No more wondering what to do and where to go in the Scenic City. Lee alumna Shayna Webb began her Chattanooga vlog and review account on Instagram and TikTok to showcase the numerous activities and places the city has to offer. @webbchatts, a fun play on words with Shayna’s last name and the city, really takes the form of an online webchat, with its authenticity and range of coverage.
Photo courtesy of Shayna Webb. Photo taken by Sydney Apple, @sydapplephoto.
Webb’s passion for content creation goes back to her time as a college student. She would frequently post on TikTok and learned a variety of social media skills over time.
“That’s kind of how I got into loving to create content and tell short stories online,” Webb said.
After graduating from Lee, Webb moved to Chattanooga. Originally from Memphis, Webb wasn’t familiar with many things to do in the Scenic City.
“I wasn’t really well-versed in East Chattanooga, things to do,” Webb said. “But I had so much fun going out with my husband, who is from Chattanooga, and exploring new places. I would make little vlogs just for memories of our little date nights and I would never post them.”
Over time, the thought of starting a Chattanooga vlog account seemed like a tangible reality to Webb. She says she thought about starting the account a year before she did. The encouragement to finally create the page came from a fellow Chattanoogan vlogger, Hope Maum, who posts nature-focused Chattanooga content (@hope.maum).
“She was probably my biggest encourager in starting @webbchatts,” Webb said.
With a cheerful push from a friend combined with past social media experience from, Webb decided to start the account. But Webb prepared content months in advance before first posting to @webbchatts in late May 2024.
“I knew from my experience on TikTok that whenever I was starting an account, if I wanted it to grow, I wanted to post every day for 60 days,” Webb said.
Webb described the early stages of the account as “experimenting.”
“I wanted to see if I could grow it, but I was never expecting it to grow as fast as it did at the beginning,” Webb said.
And her following did grow fast.
Within the first month, @webbchatts hit 1,000 followers. By around July 26, followers rose to 10,000. When this article was originally written in November, the account had 17.5K followers. As of March 27, the account now has 27.3 K followers.
“I was not expecting it to grow as much as it did. However, I was kind of expecting it to grow just because I had a strategy behind it of posting every single day…I felt like I put a lot of time and attention to every post. There was never just a post where it’s just trying to go viral, like six seconds and all the information is in the caption,” Webb said.
Webb says her account was never about going viral but building a community. From highlighting date nights spots to things to do and places to go, Webb hopes her account acts as an educational guide to the city while keeping things authentic and fun.
She also hopes to use her account to share her faith in subtle ways and show kindness on social media. Webb strives to post a Bible verse to her story every day and responds with kindness to hate comments instead of deleting them.
Webb knows that her time on this earth is “temporary,” as well as her Instagram account, but her faith will last for eternity.
Webb is also passionate about encouraging others who want to start content creation on social media.
“There’s so much room for anyone who wants to create content. There will never be too many because everyone’s unique and everyone’s different,” Webb said.
Webb’s number one encouragement is to not care what people think.
“If it is a passion of yours, it doesn’t matter what other people think. And I promise you, the only people that are thinking it's cringe are people who are just too scared to do it themselves,” Webb said. “You just have to get over cringe mountain. Remember that it doesn’t matter what people think, only what you think and what Jesus thinks,” Webb said.
Webb also says to not let perfectionism stop someone from posting content they are passionate about.
“A lot of people say, quality over quantity and I almost say quantity over quality, just because you’re never going to get better if…you're stopping yourself from not posting because it’s not perfect,” Webb said.
Webb also advises not to let numbers define success.
“When I was doing TikTok and I first started…getting a bit of attraction on TikTok, it was like the numbers were dopamine hits for me and it was like, oh my gosh, this video got, you know, 10,000 views. And I would wake up in the morning and check my views, check the followers, and that was really toxic, and it made me feel terrible,” Webb said.
While Webb tracks analytics on @webbchatts, she isn’t eager to look at numbers first thing in the morning or let it set the tone for her account.
“I don’t think follower counts should define anybody, just do what you’re passionate about,” Webb said.
Webb hopes that her Chattanooga inspired social media vlogs help inform others about the variety of activities to do and places to visit in the city, while showing realness, kindness and a sense of humor. @webbchatts can be found on both Instagram and TikTok.
