To give some background Kelly & I started our website Mimosas and Manhattan back in 2013. Instagram was definitely on the scene but it wasn’t as blogger/influencer heavy as it is currently! At the time, websites and blogs were definitely dominating the space and there wasn’t a day that passed that I didn’t type www.cupcakesandcashmere.com into my search engine and read up on all things my favorite blogger, Emily Schuman. It is so crazy to think about how drastically times have changed once the Rise of the Instagram Influencer began making waves.
The internet and social media are definitely ever changing spaces and holding the title of “blogger” as my full time job means that I have to stay as on top of these changes more than anyone. We learned this via our mistakes and definitely look back and wish that we would’ve hoped onto Instagram at the same time we bought the domain www.mimosasmanhattan.com back in 2013. However I do not think anyone could have been prepared for how largely the app would begin to dominate the space.
Fast forward to 2019. There is not a day that goes by that I do not wonder if and when this Instagram bubble will pop. The app has begun to make great changes to how business and creator profiles are run in order to eliminate many of the fraud accounts that are alive on the platform. More clients and businesses are asking us to supply back end analytics – such as impressions, reach, saves, sales – prior to even speaking about a potential partnership. People are getting smarter and users of the app are getting smarter to who is authentic and who is not.
Which brings me to my point that at this time in the game you cannot just have one outlet of income in the social media influencer world, any longer. So many of the girls I know rely solely on Instagram and yes that probably is paying the bills and then some. However you must prepare yourself in the sense that you DO NOT own your Instagram profile. At any moment the app can take you offline, you can get hacked, you can get deleted. Then poof – there goes everything. Scary thought. And something that I have thought about all too often lately. We have to make sure that we are balancing followers and reach on another platform and something that we own entirely. Which to us is this here little blog.
Even though websites have become decreasingly popular, Kelly and I have always kept the website at the forefront of our work and our business. We know that we have control over it and it is an outlet for us to be ourselves and speak honestly and openly with our audience. It is also a great connection outlet to apps like Pinterest and Twitter, which is where a lot of our audience comes from. Weekly it is a lot of work and 2-3 posts a week is something that we strive for on a monthly basis. However we know that is it continuing to pay off in our partnerships as well as making us more marketable to clients and business partners.
I would also like to add that there are many ways to also connect with your audience (outside of Instagram) if blogging is not your thing! Create a youtube channel, start a podcast, create a monthly or weekly newsletter, start an Etsy or online shop where you can sell something that you create. I strongly believe in the importance of having something outside of the Instagram world if you would like to survive and be in it for the long run.
Lastly I would like to give a major thanks to Aubrey Kinch (our graphic designer) and Chelsea Olivia (our website designer) for continuing in such a beautiful partnership with us since the beginning. If you haven’t noticed we recently went through a blog facelift and are just so pleased with the results and the relationship we have been able to build with these 2 women over the past 6 years. I highly recommend them if you are looking to create a website from scratch or if you are simply just updating a website that you already have!
If you have any questions on this subject we are always here to help in any way, shape or form!! Thank you so much again for the past 6 years of reading this blog – we are SO thankful for a little slice of the internet.
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