instagram – Little Fears

You noticed I have sorted out my Instagram game right? I have flip-flopped on Instagram for ages. This last month I have finally started to dedicate a small amount of time each day to pruning my Instagram feed. It now looks more consistent, a lot of fluff posts have been removed and the following is growing with it. I’m up about 1,000 followers this month. I think that’s good. All my posts get plenty of interaction too. I need to reduce my hashtag usage but otherwise, I’m doing alright there.

This website will always be my main home for the Fears. But I have learned repeatedly that I need to spread myself a little across the net. The days my websites down my income from the Fears stops dead. Medium, Ello, Twitter and Instagram are my favourite social networks. You can say hello to me here:

Ello.co ~ @littlefears
Instagram ~ @little.fears
Medium ~ @littlefears
Twitter ~ @thelittlefears

And now a free course and a premium course for you to try on Skillshare. The first course is free. Completely free. Follow the link, sign up, and go to the course page. Skillshare is just a learning platform that hosts free and premium courses. Skillshare premium costs 0.99$ for 2 months and gives you access to thousands of courses on hundreds of subjects.

The Creative Entrepreneur’s Toolbox: Interviews that Inspire

In this non-traditional class, you’ll gain access to a series of interviews that cover essential topics for the creative entrepreneur like marketing, design, and branding. These interviews were originally part of an initiative called The Board, which is a group of 100 creators that are working together to redefine the K-Swiss brand.

Blogger Natalie Suarez sits down with some top creative entrepreneurs to go through their experience building their businesses. You’ll learn from:

Sharmadean Reid, founder of WAH Nails over in London, will provide some pointers on developing your business plan.
Scott Sasso, founder of 10Deep here in New York, will speak on brand positioning, which will allow your consumers to distinguish your brand/business from everybody else.
Tyler Gage and Dan Mccombie – founders of Runa Tea, a tea company supporting indigenous farmers in the Amazon. They’ll give some tips on building community and conscience into your business.
The Fat Jewish, everyone’s favourite Instagrammer, who gives some insight on social media strategy and how you can leverage today’s platforms to build your brand.
Rachel Wang, fashion director of Allure Magazine, speaks on the importance of your lookbook and Brand Imagery as a product company.
Jeff Staple provides tips on telling a story through your products.

Course Link: http://skl.sh/2AWgzUD

Analytics & Authenticity on Instagram: Crafting Your Digital Presence

Make yourself known on Instagram with this 45-minute class with designer and illustrator Sophia Chang. You’ll follow along as Sophia walks you through how you can build your personal brand on Instagram — covering everything from photo editing to analytics and community engagement on her favorite platform.

You’ll start by identifying your own passions by category, then you’ll zero in on how to:

represent those passions through photography
engage the communities around them on Instagram
interact with them in a meaningful way
set goals for growing your following
track your growth through analytics

With tips on maintaining your authenticity throughout, this class is great for anyone looking to get their work or their personal brand out there in a creative, authentic way by leveraging the power of Instagram. By the end of this class, you’ll have your own perfectly crafted online presence to share.

Linky: http://skl.sh/2B4rMD8

As many of you know, I’m planning a house move in the coming months. I got offered a few weeks consultancy at my old firm and took the opportunity to boost my income for a few weeks. I’m actually enjoying it. With the knowledge that it’s temporary, I can relax more about my commute. I don’t start until 10 am and I leave at 5 pm. My relationship has changed with everyone there too. It’s easier stepping back in 6 months after leaving for a couple of weeks than it was seeing the same people in the daily grind.

Attack of the killer day job. A short life event where the hero will survive.

In the meantime, I have stopped pushing the Little Fears a touch and gone looking on Skillshare for some marketing courses to use a lil info from when I finish at the day job and get back into writing.

Storytelling Basics: How Creatives and Brands Can Build a Following

The first one I tried was a course by Stephanie Pereira from Kickstarter. This is a free course and it’s not bad. She discusses defining your audience and finding them on the net. Something I often forget. I certainly need to look out for reading and writing communities other than those on WordPress.

Instagram Best Practices: Grow Your Community, Work with Brands

The second course I watched was by Tyson Wheatley, a well-known photographer on Instagram. It’s premium, but if you pay as little as $0.99 you get 3 months full access to every course on Skillshare. The guy knows his stuff. He covers apps to use to edit photos, creating a synergy between your images and growing your following.

Instagram is a bit of a sticking point for me. I have nearly 1300 followers there, but I do not post daily and I am always unsure of the best way to link posts there back to the LittleFears.co.uk home. Growing the community isn’t the problem for me there, it’s what to do with it when I have it. I shall be trying a few more courses before the week is out. Would be nice to have a fresh plan for when I return to the Fears next week.