What I think of Vero, Instagram, Giveaways etc

I’m sure y’all are sick of hearing about the newest Instagram algorithm (it’s actually old news by now) and how hard it’s been for a lot of bloggers lately.  Today I wanted to talk about a few topics, my thoughts on Vero, Instagram, Giveaways, and how I’m thinking of shutting down the blog.  I’ve been in quite the funk over the last few months, and I’m still waiting for my “aha” moment to snap out of it.  Let’s get started!  Oh, and disclaimer, this is a bit of a rant because I’m actually really frustrated and irritated while writing this but I need to let it all out haha.

Vero

Ok, so I loved the idea of Vero and how it was supposed to be this new up and coming platform and how it would actually benefit bloggers.  It’s basically a dark version of Instagram, but it also has other options where you can share your blog links directly, videos, music, etc.  So basically you can connect with your followers on a different level.  You can also have followers, acquaintances, friends, and close friends as connections.  You can pick and choose what you want each group of people in your connections to see too.  Let’s say I post something that’s super personal, I can pick and choose if I want my followers to see or just my close friends.

However, there are some major cons that I’ve seen and read lately that I wanted to touch base on.  When I first downloaded it I could not do ANYTHING.  It was super glitchy and I wasn’t the only person who had this problem.  They ended up fixing this, at least on my end within a few days.  On top of that a lot of people since signing up have gotten an insane amount of phone calls (because you need to verify your account with your phone number) that are spam.  I have not experienced this yet, but I also always get spam calls so I really wouldn’t know if it was my normal spam calls or thanks to Vero.

Another major con is the CEO and founder of Vero.  I read a few articles that apparently the CEO is not exactly a model citizen.  He worked for another company where he was a “head honcho” at that left 30,000 people jobless and without paychecks.  You can read all about him online, but ever since I haven’t really been active on Vero because why would I want to contribute to a social media platform with a CEO that has such terrible morals?  I really honestly don’t know if I’ll stick with Vero because I do love the idea of it and the platform itself, but just knowing the CEO is a horrible person is something I don’t know if I’m willing to get on board with.

Instagram

The social media platform that the majority of people are talking about is Instagram.  I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about it, I mean I’m sick of hearing about it too.  From a blogger’s use and personal use I honestly hate Instagram now.  I can understand why some bloggers are happy about the new algorithm, but sorry ladies and gents, I’m one of the many who’s complaining.  If you’re already an established blogger (that Instagram prefers over others), the algorithm doesn’t really mean much to you, but if you’re someone like me who’s on the Insta struggle bus right now, it’s really hard to get on board with those bloggers who are all for the algorithm.

My engagement decreased because of the new algorithm, so I did a little research.  I recently noticed another change, that it’s no longer the top 9 posts with the recent posts below under a hashtag, but it’s ALL top posts and you have to physically click on the “recent” tab to see all the recent posts.  Wow, thanks Instagram.  Now it’s nearly impossible to get noticed, because let’s be honest, how many people are going to take the extra effort when the top page has absolutely beautiful pictures?

Not everyone can have the perfect Instagram that’s up to their standards.  Not everyone is able to afford lavish travels all around the world, or a new Gucci bag every week, or even going to amazing events all the time.  Not everyone wants to look like every other Instagrammer who all talk about the same shoes that they got from Nordstrom.  I also am not a huge fan of Nordstrom since I worked there (obviously didn’t have a great experience) so I may also have a bias opinion against these Nordstrom happy influencers.

From personal use, I also hate Instagram.  I miss the chronological order of things because I’m SICK AND TIRED of seeing the same picture multiple times in a week, or even seeing the same user multiple times a day.  Yes, I liked two or three of their pictures, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only user I want to see.  I also hate the fact that when I go in the explore page I see the same bloggers all the time, and when I follow a blogger that I’m ACTUALLY interested in (that’s not like every other blogger clone) then they don’t show up in my feed whatsoever.  Even though I search their account every day and like their photos every day.  They are still not showing up in my feed.  Why is that Instagram?  Where’s your algorithm for that?

I also started following hashtags and I’m seeing THE SAME PEOPLE.  That’s not why I followed the hashtag.  I followed it to discover many different accounts.  If I wanted to only see pictures of one person then I would follow that person, right?  I know that a lot of established bloggers have had the argument of “well we have more chance of someone seeing our photo when it’s not in chronological order because my photo from 3 days ago is still relevant in their feed” which is absolutely true and you have to have a certain amount of engagement to stay relevant and actually show up in your own followers feeds, but this rapid decrease in engagement is extremely frustrating.  I understand Instagram wants to “give us what we want” but why would we follow an account if we didn’t want to see their pictures?  Also, the amount of bloggers/instagram users that like the old algorithm is a lot higher than the ones who like it.

