Social Media Branding

• // This week's post is a little bit different, but I am excited to share the things I have been learning about social media marketing and branding. I have just recently been incorporating these new skills and have already started seeing an increased satisfaction with my overall content and reach.

• // First things first, YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TELLS A STORY. Whether you are a blogger, business owner, brand strategist, or "regular" person, what you post tells a story about who you are and what your vision/mission is, in turn, impacting your relationships and connections. You have the opportunity to partner and collaborate with so many people, simply by the use of your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. My year as a Miss America titleholder has taught me so much about this, from building my social impact initiative to developing sponsorships. Tell a story of vulnerable honesty about your values. How?

1. Form your theme. A lot of successful "Instagrammers" and entrepreneurs, have fully tapped into another audience of people through social media by making content that is attractive. Let's be honest, we all have that friend who posts pictures that we just kind of scroll past because we cannot connect, nor is the picture visually appealing. I want to begin by telling you something so simple to change your viewings and following: take clear pictures, find good lighting, angle the focus of the picture in a pleasant positioning. There are tons of videos on Youtube about posing and picture taking, take one week to watch these videos, it makes such an easy fix of your pictures. Notice the pictures underneath this paragraph from the beginning of my year as Miss City of Yuma, before I really learned about social media branding.

• // Sure, you might say these are not terrible pictures; however, nothing about them is really eye catching or interesting. The first picture has a bland background with dull colors and the second picture, although has a potentially interesting background, is too empty to really catch anyone's attention for longer than a scroll past. Now, let's look at the pictures below, towards the beginning of my learning that social media has a process. 

• // These pictures pop on a timeline. Your eye is caught on them, and you stare maybe for a little longer than most other pictures. Here's the key: you do not need bold colors like these for your social media to be noticed, you do however, need a brand that you stick with for the long-term. Perhaps, you keep a black and white theme, or you do choose brighter colors like mine. You can use the colors of your company or organization to theme your social media, or focus on neutral, modern tones like grays and blacks. I think you might be catching on to what I am saying about a theme, it trademarks your mission. This concept is the same as creating a logo for an organization, something to be remembered by and noticed for. Oh, and declutter your pictures, I beg you. Most people fill their pictures with a good focus, but the background is ugly and there are too many distractions. You do not want random water bottles or other peoples random "things" in the background. Make it easy for the audience to focus on the center of the picture.

2. Decide on your content. Do not post about random things just for the sake of having a picture. For instance, a beauty company does not post about hot sauce. In the same way, your mission and only your mission, should be the focus of your social media. Discover your wheelhouse. For my Miss City page, I had to realize what I could post pictures about. Because of the variety within that title, I had a lot of social media freedom, but I still maintained the theme of being a titleholder. For those social media accounts, I had posted content based around Miss Arizona prep, appearances, anything involving the four points of the crown (service, style, success, scholarship), social impact initiative events/planning, introductions of who I am representing the city, and other things of the like. Whatever your social media plan is, you need to hone in on the type of content that you can post from, which will eliminate irrelevant and uninteresting posts for your viewers.

3. LEARN TO EDIT! No, editing does not make you fake, it makes you aware of using your resources. Do not get me wrong, you should not use an editing app to make yourself and your brand unrecognizable outside of social media, but you can enhance the good qualities that already exist within a picture. Editing really can do a lot to make your pictures more appealing. Yes, bring up the contrast in your pictures, use highlights, raise exposure if its too dark, decide on the kind of filters you want to use for your brand and stick to it. In case you have never really experimented with editing, download an editing app and practice bringing up the quality of pictures that you already have; download VSCO, Preview, or Facetune, there are so many apps that exist, find the one that you like the most and keep using it!

4. Be consistent. If you plan on really transforming your social media game, you HAVE to be consistent so that your followers know what they are following. Otherwise, you will lose their interest and compromise your contents' reach. If you have been posting randomly, decide on a schedule and follow it. This could mean posting every other day, 3 times a week, or once every other week. Just decide so that your followers know what to expect. Believe me, I honestly think this is the hardest part and I have been trying to build consistency in social media posts. It takes practice!

5. Last point. Make your social media interactive. I have also been working on this. Allow people the opportunity to connect with you via social media. Ask questions for people to answer. Post polls in your stories. Pull people for their opinions and get your followers invested in what you are doing. Some of the best social media branders are celebrities that have simply opened up their social media to make the audience truly feel like they are along for the Hollywood ride with them, even though they have never actually seen them a day in their life. Again, this is hard. It takes a deeper level of commitment to ask the right questions and put up applicable and interesting information.

