I don’t have a curated feed….and I don’t care anymore

Instagram…it’s where all of your photos live. All of the pieces of your life that you want folks to know about. I tried to have a curated feed a few months ago. I read all the articles on Instagram, paid for some classes, had someone take a look at my feed to help me and I still felt lost. Instagram is supposed to be fun and inspiring and here I am trying to be like everyone else instead of being myself.

Let’s Define a curated feed

The correct definition is choosing images that complement each other allows the eye to move freely through your feed without interruption. In other words…when all of your photos look similar in style, color, and mood.  For example, some people have colorful photos so every photo they put up has to be colorful. Some brands have a certain color in their branding so they have to put that color in their feed somehow. Some people use certain filters and use that same filter for every picture. Some people use the same objects in all of their feed.

Mixing my business and business life

One of the things I struggled with was not trying to mix my business life with my personal life. I don’t have much of a business life per say lol. I am a photographer and I have a blog. The blog is more personal but I do offer photography as a side hustle. I was told that I shouldn’t mix my photography in with my blog content/personal content. Great, I listened for about 3 months and then I got tired. You see  I was sending people over to the “photography” Instagram (@sweetgrassrootsco) and folks were like what is this, or folks would follow me on Sweetgrass but then turn around and tag me using itsreallykita, which most know me by. It was hard driving traffic over to the new Instagram. One of my clients was like I don’t know sweetgrass I know itsreallykita and that’s what I will tag you in lol. All of my clients came from It’s Really Kita and no one wanted to acknowledge me over to the new insta so I changed it. I was getting 10 likes on one photo from sweetgrass vs. 50 on itsreallykita. I was so torn and tried my best but it wasn’t working for me so you know what I did? I went back over to It’s Really Kita insta and said to hell with it. I still have sweetgrass but it will turn into another business. I also went back to my hashtag which is #shotbykita that way people can separate my business from the blog by using a special hashtag.

I don’t get a lot of likes or business from instagram so why should I care

Now I know most people who have that curated feed gets a lot of likes and a lot of opps but I simply don’t. I never get a lot of likes. I have had 400 likes (at the most) and 12 likes (as the least). I fluctuate between the two often and I have never once had an opportunity on Instagram so why am I sitting here trying to have the perfect feed. Number 1 a lot of folks have a lot of followers but don’t get a lot of engagement which means someone has been buying followers. Number 2 I don’t have time to have the perfect feed because my life isn’t perfect. You get whatever the hell I am going to put because guess what this is how I really live my life. I don’t knock curated feeds if you have help to put it together do it. If you have the time to have bright colors in all of your photos or use a certain filter and edit it for each and every picture…do it. If you get paid to look a certain way…do it. If you just like having a certain look…then just do it.

So what’s on my Insta feed?

You will get great photos. I can guarantee you that. You will also get some great captions. Here is what else you will get. Some flowers (because I love them), some kids (because I have them), some clients (because I get all of them from It’s Really Kita and by word of mouth + my clients know I act a fool why try to be something on another feed that I’m not), some half shots of me (I hardly ever show my full face so you will get me turning to the side or something of that nature) some food (because I can cook and I love to eat), and whatever else I feel like putting up that day. I also participate in the Project 365 Daily so you will always see a photo of the day.

Here are some things I do on my Instagram that works for me

• I follow 10 people a day and I comment on 10 people a day. I do that daily no matter what
• I use the VSCO app to edit my pics and 80% of my feed is from my Canon 5D
• I go into hashtags and like 10 photos
• I post no less than twice a day

That’s about it. I am not perfect and I am tired of trying to be that. Some people post curated feeds and then let you into their real life on instastories. If that works then do that also but I am tired of trying to put my all into a social media that I don’t own. I prefer to put my all into my website and things that I can control. I can’t control the algorithms and I can’t control what people see and don’t see. I can control my newsletter and my piece of the internet right here on this blog.

Do you have a curated feed? Does it matter to you if some people have it and some don’t?