Keeping up with the everyday lives of celebrities and influencers has never been easier, due to the rise and popularity of social media platforms. Instagram, for example, connects fans to get the backstage pass into their favorite influencers lives, as they get access to their photographs and can form a deeper admiration for their favorite influencer. But, Instagram has also turned into a marketing platform for the self. Influencers have started using this social media platform and the ever-present connection to their fans as a way to sell personalized products and to create revenue. For example, Kim Kardashian-West uses Instagram to share photos of herself and of her self-created products with her 119 million Instagram followers.

According to Alice Marwick, the act of self-branding is a “strategic creation of an iden­tity to be promoted and sold to others” and is a “set of practices and a mindset, a way of thinking about the self as a salable commodity” (Marwick). Kim Karashian uses the act of self-branding on her personal Instagram page by promoting her makeup and perfume lines through a plethora of pictures and Instagram stories. Karadashian markets and promotes these lines all herself to deliver a personal touch and to add authenticity to her products. When her fans buy her product, Kardashian wants her fans to feel as if they are buying something straight from her own make-up cabinet.

Marwick states that that personal touches create authenticity which then leads to larger revenue outcomes, this authenticity then constructs a business-targeted self-presentation that establishes a more reliable brand (Marwick). With a following as large as Kim Kardashian-Wests’, she can create a successful business, no matter what it is, due to the size of her following. Kim Kardashian is apart of one of the most famous families, and she capitalizes on this. Turning yourself into a brand is strictly an outcome of Web 2.0 and branding ones self can add to their influence over others. It is a cycle of popularity and influence. Kardashian makes a profit off of her Instagram followers through the way she practices and markets her self-brand, reinforcing the way she can sell products to her fans that they will buy. Web 2.0 makes self-branding possible as it “would be impossible without the affordable means of information distribution that the internet provides, is intrinsically linked to the features of social media technologies that make self-promotion on a wide scale possible” (Marwick).

Kim Kardashian uses the platform of Instagram to manage impressions and to keep up her relevance in the world, so that she can continue to be an influencer in this day and age. The online social media platforms and the internet make this attainable as online, it is easy to broadcast oneself, she can reach a large audience of over 119 Million followers who are tuned into her profile, and she can easily market her products. Kim is getting older and she wants to maintain her power over the world. Because of this, Kardashian manages impressions to prove her worth, her celebrity, and her status in the selection of what she chooses to post on Instagram. Whatever Kim selects to publicly post on her public profiles, they will automatically get attention from fans, media, and the general public, creating an envious and impressed audience. Besides from posting her KKW makeup brand and perfume lines, she also promotes herself as just the famous Kim Kardashian.

Kardashian does this by performing celebrity and posting photos of her idealized body, envious tropical vacations she often takes, her seemingly perfect marriage, and everything else that adds to the luminous lifestyle she portrays online. Kim Kardashian has the power to be an influencer and an empower through her successful brands and painting her influence over others online. 

 

In Amanda’s fitness support group on SWEAT, she always created original content and was hoping to get replies in the community, but this week she focused on replying to others to motivate, encourage, and support them on their individual fitness journeys.

Amanda’s goal was to send multiple unique replies to the community since she is on week 9 of continuous workouts. Because of her week 9 status, she has a little knowledge and advice than what she had in the beginning of er fitness journey.

On the SWEAT interface, there is a plethora of tabs that others have uniquely started. Amanda wanted to join at least 10 of these threads to give the community her own support and advice when they were feeling low or down.

Amanda joined the conversation titled “What am I doing wrong?” posted by user Karlas2Marshell. Karla’s concern was that after 3 weeks of consecutively working out, she still can not seem to do pushups, even though she was doing yoga before she started SWEAT and exercises six days a week. When Amanda first started SWEAT, she could barley do a pushup or lay-down pushups. They were nearly impossible. BUT, with continued strength being gained, Amanda could finally do the assigned pushups later in the program.

Amanda replied to Karlas2Marshell’s post saying:

Amanda’s next response was to a post speaking about a new update to the SWEAT app. They just fixed some changes to the app, but people were saying what they would like to see on the next update. This forum was titled Next Update and was posted by KimberliFerro.  She wanted to hear what people had wanted to see, and her idea was to be able to track weight strength. Amanda replied to her saying:

Since Amanda has needed lots of motivation from the community, she focused on giving some motivation back to other users who need it. In a post titled Week Four Motivation, user Raniwritght22 informed the community that she was frustrated after not seeing results after week 4. Amanda felt discouraged a little after week 4 too because you do not see changes, but others do. Amanda told her to not give up and that changes would come.

