Beyond Instagram: An Introduction

An introduction to new and proven traditional ways to get your work seen by the people you truly care about

Hi everyone,
this is the start of a series of newsletter posts I’m going to do on one topic over the next couple of weeks, until the end of the year (I like deadlines!):

Moving beyond Instagram

This is, by no means, the next blog post complaining about the death of everyone’s former favorite, now strangely bizarre social network. Instead I want to give you a positive outlook and a constructive view on promoting your work on- and offline, an insight into the tools and concepts I use and hopefully start a conversation with you.

Let me briefly introduce you to the topic from my point of view:

The internet has been abuzz lately, discussing about the path Instagram chose and what it means for us as users. And there is not one single day when someone on the internet complains about how Instagram is no longer a place for photography.

There were two major events triggering a huge backlash in the social media community: First, announcements by Instagram's CEO, Adam Mosseri, that the app further prioritizes the reels and discovery feature. This caused quite a stir, especially in the photography community. Because ultimately it means: If you don't play the game of reels and video-centric content, your work might be never or very sparsely seen. This got perfectly summarized, as always, in a viral tweet that reads like this:

Meg Watson @msmegwatson

The new Instagram update really understood what I was looking for: - none of my friends’ content - reposted TikToks from meme accounts I do not follow - 100x more ads - everything played at full volume against my will

Following these profound announcement of chances, this post by photographer Tati Bruening went viral by demanding to "Make Instagram Instagram Again," and "stop trying to be TikTok, I just want to see cute photos of my friends. Sincerely, everyone":

illumitati

A post shared by ▵✖️tati (@illumitati)

Famously re-shared by Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and amassing over 2.2 million likes, it called out all the changes we see already happening on the app like: less photos, more reels, and the addition of suggested posts and accounts. Over 300 000 people already signed the petition, originally started by Bruening.

The second event that strikingly revealed how many people perceive Instagram as an app deeply embedded in our personal and professional life was the post by Spider Man actor Tom Holland, who publicly announced that he's taking a break from social media because it's affecting his mental health. That post tackles a whole different aspect on how we perceive the pressure to be seen and consuming content by our peers on a day to day basis. Several studies have linked the use of Social media apps to lower psychological well-being, especially mentioning lower self-esteem, body-image, disordered eating and social comparison to the list of effects the excessive use of social media can have.

In a creative and professional environment, this can mean and unhealthy habit of comparing a lot to the success of other photographers, an irrational feeling of envy and the perceived need to share compulsively in order to feel seen. To get a pat on the back instead of getting inspired, share the work that you truly love and to connect with your peers, which was the biggest strengths of the app back in the glorious days.

If taken too seriously, this can feel like a true treadmill of doubt. The father, the son and the un-holy spirit of promoting your work online and the anxiety to create content for the sake of existing. If you don’t post, you don’t exist.

But for as long as Instagram has been out there, people have complained about it. And before I jump the wagon of complaints, I want to explore the different ways to promote your work over the next couple issues of this newsletter.

Both on- and offline in an effort to regain control over our work and authorship. And to beat the the oh-so-hungry pocket slot machine.

I'm going to try to look at this issue from a broad perspective, both philosophically as well as practically, showcasing tools and ideas that have proved to make an impact on my work and the representation of it.

Although I’m looking from the perspective of a commercial photographer, I'm sure there are tools and lessons for other creative fields as well and for sure applicable to graphic design, illustration, filmmaking, writing and other fields in the vast landscape of the creative sphere.

But what about Instagram now?

In my case, I had an on-and-off relationship with the app over the last couple of years. Especially during the pandemic, as suddenly we were stripped from seeing each other in person. And that especially includes meeting people in real life. I’ve exhausted my Instagram use in the beginning, digging the archives, remixing and streamlining the feed, posting both personal and professional work. It felt great in the beginning, and even had a positive effect on how people have seen my work, but it was quite exhausting to keep up the pace and I quickly ran out of steam to keep it up.

First and foremost, after the first COVID scare, professional work started to slowly gain momentum again and there were a lot more pressing issues at hand than posting compulsively to Instagram for the sake of reaching a few eyeballs. So the fun was gone again way too quickly.

What followed was some regular and irregular bursts of heightened activity on my account, most of the time followed by a period of abstinence.

Professionally, my work was really well this year, and I realized that, although I might not NEED the platform for staying active in the business that pays my rent, I can still use it in a way that I ENJOY it again.

