If you are passionate about your unique personal aesthetic or bored of the rules and behaviors of normative fashion as it stands, creating a style diary can be a hugely rewarding experience. If you command an edgy visual approach that you’re keen to share with others, or merely wish to document your daily style in order to have something to look back over in the future, blogging on media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter are a good way to go.
Blogs and bloggers
The concept of a so-called style “diary” is nothing new as such, but it hasn’t stopped a host of fresh faces armed with new angles from coming out of the woodwork in recent times and having strong views on fashion. With this, the social media fashion realm has evolved into somewhat of a bloggers’ community. Within Instagram, the men’s style crowd already encompasses a mixed-bag of participants. There are a wealth of diverse stylistic approaches out there to inspire you, like Regular Joe fashion-enthusiasts who began documenting their looks from outside of the fashion industry. These include tech-guy-by-day Dennis Walter and electrical engineer Khaled Nasr.
How to start
Regardless of whether your photo diary is for business or pleasure, operating on at least two major social media platforms is a particularly smart move to appeal to as many factions as possible. Ideally, you’ve got one primarily suited towards computer visitors (such as a WordPress blog, which can either hosted on wp.com or self-hosted for those with more advanced technical skills) and one geared towards mobile users, such as Instagram. Furthermore, you can cross-promote your posts on each platform to the other. In terms of blogging, WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular online publishing platform on the web, and getting your site hosted is simple enough through a provider. First-time bloggers looking for fame and followers may find these sorts of providers advantageous, many of them offering great solutions and simple ways to install WordPress. This way, there is less worry about the technical side of things, letting you concentrate on the content itself.
Naturally, this is your project, so approach it with any level of commitment you choose. However, if you’re looking to break into the social media game as a big player, keeping tabs on those who have already successfully gained a large number of followers (in order to reap the financial benefits of this as an ‘influencer’, and so on) can be inspirational in terms of aesthetic and layout, but to succeed, you should always have an original angle. Based on tried and tested methods, the following list outlines some of the basics:
Keep photos sharp, clean and appealing: taking your pictures in natural daylight (when there is the most white light present) is the optimal scenario for great picture quality; this is partly why many bloggers tend to take pictures outdoors, usually while traveling, and so on
Follow and comment on content from other bloggers and Instagrammers in the community: forming a rapport may well encourage their followers to check out your work, too, but always make sure your comments are on topic and personal, otherwise they risk being mistaken for spam
Similarly, follow other high-profile accounts: tag brand names and designers in your posts (only when you’re wearing them, of course) along with the relevant hashtags, which, according to most influencers, should not be too many
Post frequently: you are more likely to be featured or promoted within the platform’s community if you are contributing a lot of content, plus, frequently updating encourages users to keep following – if you want to become relevant, it’s important to be part of the conversation
On so many levels, the online style diary creates a personal ideology which can inspire others and even allow you to pick up ideas yourself as part of the community. Whether you want to showcase your individual style at a professional level or stick to a more relaxed pursuit aimed at a smaller community of friends and family, either route will afford you an opportunity to record your finest-dressed moments and potentially gain new fans.
Fraquoh and Franchomme
P.S. We want to hear from you! What is your take on online influencers? Who do you follow? On what platform? Share your feedback, questions or thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on style, fashion tips and cultural insights, you can subscribe to Attire Club via e-mail or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!