August Blog Hop: Pole Dance and Social Media

This month's blog hop is about pole dance and social media.  This is a very popular subject!  If you want to check out other posts in the blog hop, click HERE.  

I almost can't remember a time before Facebook (*cough, cough* Friendster and MySpace, although I really feel like the pole dance explosion happened after Facebook became THE social media site).  What an amazing tool to help me meet people around the world I never would have had the opportunity to meet in the not so distant past.  My very first memories linking pole dance and social media were finding the blogs of Heather Yesko and Jennifer of Pole Skivvies.  They both lived on the East Coast, but I "met" my first pole sisters very early after I started my pole adventures in 2009.  


Flash forward a few years and I interact on a daily basis with amazing pole dancers all over the world and feel like I know some of them very personally even though I've only met them once (or not at all).  Without blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and the myriad of other social media outlets, I know I wouldn't be as in touch with my extended pole family.

Mina and Nadia

Even the subset of the Pole Dancing Bloggers has taken on its own form and we now have our very own social media sites.  Just for us bloggers!  Find us on Facebook.  Follow us on Twitter.  Join us on Instagram.  This month, we started a weekly photo challenge, so please feel free to participate!  The group was spearheaded by my beautiful pole sisters, Sheena in New York and Valentina in Italy, and I am very excited to be part of another group of amazing polers who are working hard to promote the pole industry.  I actually have an assignment for the PDB and need to get off my sorry injured butt and start pulling together my part.  :-)

I'm sure I have posted this many times in the past, but if you are trying to find me on social media sites, here are my links:

https://www.facebook.com/TwirlyGirlConfessions

http://www.twitter.com/lolorashel

http://www.instagram.com/lolorashel 
(sorry, there are a lot of selfies, bruises and cats...I really can't help myself)

 

Cosplay with the beautiful Leen Isabel

Other important links (for me) are pages I manage on Facebook and would love for people to join if you're interested.

Nor Cal Pole Posse...I try to keep Northern California studios and events posted on this page:  https://www.facebook.com/NorCalPolePosse

Twirl for a Cause...our fundraising pole dance page for events around the Bay Area:  https://www.facebook.com/TwirlForACause

As most of you know, I post about many topics, not just pole dancing.  But I try to tag things appropriately so you don't waste time reading anything you might not be interested in.  I feel like without the power of social media behind me, how else could I turn a simple legal secretary into a fiery pole dancing Viking Warrior?  Before the invention of Facebook fan pages, where it was suddenly okay to toot your own horn, I may have been committed into an insane asylum for telling people I had a Viking alter ego.  

Miss you, Cupkates Truck!

Without social media, I also wouldn't have access to so many fat/size acceptance groups to help build my confidence and self-esteem (and now to my new cosplay/Chunky Girl Comics friends!).  I wouldn't have so much support to help me realize that I am fabulous no matter what I weigh and that I shouldn't wait to lose weight to do all the things I want to do, whether its on the pole or in regular life.  I started using the hashtag (another social media invention) #myfatwashere to track the fun stuff I could do even though I'm not society's "normal" body type.  And without social media, how would I share my cupcake obsession?!

Kate of Pole Etak

I feel like social media is essential to the health of the pole industry.  Even when I can't make it to events, I love seeing photos and watching videos posted by others.  So social media keeps me connected.  I also feel like seeing others working on their moves motivates me to work on mine.  Part of why I was so eager to hurry and have surgery on my foot was so that I could heal and get back to pole dancing the way I used to.  


How do YOU feel like social media affects the pole industry?  What changes would you make, if any, to how we all interact with each other?

BadAzz

Jill Anne

Nadia n my boobs

SeanMichael