My Feelings on Instagram
Neon Rose Midi Tea Dress With Ruffle Layer In Ditsy Spot – Neon Rose | The Tabbi Boot – Stuart Weitzman | Oversized Camel Coat – Old (Similar) | Tan Felt Beret – Urban Outfitters | Mohair Scarf – Urban Outfitters | Muse Sunglasses – Glasses USA |
It’s been on everyones mind since the word “algorithm” touched everyones lips a year or so back. Now it’s all we can think or talk about. I wanted to touch on this subject because it’s becoming more apparent that this is something that’s become extremely important to people and I felt I should probably share my feelings on Instagram. Now I want to make it clear that of course this is something that is devastating for those who rely on Instagram as their platform for their businesses whether from an influencer or brand standpoint. The range of emotions I’m garnering from my fellow influencers/bloggers and friends is anger, frustration, and confusion and that only makes sense. We went from a platform of creativity, like minded-ness and self expression to a place of competition, fitting the IG mold and overall anxiety of what to work towards next. When the algorithm first made it’s larger change early this year I honestly wasn’t seeing much of a change for my own Instagram handle. I still had great engagement, was inspired to create amazing content and was actively interacting with my followers and those that I followed. Why was everyone so upset? It’s only been in the last week that I’ve been hit HARD with the reality that Instagram is really changing, and with that, it doesn’t bring me much anger or frustration, it mainly brings me sadness. Sadness that I am being restricted from seeing people I’m inspired by, sadness that those who made the conscious decision to follow me aren’t able to see the content I’m producing, and sadness that everyone is getting so upset because of a phone app. Working in an industry that has relied heavily on social media marketing on top of being an influencer on my off hours I’ve seen first hand at how so much reliance on something like this can be a devastating blow to many.
So the big question is, where do we go from here? Another app? Attempting to push Instagram and Facebook to revert back to their old ways (don’t see this one happening)? At this point I’ve come to the conclusion that it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day, we are no longer slaves to the “Instagram best practices” because there aren’t any anymore! This is the time to go back to the way we looked at the app when it first began, posting content for the sole purpose of putting out amazing content. While we can’t control who is seeing it and how it’s being interacted with, we still have control as to what we want to post. At this point I’m going to continue being inspired, posting without a care (which is really refreshing) and just enjoying the creativity that I’m putting in. If it ends up translating into growth, then great, but at this point I’m not banking on that and I don’t think anyone else should either. I’m really excited to turn this negative into a positive by focusing more on my actual blog space alongside creating content on YouTube as way’s to expand my creativity and get re-inspired along the way! I guess my final word would be I still want to see everyone making kick-ass content without worrying too much about the extent of likes, comments, and all of the other stressful insights we obsess over.
