I’ll Grow My Shit Organically Thank You Very Much
Not that shit. I know what you’re thinking. I don’t grow that stuff simply because I don’t have time or the desire to care for it. I’m talking about growing other stuff.
This stuff. My online brand, my website, Facebook page, Medium and Twitter following, my Pinterest account and now my podcast. I’m exhausted just typing all that out. No wonder I don’t have a real world social life. Who has time?
When I first started out in this online world I had no idea what I was doing. It’s questionable to this day if I still know but that’s another blog. I knew I had a powerful message and I wanted to share it with the world. How I was going to do that was beyond me.
There was much learning to do. What I learned still baffles me to this day.
The Facebook page business can be a dirty one, if you get too wrapped up in it. In the beginning, I did. In the beginning you used to be able to “buy” likes and fans. Buy people? That’s icky. If I’m spending my hard earned money on anything it sure as hell isn’t going to be on buying “people”.
In the last year or so, I saw a lot of dirty players, doing questionable things. It has left a very bad taste in my mouth.
I put in the hard work and grew my page organically. Every now and then Facebook would try to lure me into boosting a post. I succumbed to their endless pressure. Once. Fine, lemme see what you got. After $30 got flushed down the Facebook toilet, I ended up with 21 new “likes”. $0.70 a person. Pathetic, I say.
I bought a person for $0.70. That’s just icky.
With my website I work long and hard writing blogs, updating posts, adding Pin images and learning WP bullshit til I want to stick needles in my eyes. It’s growing, slow but sure.
So now here I am on Medium, still learning the ropes here, trying to engage, connect and grow. The honest way. I got hit with spam here on one of my posts. Some guy was advertising buying claps or likes or something to that effect and my first thought was “oh no, not here too!!!”.
I was relieved when that comment was immediately removed ( I honestly don’t even remember if I deleted it or it magically disappeared thanx to Medium). Then I stumbled upon an article about likes for likes and follow everyone and grow your profile that way.
What? Follow everyone? Why on earth would I do that? Oh because most of them will follow you back and then you can grow your followers. Well that just sounds icky to me too!
Is that what is happening to us? In our quest to get more recognition for our work and our brand, we start doing shady things that make no sense whatsoever (not to me anyway)? In our quest to grow our following, tweeters, mixers, fans, and pinners, we pay for people or resort to unauthentic means to achieve it?
But let’s take this deeper. To our personal lives.
Are we selling our souls for fame? Are we doing this in our personal lives too? Buying friends. Buying people to like us. Offering up our self worth, self respect and any other self we got going on, for someone to like us, love us, be our friend?
Do we so desperately want to be liked, loved, noticed and admired that we are offering up whatever we can sell just to have all that?
What happened to authenticity? What happened to just being who you are and not caring about whether people liked you or you. Always remember this one very important thing…
“you get what you pay for”
If you are spending your “soul money” to have more friends, you are gonna end up with cheap ‘friends’. Never offer up your self worth or your integrity for fame, people or likes. You’ll always go bankrupt.
So I continue to plug away, in my professional life and my personal life, being as real as Iva can possibly be, knowing that genuine like minded people will appreciate me, love me and support me without it costing me a dime, or my soul.
The thought of buying someone for $0.70 still makes me cringe.
Peace and Love
xo iva xo
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