Remember when Ohio State's football team won the 2014 National Championship in January of 2015? @LifeInColumbus was just one month old.
This was started as a fun little side project to discuss and show things around Columbus that weren't being shown. Having some friends working heavily with social media "influencer" accounts, we thought it would be fun to dabble around with it too. It was also a way to go through what life looked like from the view of an average guy doing his thing in the city.
A few pictures were posted to start, and they got a few likes. But after three or four weeks, @LifeInColumbus had already accrued a few hundred followers. "Ok, maybe there's something to this," we began to think. So we stuck with it. We hit the city more and more, started posting a wider variety of pics, and our following kept growing. So... we continued doing it! If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We still had the mindset of it being a little side hobby at the time too, having fun posting things about Columbus
This was around the time that many professional photographers, in addition to some very talented amateur "iPhone photographers", started to use Instagram more and more. Their pictures we're no less 237483782x better than the pictures we were taking, which began our new direction helping curate some of the best photos being taken around Columbus. This was a win-win for everyone; these photographers were having their work displayed to a larger audience as @LifeInColumbus started to grow into the thousands and tens of thousands of followers, it helped build a community, and more people were being shown fantastic pictures of our city.
We kept our heads down and kept working to deliver quality content to our followers and other folks around the city. This included working with other brands to spread the word about great new products and collaborations, as well as highlight small businesses that deserve support. We also began working to become more informative, by relaying breaking news, issues affecting Columbus and the rest of Ohio, and more. This was all very well-received, and to this day we strive to spread the word about things that may be affecting you and our city in an unbiased, factual, and informative fashion. It was this new level of experimentation that helped us grow even more, and just goes to show that you should always be trying new things!
When we started Life In Columbus, we couldn't have imagined being in this spot today, where people are coming to us asking for recommendations and ideas of what to do. We also had no idea about the different things we would begin to do with this account, from bringing breaking news to organizing events. We are a small team of three people who don't want to be in the limelight and end up taking focus off of our city, the amazing creators, and small businesses. We feel that it's our true fondness of our city that allows us to continue to grow and being able to do bigger and newer things.
So here we are, in 2021 with about 90,000 amazing followers, striving to be the greatest, most valuable resource for you on and off your timeline. We are nothing without your support, so we thank you for being a part of our journey and hope to grow with you and the rest of Columbus!