Finding My Instagram Identity

Last week, a person I follow online mentioned how discouraged they felt trying to break into the travel blogging world. This made me reflect on my own experience. I figured I’d share it here for anyone else out there who has struggled like me.

As someone who focuses so much on writing guides for my readers, it’s been difficult trying to carve out a space in the curated, visual world of travel Instagrammers and influencers. I know that IG is amazing for sharing content and attracting new readers, but it took me years after starting the blog to finally start posting on there.

I’m very shy about self-promotion. I didn’t even tell my friends and family about this travel blog! It wasn’t until I started my Instagram account that they even knew it existed. I was completely content just writing anonymously for the masses. Sharing pictures and personal stories about my favourite places around the world made me happy. So despite feeling shy about the followers I knew in real life, I kept posting.

I often find it hard to keep posts contained to a few short sentences when my guides and blogs are thousands of words long. I want to include every last detail about this church’s stained glass windows or that city’s best restaurants. But I understand it’s better to keep it short and sweet on Instagram and point readers to the blog for more context.

As much fun as I was having reliving these memories online, I felt discouraged. Every time I looked at my Instagram discover feed or browse the top travel influencers, I got very down on myself. Looking at their photos was like looking at a magazine spread. They have professional photographers who follow them around. In every shot, they’re wearing a gorgeous outfit, which is almost always styled perfectly to match the backdrop. 

I looked at my own feed and found, for the most part, my pictures were all seen mostly from my perspective. My husband is amazing at taking my photo, so we make sure to get some “in situ” shots even though I also LOVE taking photos myself. Photography is something I adore while on vacation, but it seems that just isn’t what the algorithm or the audiences online want to see.

Everywhere I look I see perfectly composed photos with a Kinfolk aesthetic. Light, pastel filters make locations all over the world look like they all blend seamlessly together in one 9:9 grid. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing these types of pictures. They’re gorgeous and attention-grabbing. They work for a reason. We like the way they look as it’s almost like gazing at a work of art.

But sometimes there is very little content there. Those influencers are more about aesthetics and creating feelings of wanderlust than they are interested in sharing the cultural value of a location or the history behind it. Just like a work of art, sometimes it’s more fantasy fiction than trusted truth.

I don’t want to mislead anyone by photoshopping the reality out of the places I’m writing about. Sure, some photos look nicer with all those tourists removed. But if you only follow those influencer’s Instagrams, you might be surprised at what those locations really look like when you arrive.

I’m not trying to bash anyone here. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of their lifestyles. Who wouldn’t want to travel first class all over the world on somebody else’s dime? And to be fair to those influencers, they’re not trying to do the same thing as me. They have less interest in research as there is a ton of hard work that goes into finding and maintaining business partnerships. Nevertheless, it’s hard to maintain that perspective when you’re trying to break into the industry in any real way. It seems like my filter of authenticity wasn’t what the platform was looking for.

Something clicked in me the other day when I was thinking of something to post. I wanted to share a picture of the gorgeous interior of the National Post Office in Mexico City. I thought that I NEEDED to appear in the photo I shared. It had been a while since I’d done so. I thought, “This is what people want to see and I need to follow suit.”

But then I took a step back and thought about the people I write these blogs for. They’re not going to be followed around by a professional photographer or pre-plan every single outfit. Just like me, they’re real travellers. They’re interested in history. They’re as nerdy about architectural details as they are about dinners. While they might only travel with a camera phone, not a $1000+ DSLR, they still want to share the beauty and excitement of their travels with loved ones.

When I share a photo, my readers can know they will be able to visit that same spot and take that same snapshot. More than anything, they’ll know what that place means. The significance of those colours, the symbolism behind that painting, or history of that statue.

Maybe I’ll never get as many followers as those gorgeous ladies and gents I see modelling every day on Instagram. But whenever I get a sweet email from a reader about how much the blog inspired them on their own travels, that’s worth so much more to me than some digital red heart.