In 2017, Ray and Charlyn had their first kid, Quinn. Five months later, they started a blog called And Now We Have Kids. The idea was to document their adventures as parents, all those big first and little moments that constantly happen when kids are around.
Ray and Charlyn have also set up a social wall on which they collect all the photos they post on their And Now We Have Kids Instagram account.
They enjoy travelling and haven’t stopped their globetrotting when they had Quinn. Collecting their adventures on a social wall lets their family and friends follow along from home and see what the three of them are up to.
We had a wee chat with Ray to find out how they are using the social wall and learn more about the choices they’ve made when it comes to pairing the social wall with their blog.
Ray Singca
Blogger & Influencer
What is the purpose of the blog, and who are you writing it for?
Living with Quinn, time just flies by so quickly. One day, she is barely able to stand and shortly after she is already chasing birds and squirrels in the park. We didn’t want those moments to be lost. So we wanted to have something that would document and accompany our little journey in a fun way.
Just before the start of 2018, we came up with the idea to write about our trips but also about the experiences we have in our daily life. Primarily for us to be able to look back on those adventures but also to have something for Quinn to see and read when she’s older. We also wanted to share some of our experiences with the world, so we used a social wall to complement our blog.
In the beginning, we just wanted to have a nicer way to display our Instagram pictures. But soon, it turned into a shareable photo album of Quinn and all our adventures with her.
You have designed the wall to look exactly like the blog but kept them separate, creating a seamless switch between the two. What made you decide against a website embed?
We had two reasons. Firstly, the standalone wall gives you bigger images, independent from the website’s layout and available space. Also, the theme we use on the blog already offers an embedded Instagram stream anyway.
Secondly, we decided to make the wall our little shareable photo album. So we wanted to properly adjust the wall’s look and give it the same feel as the blog.
Pretty well, actually. Especially the social wall is a nice add-on feature for our website, and it works well with the content of our blog. While the blog offers longer articles, the social wall complements it with shorter stories.
We also sometimes use our wall to display it on our TV at home. This way, Quinn gets to actually see the pictures from our adventures and travels (no, she is not on Instagram yet 😅). And guests who may not be aware of what we are doing can get a glimpse at what’s going on as well.
Whether you want to show photos from a trip or document your children growing up, social walls can easily be turned into photo albums. A social wall as a photo album has distinct advantages to sharing photos old-school:
- A social wall is always up to date.
- You can share the link with family and friends, and they can check it out in their own time.
- There’s no need to send photos via email and clutter everyone’s inbox.
- Easy to set up and design just the way you want it to look. And easy to update when you want something different.
- Easy to display on a screen at home or wherever. You don’t need to pass around photos one by one or have multiple people leaning over one phone or laptop, trying to catch a glimpse of a photo.
Live photo album walls are great for showing off pictures after travelling or sharing photos of the kids. Or you can also let your friends and family see what you’re doing on your trip around the world while you’re doing it.
And it’s so easy to view a social wall via its link, so there’s no requirement for people to have social media accounts to follow along. Which means you won’t necessarily have to teach the grandparents to use Instagram so that they can see pictures of the kids. 😉
Turn your TV into your photo album
Who says you have to have a big event to justify displaying your social wall on a screen. It’s an excellent addition for small parties, family gatherings, for when you have guests over and they want to see some photos from your last trip or to give your children the opportunity to see themselves and relive your adventures together.