• // Do not beat yourself up for not being where you want to be. Like I said, this is a process; I am still learning and am just now applying a lot of these principles. You can do this if you are willing to work at this. Keep researching, keep watching videos and reading books. Follow people on social media that have branded themselves well and learn from them. However, I think social media is such a beautiful tool we have been given to reach even more people. Our ability to communicate and grow has expanded astronomically. Take advantage. You can do it. Do not be afraid to change as you realize what works for you, and when you realize that something you are doing, is not really you. It's cliche, but be true to you and you will attract the audience you are looking for.

Grieving: an ongoing process

• // I write this to you after having previously spent the night overwhelmed by a massive pile of tears. We need to talk about grieving because we need to talk about the many emotions that make you feel so isolated. I hope that I can capture some feelings that you have not quite been able to put into words, I know that it took me some time. The process of grieving seems so irrationally long and confusing. The steps are not a clean five: denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance. You will likely feel each one of these emotions, only to step into the next and revisit the last. Some days, you will cry about things you miss so painfully, and you will continue missing it. I need to tell you, this is not written just to the person who has lost someone in death; although, it does best fit that narrative. Every day we earn the chance to gain and lose something valuable to us, perhaps for you it is a person, a job, a relationship, a dream, or the day in and of itself. You can and should grieve the things lost, it will make you healthier. I also need to remind you that you are not alone in this, yes it can feel like you are alone. Looking back in retrospection, most friends were only a phone call away and were ready when I was ready, to talk.

• // My grief was the loss of my dad. I can tell you my journey began in denial. My hands rested numb on the steering wheel, driving from the fire station that my aunt briefed me; I made my way back towards my own home. I am the girl who ignores intense feelings other than joy, until they can finally leave my head. Grieving was the one thing that I could not seem to stuff down, regardless of how hard I packed every emotion in my imaginary disposable jar. Is that you?

• // Please allow some encouraging right now, feel every emotion, in the second that you can. If you are wandering down the grocery aisles to get bread, or you are stopping in the drive-thru for your morning coffee and fight the urge to breakdown, stop fighting and go through the emotions, the barista has seen worse. Cry when you need to cry, laugh when you need to laugh. Drive to their house and sit in their favorite rocking chair, or put just a drop of that cologne they always wore on your wrist. I needed to experience some "lasts" with my dad. I needed to smell his clean clothes one more time before placing them in the bag to be sent over to the thrift store. I needed to see his sloppy handwriting on a bill letter before it was tossed. I needed to see the food from our last meal together before the pan was washed. These landmarks left me something incredibly valuable for the hard days, a recollection of my last, sweet memories.

• // I also needed to live through some "firsts." I needed something to break and remember I could not call him to fix it, this brought a healing to remember everything he did fix. I needed to drive through the town that he passed; I stopped hating its existence and began loving the world that God made. I needed to realize his hurt, it made me kinder to hurting people. Yes, year one is filled with "firsts." I suppose that is why they call it the first year. Embrace them, let them heal you.

• // I suppose I expected to get past the loss after some measurable amount of time. I did not, and I still have not. I am realizing that I never really will and that is okay. The person who made you laugh, smile, cry, and hurt (as all people do because we are everything but perfect), deserves to be remembered. The grieving never exactly stops, or at least I have not found it too, but I am new to this thing after all. The grieving simply changes. Hard days never fully go away, but they become far less frequent and it feels possible to be happy again. Unbelievably intense sadness evolves into a far less familiar emotion once you begin to appreciate life after this person. Yes, you can enjoy life again and you deserve this, too. I noticed very quickly that life does not just stop moving forward because someone else did not continue the race with life, but in the days that you just want life to slow down and show mercy, you will build resilience. Do not shunt out excitement or joy, because you need to experience that again as well. The agony of losing someone will eventually leave you with the option to find gratitude in the time spent, or misery in the time to come, try to avoid selecting the latter.