Side rant: if one more person tells me that some rep at Instagram said shadow banning isn’t real I’m going to scream.  It’s happened to multiple people I know, myself included, and when you report it to Instagram you don’t hear back at all and you’re not seen to anyone for multiple days.  This IS a thing, it’s not just small bloggers being paranoid or being “salty” that big bloggers are being chosen by Instagram to be seen.  #sorrynotsorry  Someone from one of these blogging groups I’m a part of was also able to speak with an Instagram rep and they stated that Instagram doesn’t know about like pods, and that, that engagement doesn’t count against you.  LOL!  Almost everyone out there knows what a like pod is.  I find this EXTREMELY hard to believe.  Instagram is totally playing the game right now.  I used to love Instagram because I’m a visual person, but I’m starting to hate it.  I wish that it wasn’t such a big platform that a lot of companies focus on.  I’ll be here building up my blog instead of my Instagram, thank you very much!

Giveaways/Loop Giveaways

If you noticed last year I did a lot of Loop Giveaways.  If you don’t know what this is, it’s a giveaway on Instagram where you have to follow a bunch of people as your entry to win what’s in the giveaway itself.  Now, I did A LOT and I’m sorry for those of you who had to constantly see those posts, I look back on it now and see how ineffective they were in the long run.  I stopped doing them because I started noticing that I was losing more followers than gaining.  Since I stopped the loop giveaways back in September I’ve lost 1,000 followers so far.  I’ve also gained followers at the same time, but that’s a lot of people.  I decided that I didn’t want to “buy followers” anymore because that’s basically what you’re doing with a loop.  You’re buying in to a giveaway in exchange for an unidentified amount of followers.  It may not be a straight forward money for followers exchange but it’s pretty similar.

I’ve also decided to stop doing giveaways in general here on my blog, at least for right now.  My mind might change in the future, but people who have won giveaways in the past have either not followed the rules and not posted about it on social media or have actually unfollowed once they received their product.  HOW RUDE! **Said in a Stephanie Tanner voice**  You won an expensive piece, or a bundle of things for free, you didn’t even have to pay shipping and you don’t post about it and you unfollow.  Thanks to those people, they have ruined it for everyone else.  The giveaways I did on my blog were personal.  They were me wanting to celebrate something with my followers and other bloggers.  It was a way for me to show my appreciation for y’all.  However, out of all the giveaways I’ve done in the last almost five years and out of all the people that have won only two are still following.  It’s just disheartening and I’m disappointed.

Shutting down my blog

This isn’t set in stone yet, but I’ve been contemplating this ever since the summer to be completely honest.  I’ve been blogging for almost 5 years and am nowhere near what my goals were.  I recently migrated my blog to WordPress, starting taking photos in different locations, and started doing more research about blogging/SEO, etc.  I’m not about to go back on why I started, and I’m not about to buy thousands of followers or flash my body (except progress photos) on Instagram just to get noticed.  That’s not me and it never will be.  It’s not even tempting for me.

I hustle and this blog was my fun place, my creative outlet.  However, lately it’s turned into something I’m not having as much fun with anymore.  One of my blogger friends who I’ve talked to about recent decrease in engagement on social media shared her same frustrations with me.  Nowadays most platforms are money hungry and just want bloggers to pay for sponsored posts.  Which, if these actually worked then yea, I would totally increase my advertising budget for this, but  I’ve done Instagram sponsored posts along with Facebook and really have not seen a difference in engagement or new followers.  After talking to her she said that she’s been thinking of shutting down her blog but then she sees how far she’s come and thinks it’s not worth shutting it down because it’s something she’s proud of.  She told me that maybe I need to take a little break and really see what my followers and readers prefer the most.  I honestly don’t know what I will do at this point, but I’m walking that dangerous line of should I shut it down or keep going.  I don’t want to give up, I really don’t, but at this point there are too many things bringing me down because I take things too personally that I don’t really know what to do.

I know that this isn’t my usual positive post and this is more of a rant than anything else, but I needed to let it all out.  I also know that there’s bloggers reading this who feel the exact same way I do, but no one wants to be a Debbie downer.  It sucks, and I really don’t know what to do anymore.  Maybe I’ve just hit a rut, but who knows.  It’s all just extremely discouraging.  Maybe this has to do with the serious things going on in my life outside of this blog that are just bringing my spirits down in general, I’m not entirely sure, but this feeling is just not ideal.

xoxo Monica

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