BLOGGER TO BLOGGER–ETIQUETTE

My soul honours your soul.  I honour the place in you where the entire universe resides.  I honour the light, love, truth, beauty and peace within you because it is also within me. In sharing these things we are united, we are the same, we are one. -Unknown

 

Happy Saturday Gorgeous Humans.  So you wanna be a Fashion Blogger?  Let’s go over a couple of things I’ve learned and read about over the past year that’s helped me get to where I am today in the blogging world. 

Blogger Etiquette 101

#1.  BE YOUR DAMN SELF. I don’t know how to put this in simpler form.  First of all, not only are you breaking all sorts of legal rules by stealing peoples creative ideas, you’re making yourself look desperate.  I see this happen all the time and unfortunately even though it might be helping you gain followers it’s also helping you establish enemies.  These aren’t only peoples cute overly staged Instagram photos you are stealing you are ultimately crossing boundaries you don’t want to mess with. Be creative and unique.  Just because they share a photo on a different social channel doesn’t make it okay to put it on another.  Most likely someone else will see it and report it creating a bad name for your brand.  It’s totally normal to feel inspired and trust me I find inspiration from elsewhere all the time but if I ever do recreate a look or idea I always give credit to that person, it’s only the right thing to do. I would also feel embarrassed creating a brand based off of everyone else’s ideas, what would there be for you to feel proud about?  

#2. JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE COOL (Sorry).  I mean this in the kindest way possible.  Be humble.  There isn’t anything more unattractive than a human who thinks they are cool because of a following on a social media channel. If you follow me on Instagram you are seeing parts of my life I only choose to show you.  When I wake up in the morning I have an afro, sometimes blemished skin and I wear glasses so thick I have to pay hundreds of dollars so they don’t look like coke bottles, did you have any idea? Of course not.  We create a world we only want people to see.  With that being said, don’t compare yourself to people who have “cuter” feeds and more followers, this says nothing about their character and who they are as a person. Remember what really matters in life.

#3. BE KIND TO YOUR PEERS. Heck, be kind everywhere.  Just like everything else in this world if you don’t like someone leave it at that.  Don’t get other bloggers involved and create an environment full of drama.  At the end of the day normal level headed chicks hate drama and all you are doing is creating unnecessary stress.  I can’t even mention the number of times I received emails from other bloggers saying so and so emailed me this about you.  To be honest,  I got through high school just fine and I will not tolerate that behaviour in my professional world. This alone states you might not be ready for the blogging world.  Be professional, you wouldn’t walk around an Oil and Gas company here in Calgary behaving that way so let’s create the same expectations for the blogging world.

#4.  SHARE RESOURCES. One thing I have learned since blogging is we can often be afraid of other people doing well when in all reality this doesn’t really matter.  If a company contacts you who doesn’t fit your brand or style send them off to someone who might benefit from the campaign.  The truth is the nicer you are, the better you’ll do.  When I first started blogging I had a really big blogger (were talking like 100s of thousands of followers on YouTube and Ig) do something very kind for me and I’ll never forget that.  This is something I will always share because I remember how it felt to have someone be so good to me for no reason at all.

#5.  KEEP NO SPACE FOR COMPETITION.  I’m dead serious.  Stop caring what other people are doing and start worrying about yourself. It makes you feel bad and really what defines better than you anyways?  Be proud of how hard you have worked and how far you have come.  Especially if what you are doing is organic and authentic that is something to truly be proud of. If it truly ins’t serving you, let it go.