Instagram isn’t as relevant as it once was, largely thanks to freebooting, community accounts, and influencer over-saturation, but for many photographers, it’s still a great way to connect with an audience. How often should you post to get the most engagement?
Chris Hau has been analyzing Instagram extensively over the years and gives his opinion on how frequently you should post in 2021 in order to maximize your reach. He notes that Instagram is now more of a video platform than a photography platform which does make you wonder when a photography replacement will carve out a presence. None of the various newcomers that have attempted to forge a presence has managed to gain a genuine foothold, largely thanks to the fact that many of them are designed specifically for photographers, rather than providing a service that appeals to a mass audience that photographers can then tap into.
Hau bundles in a couple of other useful nuggets of advice when it comes to Instagram, with a few insights into the importance of prompting your audience to save and share, and how authenticity plays a large role in connecting with others.
Are you posting to Instagram every day? Is it worth the time and energy? Let us know in the comments below.
I recently found out that posting images 5 days a week and engaging with and liking my followers work wasn't enough. My account wasn't growing.
So I started to make Daily Reels, where I turned my old photos into videos and also started engaging with people and their photos via Hashtags I am interested in, and now I am seeing steady, daily growth.
I enjoy seeing other people's work, it's very inspiring, and I love the community. Yet I put in great effort on Instagram and unlike YouTube, which actually rewards you for your efforts, you don't get a whole lot in return.
Personally, I have found that it is hard work if you want to grow your Instagram account in 2021.
Good tips. Thanks for sharing. And yeah, it's tough.
I used to do travel photography expeditions for all level photographers before covid19 hit.
I do tours in Portugal, The Azores Islands and Peru.
For that market (that is currently basically non existant) i still use Instagram.
for Portraits, product shots or video production, I rely way more on Linkedin and the network I have built in my country (Portugal).
Instagram is probably a great place for influencers and online clothes and other item's shopping.
It's becoming less and less relevant for photographers.
there is so much b.s. in this video.
- this all just works if you are already huge to social media in one way.
- it just works with this kind of Instagram content of generic beautiful landscapes and cool cars 16 year old douche bags want and some nice-looking generic beautiful woman. - there is zero, zero relevance outside this "content creator for other content creators "bubble.
- these images have near zero demand in commercial photography
if you are off this total generic Instagram aesthetics, not posting girl next door or lambos or other tacky stuff you will have a hard time to gain any substantial audience, it is getting worse. Instagram is pushing already big accounts and all the others are left somewhere in the dark corners of Instagram.
get promoted by a big ig account /magazine is also totally useless, even if they have millions of followers. on Instagram people stay where they are, they are not likely to follow new accounts just because someone publishes sth or even less they are clicking on links pointing outside IG. -> this is by far my biggest issue with IG. IG takes so much effort in marketing needs so much time and even if you are good in this, have insane amounts of followers the flow outside to other sites/shops is so minimal. I mean it happens but just comparing to other tools like the old uncool Facebook it seams IG always needs 10 times more work.
A lot of people, including this video, think of Instagram in the terms of becoming some uber influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers all over the world. If you want to be an "influencer" then, yeah, I suppose.
But tell me, for the average photographer, what good does a follower on the other side of the planet do you? Let alone thousands of them. If you're in the US, is an avid follower in, say, Germany going to hire your services? Not likely.
For me, Instagram is a pretty valuable tool. The majority of people reaching out to me to actually hire me come from Instagram. But I have fewer than 600 followers. I view Instagram as an extension of local word of mouth. The majority of my followers are in the same area in which I live.
IG is a really nice tool for people you already meet or worked with, they are following your work, but weirdly often they never linke or comment anything on ig, but next time you met them, they are telling you that they like your work and what impresses them.
Same. If you want to be an influencer, that moment is dead unless your fame comes from elsewhere or unless you get incredibly lucky. For me, it's more about building connections with people from a specific community or a location. It's not so much the number of followers but the right followers.
Lol the creator meeting got leaked this year
"Instagram’s Highly Unrealistic Ideal Amount of Posts of Each Type Per Week:
• 3 feed posts per week (reels & IGTV you choose to post to feed count here)
• 8-10 stories per week, preferably 2+ per day
• 4-7 reels per week
• 1-3 IGTV a week"
So basically spend every minute on insta and you'll be fine
From -
https://rainylune.com/blogs/blog/why-your-instagram-engagement-kinda-suc...