Confession: I Never Wanted to Be An Influencer (and That Changed How I Built My Business).

Hi Friends!

Does it feel like I've been a little MIA recently? If you're thinking "YES" - well, it's because it's true. I've had a lot of life changes come through in the last 2 months that I've been trying to juggle, and as exciting as they've been, they've also taken time away from me writing to you.

Wait...what life changes am I talking about?!

Don't worry, you'll find out soon 😉. In the meantime, I thought I'd give you a deeper look into another one of my controversial business strategies. This one's for those of you who are interested in knowing how I use my website and social media together:

Controversial Business Strategy #3: I Spent More Time Growing My Website Than My Social Media

We know that social media has been all the rage for the past 10-ish years. Many influencers have become household names, and some (like Addison Rae and Alix Earle) have even gone on to reach celebrity-level fame. A lot of influencers make millions each year from brand partnerships.

With social media being so powerful, why would I put more energy towards growing my website (and not as much towards my socials)?

1. I never wanted to be an "influencer"

Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who creates content online is an influencer or hoping to become one. When I decided to turn my Instagram from a personal account into Gina on a Plane, my goal was to showcase the places I’ve been and inspire women to travel solo. I never really had a strong desire to create a brand partnership, partially because I don't know of any brands that I love enough to promote, and partially because brand partnerships just never seemed like "fun" work to me.

Note - I WILL promote tours, restaurants, hotels, etc through an authentic partnership if it's something I've personally experienced and loved.

Secondly, there's a difference between an influencer and a content creator. Sometimes they can both be the same thing, but they don't have to be. In terms of social media, I definitely consider myself a content creator instead of an influencer. I use my platform to show you what I do and give you a sneak peak into my life. I may indirectly influence you to travel, but I'm not out here selling or promoting things the way typical influencers do.

2. I've started using my socials to talk about what I know

I'll never forget the moment my business coach said to me, "content creation is really hard when you don't have a goal."

It was SUCH a lightbulb moment.

Since I never wanted to be an influencer, I never really knew how to use my social media to benefit me. Even if I would've had a post or video go viral and gain hundreds of thousands of followers, I wouldn't have known what to do with them. It's not like I could offer a service or write a blog post that would benefit everyone similarly. Plus, a lot of people had jobs or families, and couldn't exactly travel the same way that I could.

Then, one day it hit me: not everyone can travel the way I do, but everyone CAN learn how to make money online.

Since then, I've started to use my Instagram more to talk about ways I've made money online (hence these 5 controversial business strategies!). I've also started helping other businesses optimize and/or monetize their websites, and I'm figuring out how I can use everything I've learned to help other people build businesses of their own.

The takeaway: I use my blog/website to house the bulk of my content, and I use social media to talk about what I do.

3. I own my website

This is arguably the most important reason I prioritized my blog over my socials.

As a business owner, it is so important to have the bulk of your business, content, or whatever it is be on a platform that you own. I purchased the domain name to my website (ginaonaplane.com), and I also pay for my hosting site each month. This means I own my website, and I am in complete control of what I post, share, and create.

Conversely, I do NOT own my social media. Instagram owns my Instagram account. TikTok owns my TikTok account. This means that Instagram and TikTok can ultimately take down my content, lock my account, and control what I post and share. And...well...I like to be the one in control 😉.

I also know business owners who have had their social media accounts hacked and essentially had to start from zero creating new content. I currently have 127 blog posts, so this would be an absolute nightmare for me. Fortunately, my website has a security plugin installed, which makes something like this much less likely to happen.

In Summary:

At the end of the day, I’m not anti-social media—I just don’t think it should be the foundation of your entire business. Social media is an amazing tool for getting people interested in what you do, but a website is where you can actually build something that you own.

If you have questions about how I use my website and social media together - or even questions about starting your own business in general - reply to this email! I’d love to hear from you.