by Ayla Roback

Have you ever wondered, “How do all these ‘Influencers’ and seemingly ‘ordinary’ people gain such a massive following?” 

“What is all the hype with posting on ‘stories’” 

“Why do they (millennials) post so much of themselves?” 

“How does one even begin to build an aesthetic?”

To answer a few questions about social media and aesthetics, we did a quick Q&A session with this month’s featured artist, Instagram queen Lauren Ladnier! 

Q: What is your favorite social media platform to communicate with, and why? 

A: Instagram.  I love taking photos and I thoroughly enjoy planning my content.  I live in New York City and have such great photo opportunities here.  I also work in fashion, so I love showcasing my style as well as others. On Instagram, I feel like my followers have similar interests to me and a greater understanding of my personality.  Sometimes I find it easier to communicate with pictures rather than words.

Q: Why do you think social media is the new way we prefer to communicate?

A: I think social media is a fun, easy way to receive news but also see the content that caters to our specific interests.  I think we tend to prefer this method when communicating because it feels personalized- we follow the people whose content we want to see and those who follow us are interested in the content we are creating.

Q: Where do you think social media may be going in the next five years?

A:   I think social media will inevitably start trying to sell more. I think ads will play a bigger role on social media across all platforms. I do believe social media is here to stay, but I think it will put more focus on selling products, unfortunately.

Q: What's your journey to utilizing social media to create an online presence?

A: When utilizing social media to create an online presence, I think it is extremely important to be yourself and also express yourself authentically. Authenticity is key.

Q: What are the five most important elements in developing your "presence" on social media?

A: The five most important elements in developing your presence on social media are: 

1) Be authentically you. 

2) I personally found that people enjoy relatable content- people like to feel like they can relate to someone and once they feel this they tend to develop a sense of loyalty to that person.  However, at the same time, they like to see content that they can aspire to and are inspired by.

3) Creating quality content, but more importantly content that you enjoy creating.  I went through a phase when I only wanted to post very edited, tonal pictures with little color, the opposite of my personality.  I thought this was the cool thing to do, but I found myself not posting pictures I took/liked because it didn't match my Instagram "aesthetic."  I eventually realized this was MY Instagram and I should be posting content I wanted to post content that made me happy- colorful pictures. Once I started doing this I found my follower count increased.  Sure you may lose some followers, but the followers you gain that enjoy your authentic content are more valuable anyway.

4)  I think creating a community of friends- both real-life friends, but also creating online friends is very important when trying to create a presence.  When dealing with online friends, it's especially important to answer DMs and be as friendly and as helpful as possible. I find myself answering a lot of questions about things to do in New York City as well as questions about the fashion industry and how I got started.  Being kind and helping people can help create a more loyal following.

5) In terms of building your presence, I've found that getting "regrammed or reposted" is extremely helpful because you reach a new audience. Sometimes when starting out, it's useful to post about smaller brands, brands that are more likely to reshare the content and you can reach a new audience that way.

Resources

We’ve created a free downloadable PDF to explore the article deeper. It contains discussion questions about the topic in general terms that will give you a jumping-off point for beginning a conversation.

The second page contains a way to see the topic from a biblical perspective.

And finally, to go deeper into the subject, we have chosen a few curated resources to explore from other authors’ and thinkers’ research or perspectives.

Read. Engage. Enjoy!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Depending on how a gem is held, light refracts differently. At B+PC we engage in Pop Culture topics to see ideas from a new angle, to bring us to a deeper understanding. And like Pastor Shane Willard notes, we want “…Jesus to get bigger, the cross to get clearer, the Resurrection to be central…” Instead of approaching a topic from “I don’t want to be wrong,“ we strive for the alternative “I want to expand my perspective.” 

So, we invite you to engage with us here. What piqued your curiosity to dig deeper? What line inspired you to action? What idea made you ask, “Hmmm?” Let’s join with our community to wrestle with our thoughts in love in the Comment Section! See you there!