An intro to my journey in being authentic on social media

I’m Holly, founder & owner of Elizabeth O. Vintage, a vintage & lifestyle shop in Penticton, BC.  I’m excited to dive into the topic of authenticity on Social Media, and share some of my mindset around it, tips and ideas for showing up on social media, and maybe most importantly connecting and growing with your community both online and IRL.

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I have always been a bit of a performer and a bit of a loner growing up (youngest sibling vibes). I would put on shows and perform for my stuffies and dance in my room for hours. So, the idea of creating content and talking in a room by myself isn’t all that strange. 

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I was a fan of blogs when those were first starting out around 2009, and even attempted to have my own, but more so enjoyed reading and watching everyone else's. 

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As blogging turned into influencing, with Instagram and social media becoming more popular, and then more so content creation as a real job for people over time, I’ve had my eye on the evolution of it all. 

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I wasn’t quite sure how I’d fit into that world, but now I really know where I belong. Trust me, at the beginning I talked a lot, dragged on sometimes about who knows what, and didn’t know what to say or do, but I kept showing up so our people and community could find me.

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Since then, I’ve kind of found my voice, and my style in how I share things. I’ve also created some boundaries as to what I share on a more personal level. I used to share a lot more of my life, but not in an intentional way — just kind of all over the place, willy nilly. 

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I still do share a personal side of our business and myself, but a little less so that I’m more present in real life and so what I’m sharing has more intention. That and when you have the cutest dog, you give the people what they want — cute dog photos!

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I put the majority of my focus on Instagram for our business.  We do have a Facebook page, but I don’t personally resonate with Facebook anymore, so we post the big stuff like events, and posts for Grand Stories Market that we host.

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We do have a TikTok page as well,  but that’s something I dabble in here and there as I find the app a little overwhelming at time. Last year, I gave about six to nine months to build our TikTok, and I’d say it worked, but it felt like a lot of pressure to post there everyday (amongst everything else we shop owners do in a day), so I’ve stepped back and am taking a bit of a hiatus for my mental health. 

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Being authentic in the content I create

Some of the things I do daily, weekly, etc. when sharing on Instagram is utilizing Stories first, and then Reels and posts.

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Every day that I’m working the shop, typically Tues-Sat, I do a greeting Story, saying hello and stating what day it is “Happy Tuesday!”, and often share what’s on my to-do list for the day/what we’re going to talk about/look at, etc. for the day.

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I find this helps differentiate one set of story slides from another, and helps not confuse the viewers when you change subjects. I film and do these in our fitting room into the mirror and have a little chat.  

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Sometimes I add in a chat about what I’m wearing and why, share things happening in our community like upcoming events farmers markets, etc. or how I’m feeling for the day. 

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Using Stories to be true to how you feel

I feel like tone of voice can be picked up so easily, especially when you are on camera where people can see your face, so I’ll share if I had a bad sleep, or if something happening in the world is weighing on my heart.  I touch on it, but try not to dwell on it (both when recording and for my own sanity).

But also the positives like an upcoming trip, or a pretty view of the lake that made me feel nice. This kind of honesty isn’t just for the viewers to get to know me, it’s also me taking stock of where I’m at for the day emotionally/energetically, and an accountability to myself that keeps me real and not performative. 

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You can be having a bad day and still show up as yourself. I read something a good while back that said “being authentic will radiate more energy than trying to be an ideal you.”  So perhaps you’ll create more meaningful connections with others, viewers, and your community with your authenticity rather than showing up as you think they want you to.

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Using Stories for product showcases

I often share on Stories new products and items that arrive in the shop in real time, whether it’s a new jewellery order from a local brand, or a sneak peek at some new vintage clothing hitting the sales floor. 

This could be done through photos of the goods with text explaining it all, sometimes its videos showing the item and I’m talking as a voice over (but the camera isn’t on me, it’s on the item), and sometimes it’s full-on with me showing the item on camera. 

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It depends how much time I have between customers in the store, the lighting in the store (like time of day type thing), or how comfortable I am in my own skin that day.

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Utilizing Stories on Instagram is a great way to show more of your personality and connect with your followers/community. A way to be a bit more in the moment with them, which leads to things feeling more authentic.

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Showing up on social media authentically is going to look different for literally everyone. Only you are you, and that’s a magical thing!

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Using Instagram Reels to convey authenticity

Here’s a quick breakdown of some things that work for me with Reels:

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• I get ideas for reels by checking out other pages I follow, and on my explore page.  If I see a reel concept that I could adjust to match my business, I’ll save the reel and save the audio to re-create it later.
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• Sometimes there are Reels trends too, like the Wes Anderson style that was out this past spring (I did a version of it in April). There are always going to be new trends for Reels & audios to use, so only take what resonates with you and what you can organically translate to your business.
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• I highly suggest saving audios/music from other people's Reels so you have some stacked and ready when possible.  If it can be “original audio” that’s even better, as it has to be that type in order to boost your post. 
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• If you’ve recorded your reel in Instagram, don’t use any filters on Reels you intend to boost, it won’t allow it! If you want to use a filter, film it with a filter, save the clip to your phone, then upload it to create a Reel.
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 I like to do reels that showcase different aspects of my inventory and shop life.

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Some ideas to showcase inventory that I do are mini collections as a sneak peek for our weekly story sale (usually using a clothing rack and short single clips of each piece being added to the rack), try-ons of vintage clothing (sometimes I show these in the mirror), and a series I call Pinterest Aesthetic where I recreate outfits I’ve pinned on Pinterest with pieces I have in stock.  

