Hello everybody - my name is Colleen and
I'm the photographer behind the instagram adventure is Colleen.
Initially it was just a personal blog for myself to remember the adventures and hikes that I'd gone
on, and over time I realized that my photography was evolving, people were starting to like it, I
was growing a following and I thought, 'hey maybe I can use this to reach more people.' So I started
trying to make my content more cohesive, started trying to build that personal brand.
So for example my visual personal brand is that my photos are fairly whimsical, free spirited,
they're very colorful. And then my personal brand, so my personality, what I do when I talk to the
camera. I try to speak a lot about positivity and mindfulness and environmental stewardship
because all of those things are very important to me and they're really pillars in my own life.
So it doesn't really feel like a big stretch to talk about those things on social media as well.
My first tip is honestly just be yourself, nobody likes a faker and everybody can tell
when you're faking it. So just be yourself and be confident in that. Second - talk to your audience.
The platform was made to be social so use it for its intended purpose.
Engage with the people that are engaging with your stuff and you'll get so much in return.
Third - it's okay to reuse old content. So because our followers are constantly turning over,
people won't have seen what you posted a year ago, six months ago. It's totally okay if
you're feeling like you don't have anything new and exciting that you want to share,
go back into those archives find something that really stood out to you and repost it.
I think honestly it's just people who aren't genuine. I'm pretty good at reading people and you
can just tell when somebody's not being truthful or not being genuine. Just doing something for
the likes or for followers. To me that's just like that's not the purpose of the platform and
it doesn't matter in the long run. It just gets on my nerves. So don't do that!
Meeting people is probably one of the most rewarding things about being on this platform.
I was hiking in the rockies earlier this year and I was coming down off this like,
really tough hike, I was feeling horrible. I just couldn't, I couldn't make it to the top,
and then halfway down I actually ran into some people that I'd been talking to on instagram,
for like months. And we passed the group and I was like wait - I think I recognize one of
those guys! Sure enough it was the people from Instagram and I just got this like,
bolt of energy because I love meeting new people. And we actually decided to ascend to the top and
we met this big group of other creatives and it was so great.
The fact that I have this space to share information about environmental
stewardship and sustainability - to me that's really, really important. I live and play
on this beautiful nature as you can see, I'm even outside right now and so I think that
it's my duty as somebody who uses this land to give back and to protect this land. And I think
having a space to provide information about that is just amazing because you can reach so
many more people than just talking one-on-one to people that you meet in your everyday life
Honestly just be yourself, don't compare yourself to others. People
will say that this platform is over saturated and though - yeah - there's a ton of creators,
there's always room for more. Just find your little niche
and speak your truth because there's always space for you and your work is valuable.