Five Major Instagram Myths: BUSTED

Oh, Instagram. We all know and love it. It’s a fun way to share your life in tiny squares with friends, family, followers, and the occasional random stranger. I view Instagram as a branding platform and an extension of Keeping Up with Kahla. It’s the social media channel that holds my largest following and my focus is producing content for that following.

Content can obviously mean a plethora of things. Maybe it’s a picture of a restaurant I’m loving, or a snap from a perfect beach day. It could be a full on outfit picture, or a flat lay featuring one of my favorite bags. The beauty of being a lifestyle blogger is that I’m not restricted to only fashion posts or only food posts. I can post a variety of things.

While the above mindset is well and good, sometimes my “Insta-Life” and “Real-Life” clash after I start posting for the day. My followers from the other side of the country may have no idea (hi, Cali followers!), but the friends I have locally probably know exactly what I’m talking about.

And thus, the idea for this post was born.

Today I’m here to bust the five major myths about what you think you know about my Instagram. It isn’t always what it seems and some of it may surprise you. Others, well – maybe you’ve already seen me in action and will get a good chuckle out of what you already know.

Myth 1: I’m always wearing what I post on Instagram that day. This is probably the biggest misconception, and the one thing that makes my friends go “huh?” when they see me after I’ve posted an outfit on Instagram earlier in the day. Truth be told, I’m almost never wearing the outfit that you see me in on my Insta-feed. To make it more confusing, sometimes I haven’t worn that specific outfit in weeks since some outfit shoots are done pretty far in advance. An exception to this myth is if you see me post an outfit mirror picture like this one (taken last Sunday, actually worn last Sunday. Shocker.):

Myth 2: I’m always at the place that I’m posting about on Instagram. In a perfect world, I would eat out and frequent my favorite juice bars and breweries every single day. In this world – it ain’t happening. A perfect example of myth #2 is this picture:

I was at home one Friday morning before work and decided to post the above picture. I mean, how could I not – just look at the wall. It was screaming “put me on your Instagram”. The caption on the picture referenced something about how close we were to the sweet, sweet weekend because well obviously – I mean it was Friday after all. Not long after posting, my mom texted me concerned that I was at a brewery so early in the morning. CONTENT MOM, GOSH. It has nothing to do with the fact that I’m trying to make someone think that I have the time to be at a brewery at 8:45AM on a Friday. It’s simply because we had visited Green Bench brewery a week or so before this picture was posted and I was saving it for the right posting time. A picture of beer has better engagement on a Friday or Saturday than it does on, let’s say, a Tuesday (for me, at least!). It also just so happens that most of my prime posting times are early AMs. Mystery revealed. Myth busted.

Myth 3: You hashtag pictures way too much and they’re pointless. I’m a hashtag junkie, I don’t deny it but it’s not for nothing. Hashtags help people discover your account which = growth. On the flip side, they also allow you to find accounts similar to yours. They’re a pretty powerful tool. #Try #them #sometime.

Myth 4: You’re always posting pictures of yourself, so you must be conceited. Guys. Sometimes I’m as sick of my face as you are. I try to keep my Instagram squares balanced with places, food, stuff + thangs, and yes the occasional outfit where you may or may not see my face. There are times where a slew of pictures will seem like it’s only me, myself, and I. This is usually for one of three reasons: I’m promoting an outfit, a piece of my clothing just went on sale, OR I have a new fashion blog post ~on the blog~. No conceitedness here. Maybe just a little. KIDDING. Kind of. Self love is important, y’all.

Myth 5: It takes one shot to get the pictures you see on my Instagram. False. So false. Anyone who’s seen me in action at a blog shoot knows that it takes (at the very least) 30 shots and lots of “one more sets”. The same goes for my food pictures which makes literally no sense because my meals don’t even move.

So, there ya have it guys. five major myths busted about my Instagram page that you may not have already known. It doesn’t mean I’m “faking” anything or trying to trick people into thinking that I live my Insta-life every day. I have been to THAT restaurant, or worn THAT outfit, but for the purpose of content and frequency of posting you just don’t see it until I’m ready to post it. Did any of these surprise you or is this something that you half expected? 

Follow me on Instagram here.