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Some ways I showcase shop life (more of myself too) include Merchandise with Me, where I film a time lapse of setting up some shelves in the store and add some music to it. I shared a blooper reel recently and that was funny and light. POV-style reels (point of view) can be one clip that’s five seconds that pans the store and have some text on it, e.g., “POV: enjoying my weekend while pursuing my favourite vintage shop.”

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Hosting Instagram Lives while being true to yourself

Here are a few tips on hosting IG Lives in a way that feels authentic.  

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Promoting the live ahead of time: I usually promote two to five days ahead of time. I feel like any earlier and people forget. I create a post on Canva to post on my feed that includes the day and time and with the feel of an invitation to hang out with me in a more one on one/real time type of way.

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At the beginning of the live, I pop a comment in the chat that quickly describes the live and pin it to the screen. I then make sure to introduce myself, briefly explain how my live sales work, and greet people as they jump on. 

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The audience of my lives are a lot of the same people that watch my Stories regularly, so I try to ask about things similar to what we may have chatted about in DMs to get the convos going in the chat, and encourage everyone to chat with each other, too. I pretty much always ask what everyone’s having for dinner!

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An easy way to make the selling feel not quite so forced is to look at this as like a “show and tell.” I don’t pause too long between pieces waiting for a comment to come through, I just move on to the next piece. You’re sharing your fave vintage pieces and we all know our passion will show through, we can’t help it!

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I find I’m online for a live for probably two hours on average (any longer than that and I’m out of breath and parched!). Long enough to show a full rack of clothing, any of special things to showcase, and then to offer any requests, look-backs (seeing items again) or a rapid-fire rack scan where people who maybe jumped onto the live late can catch up on what we went through at a quick pace. 

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I host the lives in my storefront, so I have full access to all my inventory, should people be looking for something outside of what the focus of the live is.

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There’s a bit of that community feel on my lives, which has taken a while to cultivate, but am grateful that my customers have come to know me. We often make references to movies and shows. There was a comment during a live this fall, “this sweater is giving Harry Potter vibes”, which lead to a whole convo about Harry Potter in the chat, and I admitted I’ve never watched them, and the crew watching the live convinced me I should. 

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So I’ve now recently finished watching all of the movies, and it gave me something to share in stories that felt more on the personal side, my journey of catching up on Harry Potter. And my community felt like they were a part of it.

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I host lives maybe every four to eight weeks, it fluctuates depending on the time of year and if people are asking to have one.

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These are things that I practice when it comes to IG Lives. I have a water bottle, some quiet music in the background and just hang out with my people. Some are more fruitful than others, so going in with no expectations is key for me.  I have a storefront, so the IG Live space is a nice bonus on top of that, so I try not to put too much pressure on myself. 

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I find there’s usually a few leads that come after the sale over the next day or two with people following up on something they saw, which is a great plus.

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Translating social media community into IRL community

It can feel like a big step to go from having your online community become your IRL community. And that’s because it is. 

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Social media makes it so easy for us to connect with people all over the world, and you can do it in your pyjamas while in bed. So translating that to getting people to actually leave their beds/homes and come to an in-person event is a big deal.

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I have an avenue of my business where we run intimate-sized markets in our local community. We’ve done them for about three years now, and have hosted about 10 markets. They started in a parking lot with about six or seven vendors and not a whole lot of traffic, to now being hosted in a local brewery that is the ultimate gathering space with the best vibes with about 12 vendors.

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I felt that it was my duty to support my fellow makers and vintage seller friends, since I was the one with a brick-and-mortar store. Our shop space isn’t huge and we can’t accommodate and support everyone by having their goods in our shop, but I wanted to use our existing customers/community reach to bring these friends more exposure and ultimately help them live their dreams, too.

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Vending at markets is how I started Elizabeth O. Vintage, and I missed the camaraderie and relationships that build in those spaces, so I wanted to recreate that as well.

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Getting people to IRL community events

From the first set of markets to now, I’ve learned a lot of lessons in how to plan out the markets and advertise them. So here’s a few tips of things I do to get people out to IRL events locally, markets specifically.
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• Start posting and talking about it as soon as possible.  Even if there are details to figure out (other than the actual date), those bits can be added into the convo/posts as time goes by and the big day approaches. 
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• I use Canva to create posts for social media, and posters that go up all over town.
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• I’m not a big Facebook user, but I do have a page for the shop.  I make an event post where people can rsvp on there and that helps see what numbers you could potentially expect.  Keep in mind pretty much everyone puts “interested” rather than “going.”
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• Encourage everyone involved — vendors, location, sponsors — to post about the event, and often. I create posts in Canva and send to them so it’s easy and ready to go.
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• We do a few extras to encourage people to come out, we do free goodie bags for the first 20 people, a prize basket raffle during the event that’s free to enter, and things like that to encourage people to follow through with actually showing up.
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• The last approximately two weeks leading up to the event, literally talk about it all the time. On your posts, stories, in your email newsletter.  You’ll feel like a broken record, but not everyone is going to see it in all of those places, maybe once or twice and that is hopefully enough to remind them.
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• I haven’t used newspaper ads or local radio, but it’s something I’ll be looking into for our next event. 
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I hope some of these tips might help! This is something for me that isn’t a big money maker for our business, and that’s totally okay. 
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We charge a humble vendor fee, and that goes towards all of our marketing, and any supplies, so in that sense we usually break even or maybe come out of it with a $100 or so, but my shop is also a vendor at the market, so that’s our chance to make additional money through the event itself. We do this to support other creatives out there in our area, and truly build community.  

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Do you have questions about authenticity on social media that Holly hasn't answered here? Let us know in the comments!

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