From Instagram to IRL
By Kate Bray
As VERB’s Influencer Manager, as a millennial, and as someone who tries to moonlight as a lifestyle blogger, I spend a lot of time on Instagram. You could say that I’m just a little bit obsessed. Maybe. And while I’ll acknowledge that Instagram absolutely lends itself to being a highlight reel, a hotbed of social media fraud, and a source of frustration and comparison, we’re not here to talk about that today. I’m here to talk about all the ~feels~ that Instagram has given me, why it’s a source of joy, healing, and light in my life, and the marketing lessons you can learn from my positive experience with the famous photo-sharing app.
Connections Wherever You Go
It should come as no surprise that Instagram has become a major source of travel inspiration — people are not only looking for where they should visit, they’re looking for where they can get the best Instagram shot. I am extremely guilty of this and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Any time I plan a trip, I search the geotags of places I’m interested in visiting to see what it looks like from a local and/or traveler’s perspective. I search hashtags like #parisblogger and #parisphotographer to see what those in the know are eating, drinking, doing, and enjoying to get ideas for my own trip.
So what?
The thing is, I don’t only do these searches when I’m actively planning a trip. I do them all the time. I enjoy seeing different perspectives, keeping in the know about other parts of the world, and being able to file away usernames and ideas for the next time I am actively planning a trip. This has worked out really well for me in that last year — I made friends with an American expat and blogger living in Paris by combing through hashtags and strategic searches. She followed me back, we engaged with each other’s content, found similarities, had lots to talk about (it’s no secret to those who know me even a bit that I’m a Francophile), and became fast online friends.
Last year I found myself solo in Paris for 24 hours. It was my first time visiting without a loved one, so what did I do? I messaged my friend through Instagram and we were able to meet up. She spent nearly the whole day with me and I felt like we’d been friends forever. As I write this, I’m about to head off to Paris again for a few days — no, I’ll never get tired of that city — and we’re meeting up again this weekend! Instagram has made the world smaller, and in this case, more friendly — and for that I am grateful. Plus, how cool do I sound saying, “Yeah, my friend in Paris said….”? ;)
On the flipside, my now best friend found me on Instagram. For once, I wasn’t doing the obsessive searching. As mentioned above, I have a lifestyle blog on the side, and on pretty much every Instagram photo I post, I use the hashtag #HalifaxBlogger. She found my account by searching the hashtag, noticed my interest in the influencer marketing space (this was a full year before I started working at VERB) and struck up an Instagram DM about our shared interest. The conversation flowed naturally and we found that we had a lot in common. Before I knew it, we were chatting every day! Pretty soon, we decided to finally meet up in person here in Halifax. Again, it was like we’d been friends forever. Now, it’s almost 2 years later and we still talk every. single. day. She no longer lives in Halifax, but with the help of Instagram, Facetime, and an in-person visit once or twice a year, we manage. Instagram allows us to find people with shared interests and geography and no matter what controversy and issues may arise from the platform, I’ll always be grateful to the app for helping us become so close.
A Sense of Community
Okay, so I get it. The two stories above almost sound like online dating but for friends. And it kind of was. So here’s where I get you in the feels.
I’m about to get pretty personal here. That can be tricky when writing for our professional work blog, but my story has made me who I am: a hard worker, an empathetic person, and someone who doesn’t get knocked down too often. I’ve been made to feel as though my story has been embraced by my colleagues, and I hope that those of you reading who only know me in a professional sense will do the same.
I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease, more than 15 years ago. I lived in a rural area, I was in junior high, and social media wasn’t a thing yet. I knew literally no one else who understood what I was going through, and as you can imagine, bowel disease is not something that is spoken about very openly. It was isolating and scary. I kept it a secret for so many years and endured a lot of self-stigma. There’s a lot that went on between then and now, but to get you up to speed, my life started changing for the better and I started to feel a sense of healing when I started opening up about my illness and experiences online — particularly on Instagram.
Again, through the use of strategic searching and hashtags, I have found hundreds of other IBD patients from all over the world sharing their ups and downs and allowing me to feel less alone. I felt empowered to face my disease head on rather than doing my best to ignore it and getting sicker in the process. I could see that I wasn’t alone in this fight. I found people to talk to who actually understood what I was going through. And, earlier this year when I found myself completely out of drug options (having failed all of them and being dependent on a very intense steroid) I was able to turn to the same community to read the experiences of — and actually talk to — patients who required surgery and now live with an ostomy.
Finding the very strong and inspiring community of IBD patients on Instagram literally saved my life, and I’m not being dramatic. Six weeks ago I went through with surgery to remove my entire colon and I’m now living with a temporary ileostomy. Up until about 10 months ago, the thought that I may end up having to have this surgery and live with an ostomy someday felt like a sentence worse than death. Unfortunately, there’s a huge stigma around ostomies and of course, IBD in general, and with old narratives in the medical community dying hard, it’s a tough stigma to tackle. Through searching hashtags like #ostomate, #ileostomy, and #babeswithbags (yes, really), I found happy, smiling, empowered, HEALTHY peers who made it out the other side of what I was about to face and made me see that there was light at the end of the tunnel. Now, I’m one of those happy, smiling, healthy (finally!) #ostomates and I am proud to be a part of the strong community of #IBDwarriors and #ostomates thriving on Instagram.
Ayesha Siddiqi said, “Be the person you needed when you were younger.”
Thanks to my Instagram community, I am that person today. Ever since I started being open about my illness and making it a huge part of what I share online, it has been my goal to show that a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative Colitis, or now, requiring an ostomy, doesn’t mean that your life is over. I strive to be honest and real, but I also make a huge point of showing the really fun things I’ve done and am doing (traveling, delicious food, cool job!) in spite of my unique circumstances.
It has paid off more than I could have ever imagined. Not only have I found personal satisfaction and healing in my own journey, but I’ve had my story shared multiple times by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada, I’ve been featured as a speaker on morning TV about life with chronic illness, last year I was whisked away to Amsterdam to speak on a panel of ulcerative colitis patients, and best of all, last week I received a message from a 15 year old girl who told me that my openness about my life and my surgery helped her feel less alone and has been getting her through the tough times. That’s why I share, and I’m so grateful to Instagram for helping me to do it.
So, what can you learn from these long-winded, TMI stories, fellow marketer?
Instagram shouldn’t just be used for carefully planned, curated content. Make it something more. See it as an opportunity to truly connect with your followers, and not just as a visual portfolio of your brand.
Build a community. Share truth. Cultivate honesty. Put in the effort to speak to your followers as individuals whenever possible. Share unique stories. Don’t just tag your photos with popular hashtags to try to reach as widely as possible. Comb through niche tags and reach out to the people you want to connect with in a meaningful way. Be real. Share the behind-the-scenes story.
Make your followers feel like they’re a part of your story because they are.
VERB Interactive is a leader in digital marketing, specializing in solutions for the travel and hospitality industry. Find out more at www.verbinteractive.com.
