Link Love Express #6 The Social Media Edition

As my regular readers know Link Love Express is an ongoing post series in which I share links to interesting and relevant happenings in cyberspace and the world or a least the fashion/blogger world at large. Today I am focusing on social media and the ever changing realm of blogging.

I have been blogging for about three years now, and I am certainly not one of the pioneers and I still consider myself a bit of a newbie but even in the three years that I have been blogging so much has changed. From the continued advancement of social media, to the closing of Lucky Magazine (one of the few magazines to wholly embrace the blogging community) to how bloggers communicate with one another ( is it just me or does it feel like no one comments back anymore?) to some bloggers reaching ever more dizzying heights of success to there being more bloggers then ever before. It seems the world of blogging is getting more complicated.

is it just me or does it feel like no one comments back anymore?

I touched on this topic a few weeks ago when I wrote about how there has been chatter in the blogosphere on how Instgram could replace blogs and blogging. I had done bit of research in trying to discover how the avenge Instagram user (you know, not like Kardashian famous) could have followers in the hundreds of thousands, well apparently I was not the only one to come to similar conclusions. So I now share with you the first link

1) The Balanced Blonde is a health and fitness blogger who has found a fair amount of success herself. And in this post she writes about her findings (and her thoughts) on bloggers who buy/ pay for followers. It is an interesting read.

2) Now for those of you who are interested in growing your following without buying followers there is always the LIKEtoKNOWit app. LIKEtoKNOWit will repost and share their influencers posts, which then  leads to more traffic for the influencer. But of course there is a caveat (there always is), LIKEtoKNOWit is owned by Reward Style and you have to be accepted by Reward Style to participate, and apparently they are very selective and secretive of who they choose. But it can’t hurt to apply, right? I remember when the company was first founded, and I even met the founders at one of the Lucky Magazine’s Fabb bloggers conference. Back then as long as you had a blog and it covered fashion you were in. Yep a lot has changed in three years.

3) And speaking of the ever changing world of blogging. Be sure to watch this video with James of Fohr Card in the Drinks With James series in which he speaks with blogger behind Damsel in Dior. It is an interesting discussion and Jacey brings up an important point in regards to social media and blogging: she rightly accesses and reminds us that the social media channels and the companies that own them, own your content. Your content is not your content—it belongs to Instagram or Facebook or what ever social media channel in which you are posting. But a long as you pay your hosting bill, you own the content on your blog.

4) I have to say I kind of feel bad for anyone trying to start a blog now. And even for those of us that came to the table a bit sooner, it seems it is getting harder and harder or at least more complicated to make an impact. But if you need help and are still inspired to make it in blogging be sure to check out StyleTomes. Style Tomes was founded by Nataliya, one of the founders of the NYC Style Collective and she has shifted the focus of her blog a bit and you will find a lot of useful information on how to grow your blog.

5) And finally just for fun, you must check out the Instagram feed of Lionel Richie’s other daughter…Sofia Richie, really it is lot of fun, and super fashionable so be sure to check it out.

Image taken by Laura Peters–you can visit her Etsy shop at Indigo Bird Studios. Photo manipulation by yours truly.