I didn't really plan this post but after seeing the odd few tweets floating about I kinda needed to put my thoughts down. I have been using Instagram from the get go because I love photography, sharing my experiences and also seeing what everyone else is up to in the world. I call it being inquisitive others refer to it as being damn right nosey.
I think by now everyone is pretty aware of Instagram's latest update but that's not why I am writing this post, I'm writing this post because I'm sick of seeing the age old, "That blogger has obviously bought their followers" yadda yadda. Now don't get me wrong, that definitely does happen and it can look pretty obvious but what I'm seeing more and more is bloggers slating each other due to this reason and half the time it's pretty uncalled for especially thanks to Instagram's new feed layout.
I don't have a crazy amount of followers on Instagram but I do have a few thousand so I'm going to wade in with my opinion. At the beginning of the year my likes per photo were kinda on par with my followers, I was getting a few hundred likes per post, between 300-500 which for a small time blogger like myself was pretty good. Fast forward to after the recent update and I'm lucky if I get 150-200 likes per photo and my followers are now over 10K.
I'm not getting annoyed because my photos aren't getting the likes, I'm getting annoyed because in the bitchy corner of the blog world the above automatically translates to "Well they must be buying their followers because the photo likes don't match their following". SMH. I keep seeing the same group of bloggers slating one blogger who has worked their damn arse off and right now, it's paying off. The followers are jumping and so are the opportunities and do you know what? It's sad to see that success sometimes translates to cheating for some people. It's even sadder to see people publicly moaning and bitching because someone is on the route to something pretty incredible.
Instagram has done a pretty crap thing for a lot of us, Facebook has well and truly taken control and I'm not liking it but that doesn't mean I'm not going to stop sharing my life, what I'm eating and expertly angled selfies. So I won't get as many likes or comments as I use to... so what? It doesn't mean I'm buying my followers or anyone else for that matter. Stop spreading poison, stop causing unnecessary issues and stop dragging people's hard earned reputations through the mud because it'll be that, that your name is recognised for, not your banging blog post on the latest must have lipsticks.
(Ps. The photo in this post is pretty irrelevant but they are photos I've shared on my own Instagram so it kinda fits *hides face*).
