Link Love Express-#9

Hello everyone and happy spring! Time for another installment of Link Love Express. I rounded up a number of interesting products, services and videos that I hope you will find inspiring and useful. So let’s begin:
1) I am sure some of you have heard about the controversy around plastics. Not only are they not biodegradable but some believe they may be linked to health problems. It has been reported that chemicals can leach out of plastics and get in to your food which of course you then ingest. So when I saw an advertisement on Face Book for a Beeswax “plastic” wrap I was all ears. This wrap of course is not plastic, but a reusable sealable wrap made from organic muslin and bees wax. So if you are like me and a bit concerned about using plastic wrap be sure to check out www.beeswrap.com

2) I had a wonderful time in Florida on my last vacation and I wanted to send my friends a thank you card, but I didn’t want to send them the same old thank you card. Yes, traditional post cards are fine, and there are many cute and fun thank you cards out there, but I wanted to add that personal touch. Enter the TouchNote app. The TouchNote app can be used on your phone or your desktop computer.

It works on both the iPhone and Android. This super fun app allows you to make post cards, greeting cards and stretched canvas artwork from your photos. I tried it out and it is super easy, I sent out my first post card this weekend. And the best part is that they have centers in the US and abroad, so if want to send something to someone over seas the price is the same as if you were sending it from your home country. How cool is that? Check them out at TouchNote.com

3) Have any of you ever heard of Instagram pods?? I know what you are thinking—something else to have to keep up with and master. This came to my attention via an article on IFB. It is essentially a group in Instagram with specific parameters that you would join with the expectation that you would adhere to said parameters.

And why would you do this? Apparently to increase your engagement. Hmm. According to IFB, engagement on Instagram is down. OK, many of my regular readers will know I already called that. So I am not surprised.

Many are blaming this on the new Instagram algorithm, but I don’t think the algorithm is why there is this drop off. It didn’t help, but this not the core of the problem.

playing and gaming the system with fake followers, automated following and commenting, and the practice of immediately unfollowing someone as soon they follow you back after they followed you…

I believe this has to do with there being way to many players and way too many of these players doing exactly that: playing and gaming the system with fake followers, automated following and commenting, and the practice of immediately unfollowing someone as soon they follow you back after they followed you, and commenting back on your own photo instead of visiting the other person’s feed and commenting on one of their photos.

In the past people engaged by commenting on each other photos and following one another. Now it is all about having the most followers while simultaneously following very few. This is supposed to be a “good look”. Well that has led to exactly where I said it would— a drop off in engagement which ultimately will lead to Instagram no longer being the go to app for wunderbar marketing.

So the idea with pods is that you join a agreed upon group, and then you all have to comment and like each all of each others photos. Is it just me or does this sound like what it is—desperation. It also sounds overwhelming and time consuming.

I think this is kind of the being of the end of Instagram being this big marketing tool

You can read the article on IFB, if you do tell me what you think. But I think this is kind of the being of the end of Instagram being this big marketing tool. Yes it will still be around and will be used as it was originally intended—an inspiring source of personal photos. But the break the bank social media go to app, not so much.

4) My regular readers will know I often speak about transformation on the blog, and how fashion, makeup and even having a blog can help one tap in to this idea of transformation. Transformation can be alluring, powerful and scary. Have you ever done anything that felt transformative?

If you have not be sure to watch this videos from the Vlogger Miss Yanyi.  Yanyi recently left her 80k a year job to make videos for You Tube full time. In the middle of  the video or so we cut to the day she actually gave her notice. She is in a private cubicle in her office at work, and is speaking via her phone right after she gave notice. She is flustered and a bit overwhelmed as she shares this very pivotal moment in her life.

In the video itself where she is speaking right outside her apartment, it is a number of months after she left her office job and she speaks in detail about the decision that led her to make this choice, why she made it, and how it effected her. And affected her it did. It is like you are looking and listening to two completely different people. The transformation is remarkable. And it is certainly inspiring to see someone take a leap of faith and not only be transformed but to also be empowered and happy in their own skin and their life. So if you need a little transformative inspiration be sure to watch.