Instagram. Love it, hate it and frustrated by it, love it again…. current status mild indifference .
I have two Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/martinbrent/ This being my commercial account and Ive had it for quite a long time. For my MA and burgeoning (ie not very existent as yet) fine art career this one https://www.instagram.com/martinbrentguest/ which has barely any followers but are all people Ive met through this course or in person at photo shows or similar. I will probably develop this feed a little more and it will be used to support my final project show.
It is undeniably gratifying when an image receives positive commentary from followers, I think some validation of ones efforts can never be a bad thing but if the sole motivation is to attract positive comments then that can become a self serving thing in itself, the danger being you create work for that audience only.
Initially Instagram was a very cool way of interacting with like minded souls, almost a social club where you saw your contacts images in real time as they posted them. With little traffic it was a great way of showing people what you were up to and where you were in real time. Its funny that the coffee cup thing actually started as a way of getting yourself invited in to see people. Literally- “hey contacts, I’m literally next door drinking this cool brew, come join me or invite me round” and it worked! Cynical but nicely cynical and of course you ALWAYS had your folio with you.
There was then an era of exponential growth and it was more difficult to see your friends but everything was still displayed real time to your followers, this immediacy still gave it the edge, you felt genuinely connected. Then Insta changed their algorithm and started to show you images ‘it’ thought you wanted to see and critically changed the timing so the images were no longer real time. For me that was a big change and not one I wanted because patently it took me away from my intended, niche audience and vice versa.
Then another thing happened. The ‘curated’ feed. This was a pivotal moment for creatives which meant instead of insta being almost a chatting platform with cool images it was now simply an extension of your website or folio. In some peoples cases it became their website full stop. Given the loss of real time immediacy maybe the curated feed is no bad thing, however for me it makes Insta a dull place that I feel I need to visit occasionally to update the feed, making sure its all neat and on brand which is the polar opposite of what made insta the cool and interesting place it started out from.
So this may sound negative but I think it still has its uses, its just different to how it was and I feel its lost its soul, that personal real time connection is no more although stories have gone someway to restore that and I find myself spending far more time there than in the main feed.
Infact I just had a little think and this week so far Ive barely looked at the main feed but seen quite a few stories….
So in terms of strategy yes I have one. Its basically posting images on the main feed, in threes so it remains tidy, that reinforce the brand and what it is we do. Thats about it. Obvs you aim to show new work but equally linking existing projects to current events is also worth doing. My agent echoes my posts and vice versa. I recently did a three day takeover for The Association Of Photographers https://www.instagram.com/assocphoto/ which was pretty good and I gained quite a few new followers off the back of it. It was actually quite difficult to choose which images to share because again you need to keep it neat and your personal faves may not be the nes that are going to get you work.
Followers wise Ive had about 2000-2500 on average for quite a while, theres definitely a problem with fake accounts though and some of my ‘followers’ clearly are bots but being honest he numbers dont really interest me, its the quality of follower I’m looking for, ie people who can give me work and people I like. You can really work an Insta account to increase reach of course, posting at the right time, liking x amount of x accounts and hashtagging the life out of every post and one of my assistants has been doing this with some success, he’s built up to almost 6000 followers but now doesnt really know what to do with them. I would be happy with 20 followers if they were all good clients and giving me work.
Ive used hashtags to enter things like Featureshoots Printswap which started off pretty good with only 100 photographers being selected but now it seems to run almost continuously. Hashtags for magazines… undecided, #myfeatureshoot used to be pretty good as did #cinesomnia but it then means your feed ends up being nothing but images from these zines, again being separated from the people I actually want to interact with.
Messaging can be a great way to reach a target brand or client and ive also received messages from potential new clients in reaction to events occurring off Insta so thats interesting. This happened after I got some stuff into the AOP Awards this year and this is when the curated thing probably does work quite well. So real world events flowing into online and out again which really is what you need to happen, the things we do all happen off the platform ultimately but its very easy to see Instagram as a wholly self contained world.
So a bit of a ramble but I see Insta as a necessary evil rather than something I actively enjoy participating in like when it first started. It can be a useful tool for sure, if youre trying to reach a mass its well suited now. I do agree it needs to be a part of your marketing mix and as such its very important that all of your online activity points to each other, ie make sure your insta link is displayed on your website etc and vice versa.
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