Public vs Private Profile

A few weeks ago there were several articles about a Swiss teacher posing in a bikini on her Instagram. I even think that some other countries talked about her as well.

That’s how I discovered Morena. She is a teacher in Switzerland, but also blogs about body, health and confidence. On her instagram she has a lot of pictures of herself in a bikini or showing her body. Lots of comments then said that a teacher shouldn’t do that and she even got criticised by educational ... in Switzerland. It’s like not showing yourself drunk on Facebook, not that your boss sees it. And yes, for my taste there are a bit too many pictures of her in a bikini, but on the other hand it’s part of her and her blog. She is still a great teacher and that’s the main thing. The parents seem fine with it and her school too, so all is well.

That brings me to the actual topic. Most of my teacher friend and friends from uni have a private Instagram account, because of the reasons I mentioned above. Parents, pupils and maybe the boss shouldn’t see their posts. Mine is not private; everyone can see my pictures from the start. I had it on private for a short time, but with my blog it makes more sense to have it public.

Last year, when I started my YouTube account, I had a parent commenting weird stuff under my videos and some students found my videos as well. I changed them to private and some public again. I just didn’t know what to do. Now I only post my travel videos on there and nothing else. That’s totally ok, because I don’t have time to make videos.

My focus is more on Instagram and to get the engagement I need my profile to be public. I also want people to see my pictures, so it totally makes sense.

I understand why teachers and people with other jobs, keep their profiles private, but it’s not my way. Everyone can see my pictures and what I post is part of my life. I have a big mixture of posts, from books, over landscape, traveling and a picture of me from time to time. I would never post too many photos in a bikini or of me wearing shorts etc., but one once in a while is totally ok.

Some people also have two accounts, that is a solution of course, but that would be too much work for me.

How do you handle this situation? Let me know in the comments. 

Scheduling Tweets

I’ve been blogging for almost three years now and I’ve only started scheduling tweets a few months ago. And I have to be honest with you guys, I don’t do it very often. I thought about writing this post for a while, to explain it to you guys.

I started out as a book blogger only and in our #bookbloggers community the matter never came up, I never heard anything about scheduling tweets and I don’t think my book blogging friends do it (sorry if you do it guys ;)). When I started to add lifestyle posts and also engaged into that community the topic came up. It seems to be very popular with beauty bloggers, fashion bloggers and lifestyle bloggers. Some of the schedule everything: Around four tweets on the blog post for the day, promotion for their Instagram, facebook or youtube and also just random tweets. For me this thought was never appealing. It’s additional work and preparing them for every single day just sounded like too much. If I’m at work, I just tweet whenever I can, I do one before the kids arrived, one around lunch and then two in the evening when I’m back home. Of course that doesn’t work everyday, sometimes I’m too busy at work, I also tend to forget to do it and when days are different than usual, things get messed up anyway. On weekends it’s similar. I schedule my blog posts to go up in the morning, but I only tweet around 11 am for the first time, after I get up. When I got away for a day I tend to schedule tweets about my blog post, if I have one. Then I only prepare them in the morning though and only if I have enough time. Especially when I got to Germany for the day, I can make sure my posts are still promoted. This is something I only started in the last few months though. I I really only do it, when I know I’m away for a whole day.

When I’m away for just a few days, I usually don’t have any blog posts scheduled, unless I’m still in Switzerland and then I just use my data. When I’m away for more than two weeks I didn’t schedule anything either, except for blog tours sometimes and cover reveals and I only promote them with the wifi I find, wherever I am.

I know, that schedule tweets is really good apparently to gain more followers for your blog and get people to read your posts, but for me it’s not worth it, if that makes sense. Of course I’d like to gain more followers and have a lot of people read my blog posts, but I feel scheduling is really an unnatural way to achieve that. I think it’s more important to stay true to yourself, tweet when you have time and be honest with your readers. Scheduling tweets and promoting constantly makes me feel that all people care about is gaining followers and if they are not really there and only promote all the time, it comes across as not authentic and it seems your only after one thing. I don’t want to offend people who schedule tweets all the time, but that is just the way I feel.

