By the end of my first year as Natalie, all of my dates were 3+ hours. I had enjoyed wonderful FMTYs, including to my beloved Hawaii, and I genuinely enjoyed spending time with every single one of my suitors. I woke up every day eager to log into my email, and clapped with glee whenever I was rewarded by a new email from a return client. I was making more money than I’d ever made in my civilian life, despite top marks from top schools. Being a high-end companion was everything I had dreamed it to be and more.
I credit this success almost entirely to one thing: social media. In my one year as Natalie I organically accumulated 10,000 followers on Twitter. I posted multiple times a day, interacted with other companion accounts for hours, and used my Twitter to promote my ads, dream FMTYs, blog posts, and new photos. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed the work and it paid off in the best ways. The clients that chose me found me beautiful, sure, but they were just as much attracted to who I was. They chose long dates because they wanted to spend hours chatting, cuddling, and truly having me as their dream girlfriend for a bit. It was wonderful.
Studies and civvie work pulled me away from Natalie for a bit, but I was sure I would be back soon. I didn’t bother to retire, I knew it was only a hiatus. Then the pandemic struck. Now I find myself returning to the industry after over 2.5 years without the thrill of being Natalie. That’s well over double as long as I had ever been in the industry.
To my dismay, I quickly realized that the Twitter world I had left behind had changed during my absence and not for the better. Before, my account grew by hundreds of followers per day. Now, shadowbans rule the day, engagement is abysmally low, and it’s hard to get any eyes on our content (no matter how delightful said content is). At first I thought my disappointing results were due to the multiyear dormancy my account had fallen under. Perhaps the algorithm was punishing me for neglecting my account. I soon learned that we are all being punished. Companions are being shoved back into the shadows.
After recent leadership changes at Twitter - we all know which not-so-charismatic new leader I’m talking about - the future of the platform itself is in question. We can’t exclude the possibility that Twitter as we knew it is long gone, never to return again. While I’ll hope for a resurgence of the ‘good old days’ of Twitter, companions can’t afford to simply hope. We have to act. Fortunately, we’re a scrappy group and we’re not the sort to just throw up our hands and retire to the countryside. We stay, and we fight for our right to live the lives we choose.
Companions, and sex workers of all nature, have been shoved off of platform after platform. Zuckerberg’s set hates us, Tik Tok isn’t frequented by the demographic that makes up a large portion of our clientele, and even when we do find a platform that’ll work (like Twitter) our welcome is worn out all too quickly. We can’t continue relying on platforms run by civvies. We can’t even wait for something like Switter to make a place for us, because the whole civvie world will try to stomp that platform out. And, let’s face it, the aesthetic was never one that warmed our hearts.
It’s time for sex workers to individually create our own platforms. We need places to express ourselves. We need those places to last. We shouldn’t accept that we can spend months or even years growing adoring audiences only for access to those audiences to go up in smoke overnight. I’ve heard of too many companions who’ve lost their accounts to shadowbans, account cancellations, etc. When their accounts disappeared, so did their ability to reach the audiences they had worked so hard to build.
Platforms we control ourselves will protect us from that. Ads will direct clients to our individual platforms, but ads on their own aren’t enough to win over the sort of dream client that made me eager to return to companionship, despite a burgeoning civilian career. Dreamy, respectful, sweet, connection-seeking, long date-booking, non-boundary-pushing clients want to know who we are. Not our government names, but our souls.
Dream, long date-booking clients want to see how our personalities will mesh with theirs, they want to yearn to make us smile. They want to be charmed by our feminine wiles, and not just our feminine curves. They are seduced by our minds, not just our bodies.
Our websites must therefore be strong. Our ‘about me’ sections are going to be more important than ever, both for content and for style of presenting that content. Our photos will need to tell stories, and not just show off supple skin and heaving bosoms. But our sites are just the beginning of falling in love with us.
When we are pushed out of social media spaces, we must build our own blogs. We will control our blogs, so we don’t have to fear creating big audiences and losing them overnight due to factors out of our control (shadowbans, canceled accounts, collapsing companies). We will have space to write about what we want to write about.
Through our blogs, potential clients will be able to learn how we think. They will be able to learn what we think about. They will be able to learn how we speak. They will be able to glean information about our personalities, and that’s the crucial information that will make them book us.
We should promote each other’s blogs generously and frequently, to create our own greater networks. This will increase the odds of a potential client finding his ideal companion. ‘Different strokes for different folks’ applies to companions as much as anything, so once a potential client stumbles upon one of our blogs via an ad, we should keep that client-to-be in our world. We should expose him to his various options, so he can find the right match. If we all promote each other, then the favor will be returned via another provider’s blog.
If you’ve never written a blog before and you don’t know where to start, here’s a tip - just do it. My first blog posts as Natalie missed the mark of my brand because I was trying too hard to write what I thought a client might want to read. Refer back to ‘different strokes for different folks’ - if you’re simply authentically you, the right ones will find you. Clients who are attracted to who you genuinely are will enjoy dates with you more, and that will inspire them to book you over and over again. A genuine connection will inspire them to be more and more generous, and it will also increase your enjoyment of your work. You’ll find yourself jumping out of bed in the morning and racing to open your laptop.
On your blog, you can write about whatever you want. Share a story of your first kiss. Write about a date you’d love to go on. Write about a hobby, or what made you decide to be a companion. Share your musings on the changing nature of the industry. Share a favorite recipe. Post some new photos and write about your photoshoot experience. Write about something you’ve learned recently, or something you’d like to learn. Just write.
Blogs don’t need to be perfect. Every post doesn’t need to hit the bullseye. If some miss the mark, that’s fine. You can just write another. Your blog is your playground to A/B test your marketing. Your blog is your place to share about yourself, and ask questions of your audience. Your blog is your place to do as you please.
Do you have a blog? Share your experiences in the comments below!
