Besides writing an actual story, you know, like a book or play, there are other ways you can tell rich stories using platforms built for social media. And the works can happen in real time, with a musical rhythm to how they unfold, even if you choose not to do “show and tell” reels and posts, or sell stuff.
If you fill a feed:
minding relationships between the posts (like a film editor)
nailing the rhythm in which they get posted (like a poet or drummer)
using repeat symbolism (like a linguist or meta-physician)
compose the shape of the content (like a painter)
and utilize foreshadowing, narrative, and climax (like a playwright)
… you can build something complex that can be seen as a whole, just like you can in a well-crafted, illustrated novel, or in a great film. And this ‘feed’ just keeps updating, as long as you update it with new quality materials with some artful methodology.
And ideally, the work on your feed, feeds your people a touch of something of quality and meaning. Lord knows, we need this in our lives.
Today, I’ll talk about Instagram.
Instagram is a photo-sending platform, seemingly first designed to show friends the world through your lens of the world. You know, showing people kinda sorta how you see things, when you see them. Like postcards, but faster.
Filters were included to fancy up your view (perhaps like you’d don sunglasses on vaca), and like buttons, comments, and messaging were included so you could enhance or privatize your sharing, and get some feedback to keep you going.
You know, because you are just looking at a phone, not a room full of people at your book signing, movie premiere, or concert, right?
Do you see what I see? Is the question that underlies the core of the platform.
Only later did Instagram get co-opted for commerce and counting-based power brokering. We know having one million followers carries a direct flow of kickback cash to the creators themselves and endless opportunities for sponsorships and paid collaborations too.
As Instagram became more commercially appealing, with ‘influencers’ popping into public view from the quiet shadows of “it girl,” or “behind the scenes broker,” normal people sharing every day routines, outfits, and little bits of lifestyle became the delight of fans worldwide. Numbers soared and newer, younger influencer-wanna bees and content creators flooded the Insta-field with just about everything.
So did businesses, and artists too. Oh yes, and dancing. That’s an art form that can really soar, and is currently getting formed around music on TikTok, but that’s another post another day.
Why choose Instagram to showcase your visual work?
Instagram is uniquely suited to showcasing creative work and growing real human audiences for creatives. The interface is simple and relatively unobtrusive with white or black background, depending on what device you see it on. This is important. Does your art look good next to Facebook Blue and on that oddity of page layout? Probably not.
Instagram reels function can feature art, art process, music, riffs, and instructional or revelatory information, putting info and visuals out there to find a new audience. Using the reel function, even for static art – is important. Reels get shown to more people and can grow your fan base.
Hashtags are useful for this purpose too. If you’d like to cast a wider net of potential followers, you can feature hashtags on themes related to your content, even if not a direct match to who you are or what you do.
For instance, if your art one day features fish, try tagging for #art and #fish and #fishing. You know why? Fishing guys love to buy art of fish. See what I mean?
We can talk stats, conversions, and pixels tracking and getting really granular on “optimizing” your sales, but I’m not going to.
AI can do that if you dig all that optimization stuff, but honestly, I’m not enjoying the “feels” of that. Kind of feels cold and pushy, and all manner of bullshitty to me. But that’s me. Maybe you love being shoved into a funnel?1
That’s because most people don’t like to deal with machines over people, nor be pushed into funnel flows of optimization, but that’s the way this field of Social Media marketing is going.
So you can stand out by breaking the rules. And, soon that will be what rules the day.
- Forgive my dislike of funnel based optimization. I believe funnels are great for things like pouring big liquids down a small-necked bottle, but not really great for people’s minds on commerce. ↩︎