• // Remember, people are just a phone call away. Use your tribe. Find your people. You are not alone is having lost someone or something. We make it through life together and it really does help to express your feelings out loud. Journal some thoughts, leave a last voicemail for someone, write a letter to their mailbox, draw some pictures, and listen to the songs that remind you of them. Do not stay stuck in the past, but remember with reverence, the person that impacted your life and be excited to continue life with the wisdom that they gave you. You are resilient, keep pressing on, and stop when you need some rest. "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ." Phillipians 4:7

Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? I sure don't . . .

• // I know. You feel like a failure because you may have decided on a major and thought it was your life calling. Some of you, like me, prayed fervently about your future and believed you settled into God's exact mission for your life. Then, everything changed. You felt uncertain about your degree, your current employment, and your trajectory. I wish I could write this to you as the person that dropped out of nursing school and became a successful entrepreneur that followed their dreams. However, I am not. I left nursing school when I realized it was not the fit for me, and I still feel a little lost about what is next for my life.

• // Let me tell you, you have not failed, and you have come no where close to failing. I spent months just hoping to believe this. Sure, you may experience some negative repercussions for your decision to change the plan of your future, but if you hate what you do; eventually, you will change careers regardless of how hard you fought to stay in the field, or - you will be miserable your entire professional life. I am not discrediting that finding a job is important, employment is necessary, but I need to address a much bigger heart problem.

• // I know this: I love speaking, I love influencing, and I love connecting with people. Some of my friends have jokingly said that I just want to be famous, which in some moments may be true. But, I do not necessarily care about fame, I desire being a person that can be impactful in one's life because I care enough to listen and support them, while also using my own experience's to help. I have no idea how this translates to a career besides possibly counseling, but the point of this is that a lot of you, see the world how I do. You want to do something meaningful with your life, that makes you feel even more alive. You just cannot spot that "thing." I get it. Sometimes, this searching is frustrating. Do not worry, your "thing" will come.

• // This year set me off with a quote that was so much more important for my life than I had ever intended. In January, I left for a retreat immediately before starting nursing school, thinking the entire weekend that I picked the wrong field. At this point, I had not told anyone that I was reconsidering nursing. However, in one of the evening sessions at this retreat, the speaker loudly and sternly uttered the phrase, "You are not your major, Your identity is not your major, and if you do not graduate with your selected degree, it does not change who you are." This resonated in my bones. I spent so long telling myself that I had to be a nurse because I had already been accepted into the program. For many, this is you. You may have been accepted into your program and dread what you do, or you have worked in your field for years and see a calling to go back to school and begin a new profession. Might I say that whether you have changed your career or your college track, your identity remains the same.

• // I have spent a lot of time recently talking to students and professionals changing course. Almost every time, I have seen individuals spiraling trying to figure out what is next, as have I. Just a few weeks ago, I sat at the pool with a sweet friend of mine saying "I just do not know what is next for my life, I do not know who I want to be or what I want to do." To which she answered, "I think it's okay to not know." What I have learned from all of this is to act justly, seek mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.

• // In the last few weeks, Jesus has really reminded me that He cares a lot less about my decided career, and a lot more about my decided heart. Truthfully, who you are, matters so much more than the field you pick. Your job does not envelop who you were made to be; it can only reflect the gifts that God has given you. I have had to do some serious, obligatory soul searching, past the change from healthcare. My attitude and my character are so much more vital to my success than any degree could ever be. You see, I do not want my wealth to be in my bank account or in my educational accolades, but rather a store of treasure in heaven for the life that I lived. My hope is that I can show compassion and mercy to all people, grace, and love, to be remembered for how I made one person feel. If I have loved well, I have done everything that I ever needed to do, because the greatest of these is love. 

• // A ministry leader of mine once said, finding God's will is not like shooting an arrow onto a bullseye. Often, God's will is the entire target, and you only need to hit the board. To find your calling, be a little less concerned with doing exactly every single thing Jesus wants you to do, and be more concerned with loving Him deeply and loving His people endlessly. In this place, I think that is where Christ shows you what you were meant to do on this earth. Do not always expect a clean answer either. Sometimes, your steps forward look like they are trekking into a maze; focus on the area of the ground that Jesus is lighting right now. 

• // Be patient with yourself, and try a few things that seem interesting to you. If this year has taught me anything, it is that you really do have to try some things before you can ever know what you think about it. Allow yourself the opportunity to dislike some things, but give yourself the freedom to love some things that you may have never expected to find yourself doing; you can experiment.

• // Take away this: who you are matters far beyond the galaxies in comparison to the occupational direction you select. Choose love, always.