My journey to confidently promoting my work online

Self-confidence is something that many people find difficult, and something that has been a burden of mine in many aspects of my life.

I have struggled to believe in myself since I was at secondary school, and while I can't quite pinpoint exactly what caused this, I have a pretty good guess as to what might have had a significant impact. Social media.

The use of social media heightened when I was in school, and platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat became very popular very quickly.

At first, I was excited by these apps, and I loved having different areas that I could post all of my content. My creative photos would go to Instagram, I would chat to my friends via Snapchat and rant about everything and anything on Twitter.

While all of these platforms still remain popular, I have lost my spirit and drive to post on some of them. Instead of enjoying creating content on my accounts, I began to think twice about what I was putting out there and I would doubt my digital existence, thinking people didn't care about, or would judge me for what I was about to share.

As I got older, I felt like each social media platform became a competition between users of who could get the most likes on each tweet, Facebook post or Instagram picture, and the creative fun of it was long-gone. If you didn't get many likes on your Instagram selfie, it meant that you weren't attractive, and if you didn't get many favourites on your tweet, it meant that you weren't interesting. The pressure to post amazing content all the time was extreme.

People, including myself, became totally absorbed in this digital popularity contest and our generation have become so obsessed with their smartphones that we forget how to communicate in person sometimes.

This knock to my self-esteem started to spread through to most parts of my life, and especially my school work. I felt that nothing I did was ever good enough compared to that of my peers. Something that I did flourish in though, was English.

I chose to study Journalism at university because I have always loved writing, and English was my strongest subject in school. I thought this would be a great course for me to study on, because writing was something I was good at and that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I remember going into my interview with one of the Journalism lecturers at my chosen University and I was asked if I had a blog. I did have a blog, but I had never publicised it because I was afraid to show my work to the world.

I had always followed blogs, and wanted to start up my own, but the feeling I got when thinking about posting my writing to the public was similar to that of my relationship with social media. I didn't believe in myself or my abilities enough to write articles that may or may not get judged and ripped apart by my readers, and it was a risk I was too afraid to take.

After feeling like this for a really long time I decided to speak to someone else who had been through this uncontrollable nervousness to showcase their work online.

Rebecca Taylor, a 22-year-old student from Plymouth, is now a regular lifestyle and wellness blogger with numerous posts about health, travel, and style. Although she now has a successful and professional blog, it took her a few years to overcome her fear of publicising her own work.

“I was terrified to show my work, and the thought of being judged was so debilitating at first. I was also incredibly worried at the thought of self-promotion and trying to get myself out there. I have always been a worrier and terrified of being judged by what others thought of me so this was a huge challenge and obstacle I had to face when writing publicly. Not only for my personal blog but magazines too which added a whole new dynamic to it.”

It was really refreshing to hear that I'm not alone in feeling like this.

While writing for your blog is scary at first, Rebecca is absolutely right about sharing your work on magazines, too. I have learnt so much during my three-years studying Journalism, and it brought me amazing opportunities like working for two national magazines. I was lucky enough to complete work experience at Hello! Fashion Monthly and Marie Claire, working as a fashion assistant and a digital beauty writer. I had two of my articles published to the Marie Claire website, and I truly believe that this gave me a real boost in the right direction of confidence to begin writing for, and creating my own blog.

Although she now has the confidence to write for the public, Rebecca still worries sometimes about the judgement she may receive on her blog posts.

"I just think to myself 'if people want to read it, they will. Some people will like it, some will not. And that is perfectly okay'. There will be comparisons and doubts and moments of writer’s block or loss of motivation and that’s okay too. But for me, it’s my passion and if I want to make it successful, I have to not let the opinions of others affect me too much."

I asked Rebecca what her best advice is, and what she would say to someone who is hesitant to start a blog and promote themselves online.

"Firstly, to just go for it. Start where you are at now. Educate yourself and learn new tips and skills along the way and you'll improve as time goes on. Look for other influencers/bloggers or people that inspire you, use that inspiration to spark new ideas.

"Read a range of blogs. This will help you find out what exactly you want from your blog; what audience you want, what content you want to post, what you want it to look like, to be about, not be like and so on. 

"Try not to worry too much what other people think. Remember this is for you, not the people who don't like what you're doing. When you get a negative comment, think to yourself 'is it constructive to be able to improve?' If yes, use that as advice. If no, let go of the comment. It doesn't serve you. Enjoy the process! Meet and talk to other bloggers, get inspired and creative, try new things and just enjoy every moment."

While social media had a rather negative impact on my self-esteem at first, I think studying Journalism at university has really altered my mindset towards it. We have been shaped into budding multimedia journalists where we have learned how to use the internet and social media for beneficial and valuable purposes, as well as continuing to use it as a pastime.

There are still some negative sectors that come with platforms such as Instagram, where it can be easy to compare ourselves to others, but there are also some accounts that really strive to promote self-love and confidence in each other.

I have learned that the digital world can be a wonderful and inspiring place, and I have convinced myself to publicise my website, and showcase the work that I produce to an audience because it is always something I have wanted to do. It's so important to not let other people's judgement stop you from doing what you enjoy.

Most of the time, it is just a mental barrier that we need to overcome, because there are always going to be negative comments about what you choose to do, you just need to learn to block them out and continue doing what you love.