Do you hate Instagram like I do?

IG is the only social platform I spend any effort on and don’t expect to draw new buyers or clients from IG. The last few years and especially this year, word of mouth and networking with existing clients without being pushy or trying too hard is what has been working for me. But to be clear, my landscape, wildlife and underwater work is strictly for myself and NPN is the safe, enjoyable and eye opening place for my personal work/growth.

I really don’t know who would hire a photographer based on their IG account? I am sure maybe some are out there, I just don’t see this a solid way for a photographer to get a steady stream of clients.

So back to your question, I am a fan of websites and not social media to show buyers/clients who I am and what I do. (I may be completely off that this is the best way, just my 2.5 cents)

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I’m late to the conversation here but I’m on instagram mainly for entertainment - sports, comedy and some photography observing. It’s a great platform for getting snippets of content and great for passing time while you’re waiting for something or someone.

I personally think its a terrible platform for showcasing photography and it used to be much better. For instance a photographer has to comply with the platforms aspect ratios and they do not offer an option to tap an image and have it occupy the full screen of a device. Further to this they throttle the audience and then try to encourage you to buy an advertisement. This is outrageous! Other platforms like YouTube have ad sharing models to encourage content creators. Instagram will tell you a particular post is doing really well while they will only show it to a small percentage of your followers. Unless of course you promote the post.

I started using Instagram in around 2016 and after talking with photographers who were around in the early days I feel like I missed the boat. Some of those who got in early managed to build a decent following of say more than 80k followers. They were able to monetise this following by approaching tourism departments and taking and publishing photos on their feed for certain locations. I know another photographer who published work using a hash tag and got approached by a large tech company to license the image.

I feel that the platform is so saturated that these types of opportunities are a thing of the past. My wife is a social media coordinator for an outdoor brand. The amount of photographers that approach their account offering free content for a mention is staggering. This is not a major outdoors brand but a mom and pop shop and I think the longer-term effect of Instagram is that it has devalued photography. To the point that I know people socially who have approached a photographer on instagram and have asked is it okay if I print this?

I think one of the challenges with Instagram is that there is no competition if one wants to find an audience. Facebook and Instagram are part of the same company and have a monopoly of sorts. Remember the Vero experiment a couple of years ago? Photographers bought in but the audience stayed with Instagram.

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I feel that Instagram has brought about more negative impact to society than positive but with that said there’s value in it for marketing.

  1. Having social proof for any potential clients who find you on the web then want to check out your social profiles after

  2. Making some sales (I made my first sale that I can attribute to Instagram this week though I don’t post consistently).

  3. Paid social / lead generation

I use it frequently to research current conditions such as fall foliage. The most useful images are done by amateurs / non-photographers since they’re more likely to be real time and not excessively manipulated.

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