We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Crystal White a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Crystal thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

I came up with the idea from honestly just having fun. I was always only familiar with the typical chain restaurants and never really tried to explore the plethora of restaurants here in Atlanta. I started towards the end of 2020 on TikTok and never envisioned where I am with it today. I initially started out with a list of places that I would visit and rate them overall, most of them were very good! The more restaurants and things to do in Atlanta, the longer the list would grow, and now my social media platforms serve as the list for me. I have also been the type to always document my life, just for memories, so recording videos and finding the best angles has always been fun for me. I remember my first video that blew up on TikTok, it was a very exciting moment and the comments and support from my friends and family has always kept me going. Everyone has always been so supportive of me whether they have referred my pages, spread the word, or simply just liked and reposted my work and all of those helped me to stay positive and consistent. The amount of positive feedback that I have received over the past few years helped me in feeling like I could succeed. Now, I have collaborated with large brands and businesses and I can’t help but to be thankful.

Crystal , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My brand is called ATL Hotspots, I provide sort of a directory for those in and around Atlanta to help them find restaurants and things to do that they may have never heard of. On the flip side, I help small and large businesses with marketing whether they are promoting their business in general, or they have a specific product that they would like to showcase to a large audience. Social Media is becoming vital in the world we live in today, and getting the word out is so much easier to do at our fingertips because everyone is connected which is what I love about it.

I would say that I kind of grew into this role, the more followers I obtained the more I would receive requests to come out or my audience would refer me to a lot of places. After businesses were shut down due to COVID, I have found that it was difficult for some businesses to get themselves out there and those that took a leap of faith and started businesses throughout COVID needed exposure as well. I am most proud of the help I have provided to both my audience and business owners. I really enjoy helping people and sharing my experiences with everyone, and that is the best part about it.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my audience on social media solely on consistency. There were some days that I felt like my videos were a flop and then other days people would engage a lot. No matter how many likes or shares you receive, staying consistent is what gets your work out there because one person may see it and share it. I also had to learn that different platforms hold different types of audiences and there are algorithms in place on each and every one of them so it is very easy to become discourage. My advice overall would just be to keep going and enjoy it at the same time! There are things that I have had to learn throughout this journey and having fun with it while rolling with the punches has always kept me going.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect to me is being able to help so many people without looking for praise in return and growing as a person. I have always been skeptical about putting my face or voice within my videos because I realized how many people I could help without it. I have never been shy or anything, but eventually I was able to do both of those things which is a big step for me. It is also always nice to hear how excited/supportive people are when they find out that the social media pages are run by me and tell me about how much my pages have helped them in many ways.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @atl.hotspots
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1133814940777134
• Other: TikTok: @crysatlanta_

Image Credits
Crystal White, ATL Hotspots