Unless you’ve been underneath an Instagram rock lately you would have seen the ever-growing group of females, mostly all Mum’s, taking over your feed and flooding you with their Kick-Ass vlogs, blogs and books. And, it certainly is impressive.
What comes with this ever-growing Mummy power is a huge sisterhood which is stronger than it ever has been. If you need a whinge, cry or celebrate a baby milestone then open up that little box with the camera symbol on and go ahead; you will soon get encouragement, celebrations and support back from women you have never spoken to before. Trust me it is the best pick me up you can get and after scrolling through all the different Instagram feeds and you put your phone down feeling empowered to change the world just a little. Now in my book that is brilliant, especially when being a parent you can be isolated and lonely.
Instagram is in a league of its own and I’m not too shy to admit that I am probably a tad addicted to it. Put Instagram with the blogging world and you have a recipe for success. From this success, something rather interesting is emerging. A new type of famous – the “IN” crowd - full of VIP of Instagram Land.
To belong in this crowd you need a super-duper niche, an eye-catching website, some professional photos taken and a good face to match...not a lot to ask really.
Oh, and did I mention the 50k followers too?
After that, you will see the book deals land on your welcome mat and the phone calls inviting you to appear on This Morning with Phil and Holly. And, all this can be yours from hardly spending a penny and some hard graft.
As these newfound celebrities started on social media then it is easy to follow their every footstep along the way and try your best to get noticed yourself. But, boy it is hard! As much as people like Joe Wicks and Zoella have dominated Instagram and YouTube they still try to give advice where they can but it is the fans you need to watch out for.
The fans of social media stars are a force to be reckoned with and daily you have to make the decision whether to pipe up and speak out on something you may disagree with or keep quiet to remain undeleted in the comment section. Every single day people post photos with captions underneath, on Instagram, on their own views and opinions. This, of course, is absolutely fine and everyone is entitled to this right but if you disagree with what they have posted, will you say something?
Nine times out of ten the person that posted the photo will know they will get a mixed bag of reactions filling up their notification box but the fans are a different matter. If you choose to go against the grain and disagree then you may be accused of being a troll, a hater or the powerful sisterhood that once had your back, will come into play and soon leave you out in the cold, report you or flood you with harsh backlash which you don’t want if you are trying to make it to the top yourself.
If you are trying to make it to the top then annoying a ton of people in one go isn’t really recommended as you’ll soon discover no matter what you do these people will no longer follow you. So, do you keep quiet on something you disagree with to help you make it or speak out and take the risk?
It recently happened to me; I disagreed with a post on Instagram and as I read through all the comments I found I was the only one that felt this way. Every single comment agreed with the person that originally posted it and then it made me think ‘are these people really agreeing or are they just writing that to please this person and to stay within the confines of the group’…after all they say safety in numbers!
I had a decision to make; just move on, say how I really feel or lie to maybe gain more followers.
I decided to say how I felt but I did it in a polite manner and yes the person that posted the photo totally respected me for it but I did, in fact, lose some followers.
Everyone has a voice, let’s just accept we are all different with our own views and live within the happy #nofilter world of Instagram in peace and not run to the “unfollow” button when someone disagrees with you.
Written by Sophie Farrow (Founder of Bad Mum)