When I look at blogs, who are interesting, I look at the person, their personality and their topics. I feel that the true personality only comes across, when you genuinely tweet when you have time and not when you “have to”. It makes a person more real and that makes you relate to them. I also really appreciate when I can talk to bloggers on twitter, I love discussing things with my book blogging girlies and certain guys ;), it’s just so much fun and it doesn’t make you think about competition. Whereas the scheduling tweets is a way to get the attention and get more views than other bloggers. I’m not saying that’s the case for all the bloggers, who do it and most of them are also really active and talking to people, but that’s the way it comes across to me.

I tried scheduling Instagram promotions for a few days in a row and yes, I might have gained some followers, but it just doesn’t seem worth it to me.

For me blogging is also about staying true to yourself, being confident and and not changing who you are. That includes tweeting when I have time to tweet, so no scheduling. I want to show the real “ME” to me followers, so I tweet whenever I can and if I don’t have the time, I don’t have the time, that’s life!

You might ask, why I schedule my posts then?! Well, it’s simple: If I have a post planned for the day, I want it to go up in the morning, so readers, wherever in the world can read them. Scheduling a single post is also way easier and not as time consuming as scheduling tweets.

In the beginning I used to be obsessed with my following numbers, but know I’m just happy people read and enjoy my blog. The number doesn’t matter, that’s why there are also times, when I don’t blog , because I’m busy or on a holiday. Full time bloggers always say they work on a holiday. Well, you make it work, why not just enjoying the time and doing blog related things, while your back, you also deserve the time to relax and forget about daily life. 

Apps and Websites I use for Blogging

     


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     Instagram: Instagram is my #amreading app, I take pictures of the books I read in a nice setting or with nice accessories and then change them a bit, use a filter and add lots of hashtags ;) Then I always tweet the pic as well, tagging the author and publisher. It’s a lot of fun and I love coming up with new ideas for the pics.

       Pinterest: I share all my blogposts on Pinterest. I pin bookish related things and quotes and it’s a great way to share teasers I made myself. I’m very interested in fashion and I get really inspired on Pinterest. Other than that I like top in pictures of hot men ;) and travels. I also use pinterest to cast the characters in the books. You can type in the hair colour and the eyes and find different possibilities.

       Twitter: Twitter is probably my most used social media site. Not only for blogging, but also for keeping in touch with some wonderful authors and bloggers. In my opinion, Twitter is the best way to share and promote a blog post. You can tag authors, publishers and use hashtags. Other than comment on it and retweet it, that’s really helpful. I also post pics of every book I read, form y followers to have an overview. I share bookpost (thank the publisher) and other exciting things as well. Twitter is also great to ask for bloggers or authors to get involved in a little project or just to have them join you for a Q&A or guest post.

     Facebook: I also share my blog posts on Facebook and promote them there. The bookpost I receive and bookish related things also find a place. I don’t get as many reactions on here, but it’s still a great way to share things. Facebook is great for little events, to promote a challenge or a calendar thing, like I did last Christmas. I also use Facebook to ask if anyone wants to join me for little         projects, Q&As and guest posts.

        Google +: Google is great, because it’s directly connected to my blog account and my email. You can share blogposts as well and gain a lot of followers as well.

     Bloglovin: I have to say I barely use bloglovin, probably because I’m too lazy, but I think it’s a great site and a good way to follow other blogs.

     Goodreads: As a book blogger, this site is really important to me. I have an overview on my books, I can categorize them, find new ones and add them to my TBR. I can see which ones I own and that helps me a lot with my blogging. I share all my reviews there, once I’ve posted them on the blog, I also add them to Amazon UK and US. My followers are able to see what I’m reading and I also have an overview on my yearly challenge. I love looking at the reviews of other bloggers and seeing their updates. It also makes it easier to follow each other sometimes, or you might miss a review.

     NetGalley: I great way to get ARCs from publishers. They have been hard on me (some still are), because I don’t live in the UK. It’s gotten better though and there is a wide range of genres and books on NetGalley, sometimes I have to be careful not to request too many at the same time.