The next post Amanda commented on was a post called “So Sore! What do you do when your sore?” and this was one Amanda knows all too well. Being sore and wanting to go to the gym is the worst struggle. You are in so much pain but you still want to test your body. Soreness is the worst but most satisfying pain. Amanda replied to DelaniXO by saying: 

 

Amanda enjoyed talking to some girls on the app and giving her advice in, just as much as she liked receiving advice from others! She realized a lot of people do not interact back with the comments once they written, but understood that it is hard to reply to everyone.

 

When people comment on transformation photos, it makes you feel amazing! Amanda expireneced this last week when she posted her transformation photos for the first time. Here were some of the comments under Amandas transformation photos:

Amanda wanted to continue spreading positivity and encouragement. She commented on multiple threads of transformation photos saying things like:

Amanda continued on and posted on almost every transformation photo she found. She made sure to pay close attention to women who posted who had just began their fitness journey because it is difficult to post when your not feeling the most confident. Fitness is a journey but the sweat community makes it easy and fun to be supportive of others and to feel support and motivation back. This app only spreads love which is an amazing thing to see on the internet, since it can be a cruel place. I have not seen one incentive or rude post on this app, which is very cool. It is a safe space for women to be vulnerable and to find motivation within each other all going through the same journey.

 

Until next time…

xoxo

-Amanda

 

 

Amanda’s fitness journey took a slow turn this week. She injured her knee and that stopped her progress. This is Amandas 8th week doing workouts daily from SWEAT, but do to this injury she had to take it slow. When Amanda was not working out, she felt as if she was letting down herself and the SWEAT community! She continued to ask for their help.

The thing about online fitness communities is that every single person is there doing the same workouts you are, and that can be really encouraging. With this large community, almost everyone has experienced a similar situation or story. When Amanda explained to the community that she became injured, many girls came by her side and told her that they have been injured in the past or had to stop working out, but gave her tips to make her still feel like she is improving her body. Taking a week off of the workouts is not ideal when you have a 12 week goal in mind. In 12 weeks, Amanda is hoping to see extreme difference from where she started. Her body transformations are already noticeable, but there is more work to be done!

The community all has the same goal: to lose the weight, to feel better, and to live a happier and healthier lifestyle. All in all, the community is all here for the same reasons and users encourage one another through the SWEAT forum.

When Amanda was feeling unmotivated, the community responded and gave her advice. 

She started this discussion called “Losing Motivation.”

The community members responded:

Amanda was so thankful for their ever-present support and advice on ways to stay motivated and to keep working!

She replied to these comments individually.

A good way to stay motivated is to see the community transformation photos. People post these photos on the forum as a way to encourage others. 

“ABC22” is at the same week as Amanda. They encouraged each other to keep going and it is pretty incredible how much difference 7 weeks in the gym can transform the way you look.

Amanda commented “Keep it up” and she responded back to her, and they began to chat regularly. Since this small encounter, Amanda and Rebecca (aka “abc22”) have held each other accountable for going to the gym.

After this encounter, Amanda decided to ask others when they began to see their bodies transforming through a blog post. 

One user responded saying this:

Hearing stories keeps Amanda motivated because if they can do it, so can she.

On the SWEAT forum, there is a whole pinned section of transformations. You can see this HERE.

Amanda has yet to post a transformation because she is nervous what people would say or wouldn’t say, and she wants to make sure she feels good enough about herself before being vulnerable online. But, today, she decided to post them and see what happens!

 

The community encouraged Amanda to show her work-in-progress post! Amanda’s goal is to encourage just one person through her personal fitness journey.

The SWEAT community is really special because of the amazing group of strong women that the site attracts. Everyone on this website is encouraging each other to get better, be stronger, and to have faith in themselves. When you get a group of strong females together, it really is the most motivating factor.

 

Next week, Amanda is hoping to get herself back into the gym and continue on her personal fitness journey!

 

Until next time…

XOXO,

Amanda

This week in the SWEAT fitness community, Amanda focused on gaining modivation from her fellow SWEAT fitness pals. Amanda started discussions surrounding the topics of healthy snacks, favorite low-intensity workouts, and asked her fellow fitness friends when they started to notice transformations. This week, her goal was to get personal and vulnerable with the SWEAT community as a wait to gain closeness, which she tried through posting her own progress pictures and waiting to receive support, while supporting others.

Some woman on the app needed encouragement this week, so Amanda was there to comment and support these girls! One woman felt guilty for eating a lot over the past weekend and was feeling super shameful. Amanda does not believe that woman should have to give up food they enjoy when working out, just to be more mindful of how much of the food they consume. Amanda has been in this position before and understands how guilty one feels after letting themselves down, so she made sure to comment under this strangers post.

