our own cameras, extra batteries, and SD cards so we could keep our content separate. Having about 3-5 outfits was perfect for us to balance out time and switch up our locations. Location can be ANYWHERE. We rented out a photo studio for 2 hours that gave us some cool change of scenery, but you can batch content in your house or out on the street! My biggest tip is to take a lot of shots and video with different angles, so you have all the options when you go back to edit.

 

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How does this make life easier? Well, now you have a ton of content to choose from. Yes, you have editing to do and creating captions, but the hard part is taken care of. After editing I recommend getting a scheduling app so you can organize your IG feed in a great aesthetic that fits your brand.

 

Batching takes about 2-4 hours or a whole day! It really just depends on your content and how much you want to post per week. If you can plan 1 day a week or 1 day a month to focus on this I guarantee you will not be struggling as much day of to create a post that educates or inspires your following. I think it is also important to point out that a lot of people do this for their social media content. It is planned. It is curated. It is edited. It is rarely real daily life moments so just remember that when you are scrolling and that "comparison monster" shows up.

 

I hope this gets your creative juices flowing to create with a purpose, share with intention and engage with the community! <3

Today Is National Unfriend Day

Your paranoid uncle with the tinfoil hat who rambles about politics nonstop. Former coworkers. Your ex. That old roommate. Classmates who constantly humblebrag...or just plain brag.

This is the time to clean house virtually because it's the 10th anniversary of National Unfriend Day. It began when Jimmy Kimmel announced it on his show but has since morphed into something very real and potentially cathartic.

After all, do you truly care about your friend count or the quality and relevance of posts from them? Sure, you can snooze or unfollow them, but it doesn't feel the same and could even damage your reputation by association if that person's posts take a truly deplorable turn.

So give it a thought and maybe tighten your circle a little...what you lose could feel like a win.

Mean People More Likely to Be Social Media Addicts

A guy I knew from high school recently celebrated his release from Facebook jail in a sadly predictable way. He led with a "warning" post that he was going to let loose, and he wasn't lying. An unhinged string of obscenity-laced political and racial posts soon followed (with no shortage of ALL CAPS yelling, naturally).

Needless to say, I bypassed Unfollow and went straight to Unfriend. Sadly, that's not rare on social media and now there's science to back it up.

Cal State Fullerton and Michigan State researchers tracked Facebook and Snapchat activity of nearly 500 college students. The study concluded those most addicted to social media were also most likely to be aggressive cyberbullies who use those and other platforms to "seek rewards from being cruel."

Follow the link below for more insight and explanation.

Snapchat Adds Meditations from Headspace

A slacker friend from high school is suddenly a health expert. World leaders bickering like children. Your ex appears to be having a better summer. For these and other reasons, social media isn't the first outlet you think of for relaxation.

Snapchat is changing that. After announcing last month that they were launching Minis, miniature versions of third-party apps that run inside Snapchat, Headspace is one of four available this week. It has six brief meditation sessions with the themes “Be Nice to You,” “Get Out of a Funk,” “Just Breathe,” “Kick the Panic,” “Me Time,” and “Pressure to Succeed.” See more below.