As I rediscovered my love for creating outside the screen and working with my hands, i started to use my feed as a documentation of my process rather than showing seemingly finished pieces of work. I started to think less about the appearance of the feed and began to post snippets and short documentation of what I was working on at THAT day. With a few exceptions of actual work in between.

(BTW: you can find me HERE) 🫣

Instead of streamlining everything to be perfectly aligned to the grid, I started to take it less serious and this way i started to truly enjoy it again.

Here are some key things that helped and still help me to maintain a healthy relationship and preserve the sense of enjoyment I had over the last couple of months using the app:

Avoid the likes / stats

Usually I post very fast these days. I try to avoid overthinking the image or how it fits into my feed. I’m using my phones camera 99% percent of the time to document my sketchbooks and usually I post and immediately do something else to avoid the first impulse to refresh every 10 seconds to check the stats or likes. I need to do this as rigorous as possible in order to protect myself and my view towards my own work. The slot machine is very strong here and it takes some effort to remind myself not to open the app and fall into old habits. But I get better at it from day to day. I remind myself regularly that the amount of likes a post might get doesn’t represent the value it had for me to create it.

Avoid watching stories / reels entirely, or at least curate the ones you watch very carefully

For me, this is crucial. I tend to be sucked into an endless stream of peoples stories very easily. So most of the time I actively avoid checking stories entirely. Stories are the worst for my personal and professional well-being. An endless stream of FOMO inducing content that have the tendency to fog my view on my own work and life in an unhealthy manner.

I ultimately took the time and effort to mute or unfollow all the accounts that I get triggered by easily. Nowadays, the stories that pop up in my app are only by close friends or accounts that i carefully considered to unmute.

Create more than you consume

This is a general concept I try to live by. And it’s growing within me every day.
I choose intentionally what I want to consume and if I feel I only consume it for distraction I actively remind myself to shut it down. Inspiration is not a passive activity and it doesn’t simply hit you by endlessly scrolling feeds of people you might or might not know already. It’s not necessarily how much you consume, but how you consume that makes the difference.

Don’t rely on Instagram, diversify your output intentionally

In some ways, Instagram made us lazy over the last couple of years, as getting discovered by people that you care about was just a swipe away. But the sudden shift of Instagram’s own strategy highlights the importance of diversification, something that was highly regarded before the beginning of the social media age but mostly lost due to Instagram’s success in the last years to unify the way we see and get discovered.

Getting started with diversification now is still the best way to be prepared for all the sudden changes in the social media landscape. I’m going to explore the various ways to get your work seen by the right people in one of the coming issues of this newsletter.

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Coming up…

I’m going to take a deeper look into the importance to create and maintain meaningful relationships as opposed to the perceived value of a semi-anonymous online following.

This series will continue until the end of the year in a semi-regular manner and collected in a single post for better readability afterwards.

Until then, it might get interrupted by the occasional sketchbook walkthrough and work/life update as usual.

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Let me know in the comments below or write me an email if you want to contribute your personal take and story on how to promote your work, on- and offline. I would love to read your story and have a conversation with you.

See you in two weeks.

— Ramon

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THINGS I’VE LEARNED / DISCOVERED THIS WEEK.

This is an ongoing collection of stuff that I’ve learned or discovered over the last two weeks. A regular collection that caught my attention and tickled my brain, or simply proved to be useful for me and that I want to share with you.

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1 - NILÜFER YANYA - PAINLESS

Sharing a piece of music is always an highly subjective thing, but i wanted to share Painless by London songwriter Nilüfer Yanya regardless of taste differences. It’s my soundtrack of endless writing sessions in the backyard and the soundtrack for the fading summer. Big songwriting, big and rather surpising voice. Stream / buy it here or better here. Or get the vinyl if you despise streaming services. Favorite Track: stabilize

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2 - ANNEMARIEKE VAN DRIMMELEN & JASPER KRABBÉ

This book and a collaboration between photographer Annemarieke van Drimmelen and artist Jasper Krabbé. Published by libraryman.

Pretty self-explanatory why I can’t stop picking up this book from my shelf and flipping the pages in amazement: The world seen from the perspective of a child, photography and painting mixed in a delightful manner. Got it all!

Photographer Annemarieke van Drimmelen (b. 1978, Dutch) and painter Jasper Krabbé (b. 1970, Dutch) have dedicated their new book to their two year old daughter, June.

Made for the most part on the Greek island of Hydra, the images in this publication reimagine a child’s gaze that still has an untethered and pristine view of the world. In trying to capture the unspoiled aspect of their surroundings, the artist couple found a new way of working that was inspired by things their daughter pointed out on their walks across the island.

Get it here.