Why I started Blogging (and why you should too)

Hello everyone! Today I will be telling you why I started my blog site Carly's View and my Instagram associated with the site @carlylauren_. It's very cliche, but ever since I was a child, I've always loved reading, writing and creating; whether that is writing my own story, capturing memories through photography or video or spending hours on arts and crafts. I also love to verbally communicate my ideas and share my experiences with others. Basically, I love to talk a lot, but I do also love to listen. Therefore, I thought that blogging would be the best way for me to create a space to do a mixture of written and verbal communication, whilst also expanding my personal brand within a marketing platform, which would in-turn help me in my career. I love building friendships and finding common likes and dislikes with others within the online community. I have found some great like-minded people so far within the two months that I have been blogging.

Below are the reasons that I started blogging in the first place, and are also reasons of encouragement for you to begin your own blogging journey:

1. Social Media is an extremely popular form of marketing

Using Blogger has enabled me to gain an insight into how an online website is run, I am aware of how my statistics are shown, how to edit a website's layout and how to actually formulate an article. Instagram specifically (through my experience) was the perfect platform for me to promote my blog, there are millions of users every day, who use social media for all different types of reasons. I keep up to date on current trends and have built extensive knowledge of the 'behind the scenes' of how to run an account. I have chosen my account to be a 'Blogger' account, which means that I am able to view the statistics and demographics of my posts. This lets you know the background of your followers, like age and country of residence, what specific times of the day/week they engage with your account and what posts receive the most engagement. This knowledge has given me a deeper understanding of the technology that is becoming progressively more important to our lives every single day, and how businesses are able to promote their brand and gather analytical data from just the app alone.

2. Great for portfolio in the Communications/Marketing Industry

Leading on from my 1st point, creating a blog site and linked Instagram account presents to employers how advanced you are using social media and website software, and whether you can successfully create engaging content. Your blog is practically an online portfolio, as employers can scroll down and view as many of your articles as they want, showing them your range and writing abilities. Also, being able to create engaging content on social media proves that you could potentially replicate that for another company's brand, therefore making you an asset to a company, with your own following, making you more employable. Employers will love that you took the initiative yourself to create your own content and have gained an audience from it.

3. Enjoyment of creating original content

This is a a really fun thing to keep up with. You don't have to be stressing yourself out everyday, forcing yourself to upload content and working day and night to produce to best content in the world. Everything takes time, you're not going to be a professional immediately. You've just got to enjoy what you do, do it when it suits you and don't put too much pressure on yourself. The audience that you want to attract have to like your own original content, otherwise they will falsely like your pretence and then unfollow you when you can't consistently keep it up. It's not all about how many followers you have, find your niche and work with it!

4. You gain online friends along the way

As previously mentioned, I have loved meeting new friends along the way. I only started my blogging journey in April and I've connected with so many lovely accounts since then. These accounts are a great bonus, as you all support each others pages, bond over your discovered similarities and then you are able to keep in touch, sharing your social media journey's together.

5. Adds to your own personal skill set

This is something that I personally found really useful as it not only improved my employability skills, but also my personal skills. This is an interest of mine, so it adds to my passions and hobbies and even combines them in some way. During lockdown, I needed something to do to pass the time stuck indoors, this was a great escape (or just an enhancement) from reality, something to do to distract myself when feeling low, or to occupy my mind when bored. It is something that I can add to my personal achievements, and something to feel proud about, which I can talk about with family and friends. It also maintains my writing skill, as there would be no reason for me to be continuing to write articles otherwise, so I am constantly keeping my skills fresh in my mind.

I hope this gives others the push to begin their own blogging journey, some may believe that the market is over-saturated, so try and be original and make sure you're enjoying it along the way. This may not lead to anything financially, but it's a great hobby and a great way to keep your writing skills fresh and your knowledge of the latest trends up to date. Thank you for reading, hope you all have a lovely day!

Make sure to check out my blog Instagram account @carlylauren_