My Approach to Being an Albuquerque Influencer/Content Creator

My life has drastically changed over the last few years because of social media. When I say “drastically changed” I mean that in the best way possible. I’ve been incredibly blessed with opportunities that I would’ve never dreamed of happening. I’ve also been introduced to people who I’ve grown to love and hold dear to my heart. I meet new people every week and many of them ask about my life as an influencer/content creator, so I decided to write this blog post on the subject.

Figuring out my niche.

When I made the decision to take content creation seriously and be intentional about what I post on social media, I asked myself, “Why would someone want to follow me? What value would my content bring to someone’s life? If someone didn’t personally know me, why would they want to follow me?” I thought back to the last three people I had followed on Instagram and asked myself, “Why did I follow them?” One person was a friend, so I just wanted to stay in touch with him. The second person was a makeup artist, so I followed her to learn from her makeup tutorials. The third person was a Christian pastor, and I followed him because I enjoyed watching his sermons. The two content creators added some sort of value to my life – one person was teaching me something and the other person was inspiring me.

Answering those questions helped me figure out a niche I would be passionate about. I had already been posting about my life in Albuquerque and people had been receptive to my content, so I decided to continue to focus on that. I love the Albuquerque community, so creating content about something I’m passionate about has helped this not feel like a job.

Focusing on Albuquerque.

After I decided to intentionally create content about Albuquerque, it was easy to identify the area I wanted to focus on first – the food! Food is a universal love language and Albuquerque is blessed with some amazing restaurants.

When I go to a restaurant, I take videos and pictures as a way for a viewer to experience what I’m experiencing. I try to stay away from creating reviews as much as possible. Everyone has different taste palettes and preferences. There might be something I enjoy eating, but someone else doesn’t. Or perhaps I didn’t like something, but someone else might enjoy it. Also, if I have a bad experience, I don’t want to share that and negatively impact a business because there could be so many one-off or out of norm factors that led to that experience. What if someone was having a bad day so they weren’t overly friendly, or perhaps I wasn’t clear with my order and my server misunderstood me? These one-off things do not necessarily mean that’s how every experience will be.

I try to focus on local businesses; however, this won’t always be the case. For example, I will post about national chain restaurants, but my philosophy is that these businesses still have a local impact because they employ people from the Albuquerque community. If these businesses fail, there will be a negative impact on local people. A couple of years ago I had an argument with the owner of a local pizza restaurant because he attacked me for supporting Raising Cane’s. This business owner told me I needed to be aware that my audience expects me to only post local businesses. Even though I didn’t owe this person an explanation for why I supported the opening of New Mexico’s first Raising Cane’s location, I stood up for myself and tried to explain my reasoning. This further angered the business owner even more. I was extremely hurt by this interaction because this was a business I had supported for several years.

While many of my posts focus on restaurants, I also share other aspects of Albuquerque such as events, stores, non-profits, people, etc. There are so many great aspects to the city, I just wish I had the means to highlight more than I already do! But I’m a one woman show and can only do so much.

There’s a common misconception that I don’t pay for most of the meals in my posts. I’d say that 95% of the time when I go somewhere to film content, I pay for everything out of pocket. My premise is to support local, so if I choose to go somewhere then I’m choosing to support them through my money. Every day I have people suggesting places for me to try, but sadly I’m not made of money, so I am limited to how often I can try a new restaurant.

However, if a business reaches out to me to collaborate, I will charge them based on the type of collaboration they want and level of effort required on my end. Often collaborations require meetings or other extensive forms of communication, contract reviews, and time dedicated to filming content and then editing it to ensure it meets all briefs. When I collaborate with a business in this manner, I’ll be transparent with my followers by disclosing that it’s a paid sponsorship or collaboration. This disclosure is required by law and social media platforms have features to automatically tag the content as such. But I will never collaborate with a business that I don’t fully believe in or if it doesn’t align to my values.

The format of my videos.

Creating content can be time consuming. Not only does it take time to visit a business to film content, but I also have to edit the video, write a voice over script, record the voice over, and post the video to Instagram and TikTok. Through trial and error over the years, I finally found a standard structure for my videos which makes it easier to capture and edit content on my iPhone 13 Pro Max. I know what shots I need to take, which angles and lighting are best, etc. When it comes to the information I include in my videos, I intentionally don’t include all the details. I prefer that my videos aren’t more than 45 seconds long so it’s very difficult to fit every detail into it. Also, information is constantly changing, so if I list prices, those prices might change at some point. From the perspective of supporting businesses, I don’t want to include all the details in my videos, because I want to encourage people to look up a business’s information. When people search for information, it helps drive traffic to a business’s website and/or social media pages.

I can’t please everyone.

Over the years I’ve had to accept the fact that not everyone is going to like my content, and I can’t please everyone. It’s not often, but sometimes I get comments from people telling me they don’t like my content, or they don’t like me. I’ve had people comment on my weight and tell me that I need to workout more. I’ve also had someone tell me that he can’t stand my voice. Sometimes when I post about a restaurant, people who don’t like it proceed to leave mean comments. I respect everyone’s opinions and preferences, but unfortunately, not everyone respects mine and they feel the need to tear me down. Sometimes people will tell me that my videos would be better if I made certain changes. In the past I’ve tried to incorporate all the feedback I received, but I reached a point where I realized that it was unrealistic. As a people pleaser, this has been hard for me, but making peace with this has allowed me to enjoy content creation a lot more.

Setting time and accessibility boundaries.

I’m so grateful for the following I’ve gained over the last few years. At the end of the day, it makes me incredibly happy that people find value in my content, which motivates me to keep creating. With the increase in followers, it’s led to an increase in engagement, which is a positive thing! However, content creation isn’t my job. I have a full-time job where I’m not allowed to have my cell phone with me. So, for most of my day and week I don’t have access to my cell phone. This leaves me with limited time to monitor my social media accounts. I also don’t want to spend all my free time being on my phone. To have a healthy work/life balance, I’ve had to limit the amount of time I’m on my phone and social media, which therefore limits my time that I can respond and engage with others. This has upset some people because I don’t always see their messages, or they get upset with me because I don’t respond immediately. If this was my full-time job, I’d have so much more time to manage my social media accounts. I’ve had to allow myself to not be available to everyone 24/7.

I’ve also had to set some boundaries for what I share on social media. Although I tend to share a lot about my life, I’m very strategic about what I post and do not post. It’s important for me to keep a sense of privacy when it comes to certain aspects of my life such as work, family, friends, and my dating life. I have to understand that not everyone wants to be on social media and in front of an audience of several thousand people. I need to respect my loved ones’ privacy, so I don’t post everyone in my life.

I hope this blog post has shed some light on my perspective as a content creator and my approach to what I do. I truly love promoting Albuquerque and the amazing things it has to offer. I would’ve never imaged that this would be my life, but I’m grateful for the unexpected blessings. All of this has been a huge learning curve so I’m taking it one day at a time and trusting in God’s plan for me.