Drew's first blog post

Who am I in relation to social media?

                Social media allows people to showcase their best self in-front of a massive audience online. In today’s age of fake accounts, edited photos, and exaggerated lifestyles, it can be hard to know whether or not the person you follow online is genuine, or just showing off. For me, I try to be as genuine as possible with my social media profiles, but I would be lying if I said that everything, I post online is 100% the truth. When I look at my social media profiles, it is obvious that my appearance changes based on the platform I’m using. But, before I dive into each profile, here is a little about me that will help give context to how I created each profile.

My name is Drew Camp, I am 22 years old, from Smithfield, VA. I went to a small high school and grew up in a small town. My biggest passion is fishing, and I have been competing in fishing tournaments since I was young. Through social media, I have been able to build a type of brand for myself with my fishing which has led to sponsorships and cool media opportunities (more on that later). I also have a love for watching all types of sports as well as moves and tv.

Now that you know who I am, here is how my social media profiles reflect who I am.

Facebook:

Facebook was the first social media account that I ever had. I initially set it up as a way to be connected with my fishing community, not as a way to stay in touch with friends from school, which is a little different from most my age. Originally, my friends list comprised of mostly people older than me from all over the east coast who I met through fishing events. Eventually, as more of my family members began creating accounts, I started shifting my Facebook post from all fishing, to more family event post. I also started accepting all of the friend request I had from my high school classmates that had been building up over the years. I do not post much on Facebook anymore, but when I do, 80% of the time it has to do with a family event (mom’s birthday, father’s day Christmas, etc…). I still post about fishing occasionally, but that is where Instagram comes in.

Instagram:

Instagram is my most popular, and my favorite social media site. I created my account right as Insta became popular and have been growing my follower base ever since. On this site, my content is strictly fishing related. On this site I have been able to build a brand for myself, and I create content that portrays who I am on the water. Most of the people who follow me also share a love for fishing and enjoy the content I put up. In the summer I try to post almost daily, and when the weather is bad, I try to post at least once or twice a week. Where the truth deviates from my social media is on how positive my page looks. To most of my followers, it looks like I never have a bad day on the water, but in reality, I have plenty of bad days. I’ll have people come up to me in real life and say things like “man you’re always killing it out there!” but in reality, 1 in every 5 trips is a good one. But, I have found that my post about a bad day on the water do not get nearly as much engagement as a big fish picture, so I make sure to get as many photos as I can on a good day, and then I stretch those pictures as much as I can. Through my Instagram page I have had companies reach out to me asking to use my pictures, and even sponsor me in my tournaments. I work hard to try and continue to build my brand through Instagram, and I do have to admit that it gets a little stressful at times.

Here is what my Instagram page looks like.

Twitter:

The stress that I experience with Instagram all goes away when I get on Twitter. I created my twitter account in high school and I still follow most of my friends from high school today. Back in the day I was very active on twitter, tweeting with my friends almost daily. That changed when I got to college however, and since then my twitter has basically become an information page. Unlike Instagram where I try to gain as many followers as possible, on twitter, I could care less who follows me. I rarely tweet or retweet much of anything, but I follow accounts that update me on the things I care about. I love being up to date with all major sports news, movie news, tv news, and just about anything else to do with pop culture. Twitter is the fastest way to stay up to date with all of my news cravings, so I am constantly getting on to see if anything new has happened in the world. I also enjoy following celebrities and athletes, because I want to stay up to date on their lives. My twitter does not really reflect any side of my, besides which celebrities and athletes I like based on my ‘favorites’ and retweets.

Snapchat:

My snapchat is probably the most personal social media I keep. Only my closer friends from high school and on follow me on Snapchat, and I really only use it to communicate with them. I use the ‘story’ function on snapchat to show my friends where I’m at if I’m in a cool location, or if I’m with my dogs (because everyone wants more dog content). I believe that my post on my snap-story are very genuine because I know everyone I follow on the app personally, and they all know who I am in real life.

Overall, I like to think that I am who I say I am when it comes to social media, using different platforms to show a different side of me. Facebook is the family side, Instagram is the fishing side, Twitter is my interest, and snapchat is my friend side. It is safe to say that I am addicted to these apps, and I check each of them multiple times a day. I don’t see myself changing the way I use my social media pages either, I’m happy with my profiles and accounts.