I Reached Over 1K Followers on Instagram…And Then Deleted Them

For a long time, I strived to gain followers on Instagram. Every post was carefully tagged. I invested in photo apps and graphics so my page looked unified, and sponsored select posts. I followed the rules to appear influential. Because being Instagram popular is one step towards selling my books, attracting and maintaining a fan base, supporting my mission to increase positivity and happiness for women and encouraging others to chase their dreams.

One magical day, I posted in a Facebook mommy group that we should all connect and support each other on Instagram. Within hours I had hundreds of new Instagram followers and reached around 1,100 followers! It was magical.

Then, I started deleting all my followers.

Bold move.

I deleted my Instagram fanbase to protect the privacy of my children. There are so many scary things going on in the world. My first duty is being a mom, and that means protecting my kids. Not using them to gain followers on social media. I don’t want strangers who follow me for one reason to see the photos of my kids in bathing suits swimming. Or know what town they live in. But I do want to share those cute photos with family and close friends. I decided that moving forward, my Instagram and Facebook pages were going into lockdown. I’ll slowly be deleting followers and asking everyone to follow me at a new account, tentatively @thejoellesperanza.

I’ll figure out how to use my new account to create authentic relationships with people who I will interact with and who will interact on my posts. People that genuinely align with my mission. I’ll talk about parenthood, but I won’t necessarily need show you where my daughter when to dancing school (back when the world was normal).

I’ll also spend less time online because I won’t always be worried about following a formula to post and gain followers.

I’m going to live my life online on my own terms and continue to practice gratitude and living in the present with my family.

I’m going to do more of what I actually love—writing on this blog—to attract followers and maintain relationships with my audience. Because that IS important too! I want to keep all the wonderful friends I’ve made—and if it wasn’t for social media, I wouldn’t know half the amazing people I do! But I do want to clearly define what each of my pages is for in my life. I’ve struggled with that for a while.

I’ve drawn the line between my personal and professional lives on social media and sometimes they’ll blend together. That’s OK. I’ll figure it out in time. But for now, I’m focused on making the memories… I’ll post about them later.

LESSON LEARNED FROM THIS POST:

It’s OK to scrap it all and start from scratch. You might actually end up closer to your goal than if you had continued along the same path!