How Personal Branding has Changed Me

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve only been “seriously blogging” for over a year, but with the few years that I’ve been working on content creation, I always get asked “how do you do it?”

To which my oblivious self will most likely respond with “what exactly is it?” And once I figure out that “it” refers to blogging and being a creator, I’m honestly a little thrown back.

It’s so weird to think that over the past year I’ve been working so hard to establish myself as a creator, that I’m finally starting to be recognized as one. Earlier this week, I got recognized on campus because of a dorm tour that I had filmed a few months ago. I had no idea that this stranger was a viewer of mine!

Check out my Sophomore Dorm Tour Here!

It really didn’t start to hit me that people value my opinions and advice, (thus creating a small community of my own) until recently. Lately I feel like the work I’ve been putting into all of my social media platforms is slowly but surely starting to pay off.

I used to be solely focused on making my Instagram my main, prioritized platform. But to be totally honest with you, with all of the algorithm changes and random app crashes, it’s been harder than usual to build and expand on this platform. Especially because of the latest changes, I decided to start trying to focus equally on my different platforms.

Twitter has been a lifesaver for me as a creator. While I share my own projects with my followers, it has become a blogger networking hotspot for me, more so than my Facebook has.

photo by Sofia Lasprilla

But let us not neglect YouTube here. While I’m trying to get back into making videos, I find myself stuck when it comes to creating interesting video ideas for the days I don’t feel like vlogging. It just kind of stinks because I get the most feedback on my vlogs.

So why am I rambling on about all this? Because I’ve cracked the code of what my audience wants. And hopefully it’ll help some other bloggers and content creators that are struggling to create content as well.

After spending so much of my time trying to find the balance between the content I want to create and the content that my audience wants to see, I’ve come to the conclusion that people just want to feel validated and related to. I find that most of my “real” and “raw” content not only gets more views, but the most engagement as well.

photo by Sofia Lasprilla

I love chatting with you guys, whether you’ve been a supporter of mine since I first started while I was back in high school, or if you’ve just subscribed to me on YouTube five seconds ago. Because truthfully, while my content may make viewers and readers feel validated, it does the same for me. I’ve made so many friends and have talked to so many of you lovely people all on the basis of me ranting on the internet.

So now when people ask me “how do you do it?”

“how do you handle college, working a part-time job, maintaining a social life AND blogging on top of that?”

My answer is not how I do it, but why I do it. I create content because not only do I genuinely love it, but I love being connected to those who relate to my content.

So once again, (I will never get tired of saying this) thank you for engaging with what I put out into the world and for motivating me to keep doing what I love.

I’ll see you guys on the flipside!

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