The interaction went like this: 

Later, “SallyBerry” liked Amanda’s comment and replied a heart. Sally got a lot of attention from others also agreeing that she should not be so hard on herself and that it is okay, because we all do this and feel this way at some point in our fitness journeys.

 

This week, Amanda also ran into the same problem another user had, so she shared what she does to get around this fitness setback. In Kayla Itsines program, it is based off of a 7-minute high intensity workout that lasts 4 reps, totaling out to 28 minute workouts. This is a really good way to get your heart rate up and to see results fast. Unfortunately, in one of the programs, BBG Stronger, there is a gym setting that lets you use machines to  complete the workout. The problem is with small gyms, and waiting for a machine in this specific time frame. Amanda informed this stranger on how she handles this situation Here:

After this interaction, Amanda encouraged another woman to continue to do Low Intensity Work Outs on off-days because they do work!

Amanda even offered some advice on how to make these Low Intensity work outs more fun and challanging.

 

After this interaction, Amanda was curious what other people did during their low intensity workouts, so she started a discussion thread!

These were really motivating to see how other people in the community get their fitness in. Walking, HIITs, and Running were all part of their answers. A lot of the people on SWEAT and using Kaylas program do more than recommended, which Amanda finds good and bad. She would reccomend to not overwork oneself and to enjoy the journey!

 

On Amandas journey as a college student, there are times when she is hungry but does not have the time to eat a full meal. There have been backlash among the portion bars I eat, as they are claimed as “unhealthy,” so Amanda turned to her fitness community. She started a discussion titled “Favorite and Healthiest Power Bar” and only got one response, but it was a great one! The supporter offered Amanda to try an RX Bar as it only has 6 ingredients and 12 grams of protein!

Unfortunately, these bars are not very cost-effective for a broke college student, but the information was helpful and Amanda would be willing to try them out. They are available at sores near her, so she will grab one next time she shops, thanks to this kind stranger!

Last but not least, Amanda reached out to the community to see when they started noticing transformations in their bodies from this workout plan.

All of these woman answered and responded, giving Amanda hope that this workout plan is successful. The answers these woman replied gave Amanda modiation to keep going and to not give up on her fitness journey!

 

See you next time!

xoxo, Amanda

I joined a fitness and health support group called SWEAT this past week. This website and app was designed by the online fitness trainer I am currently use, Kayla Itsines. She created her program for a way to feel woman connected while in the process of transforming their bodies.

The SWEAT forum is the perfect place to connect with women who are focused on their health and fitness while simultaneously sharing experiences and aspirations with the community, supporting and motivating each other, and growing in their fitness goals.

The main goal of this support group is to feel supported in Kayla’s SWEAT fitness program, while supporting others. On the forum page of this website you can join, post and reply to community members in multiple threads including Introduce Yourself, Oriented Fitness Goals, Food and Nutrition, Motivation and Encouragement, Workouts, Exercise and Education, Moms and Families, Sweat Suggestions, and “In Your Area” designed specifically for meet ups. These threads make the SWEAT app a little less daunting while connecting you with community members who are like-minded.

In my first week I spent approximately 5 hours dabbing into these different threads, and even creating my own discussions.

I started with the Introduction so that I could properly introduce myself to the community. 

I only got one ‘like’ but thats okay! I know a lot of people in the community might not read introductions. I decided to explore the introduction page a bit to see if there were any college students like myself wanting to get healthier and happier through fitness, and to my surprise there were many! The main age range using SWEAT was anywhere from 22-35. This was the perfect support group for me.

 

The next day on SWEAT, I felt comfortable enough to create my own discussion with the hopes that people would respond to it. I was curious about what others do for Low Intensity Workouts. On the Kayla Itsines program, she creates a 3-day gym workout plan with 3 “low intensity workouts” in between gym days. I usually cycle or walk, but I was curious what others do, so I inquired it through the community. I got 2 responses to my thread!

I enjoyed these reponses and I will possibly start jumping rope just like Zazie to get that low-intensity workout in!

 

I played around on the community and started adding to peoples discussions and threads since it made me feel good when people took time out of their day to respond to me. 

 

In one area of discussion, a college student who was in the same week as me on these workouts and doing the same program as me was looking for a power buddy to keep each other accountable for working out. I saw her post, commented on it and then reached out to her to get her Instagram handle and WhatsApp username so that we could hold each other accountable to stay on our fitness journey and complete our goals. Attached was her original post and my response:

This was a really cool thing and how I got to see the community working together and encouraging each other. Her thread got very popular and people of all ages and weeks of workout wanted to join. This group is so supportive and encouraging and I am so excited to continue exploring and expanding my workout journey and fitness goals on SWEAT.

Until next time…

XOXO

-Amanda LeHaf