I feel like my YouTube channel and Instagram followers for Yvonne meets Food are stagnating. I was able to get a good chunk of my Instagram followers from my personal handle to follow my new food and travel handle, but that’s actually not what I want most: I want new people who have no idea who I am in real life to follow me. This hasn’t been faring so well on either platform in the last few weeks.

I spent some time reading and even doing free courses on how to build up my social media presence, and none of that seems to be helping. How do people do this for a living, anyway? How do you convince a total stranger that you, a no-name, non-celebrity, are worth following?

Then, there’s my friend who has a Tahitian dance handle, and she’s managed to get up to 5,000+ followers in a matter of two weeks. She said she hasn’t done anything differently than she normally does, but she consistently posts dance videos and has started creating content on TikTok.

TikTok. Ugh. I created an account on that platform a couple months ago, but I feel like I am just old. I don’t “get” how to use it, and I’m probably going to need to take some time to figure all this out. Short form cooking videos, anyone?