Why Instagram Isn’t As Important As You Wish It Was
We’ve all been there. We’ve all had those days where we head to our Instagram account, stare at the “followers” number, and wish it was bigger. But what if I told you that the number of people who follow you on Instagram wasn’t important? Or, even more dramatically, that Instagram doesn’t even matter that much to your photography business at all! Because the reality is that it doesn’t.
So many of us put so much of our attention on Instagram. We spend hours looking up “Instagram Hacks” or “How To Grow To 10K" youtube videos. I’ve been guilty of it too. And trust me, online marketers know that you’re interested in it. Why do you think so many of them pump out so much Instagram focused content (me included)? It’s because everyone is SO interested in it, and so desperate to see if that blog post/podcast/video might be the missing piece of the puzzle that they’ve been searching for.
I guarantee that it almost never is.
So why is Instagram not as important for your career as you think it is?
It comes down to where your time is best spent.
I’m not saying that Instagram isn’t USEFUL. It is. Brands and magazines definitely like it when they see a photographer with a large following. After all, if they can benefit from your views, then why not? However, it really isn’t the best use of your time to try and grow your account.
So yes, you could spend loads of your time trying all the hacks to grow your audience, to gain more followers, and to feel a bit better about yourself. But would that be a really good use of your time?
What if, instead, you focused on reaching out to the brands that you really would love to work with?
What if you focused on planning your next epic photoshoot? Spending all that time that you WOULD be dwelling on your Instagram, instead to plough it into your work.
What if you focused on networking in real life? Building solid relationships that will serve you for months and years to come?
What if you used that energy to improve the SEO of your website (which is much more searchable and useful than an Instagram profile, trust me).
What if you spent your time reading about business, sorting out your finances, writing a solid marketing strategy for yourself, and keeping your business organised?
Don’t those all sound like far better, more important things to do than trying to build your Instagram following? Because they do to me. Because guess what? If you focus on all of those things above, I promise that the followers will come naturally. You’ll get the people who should be following you, to follow you. It truly doesn’t matter if you have 100, 2000, or 20,000 followers, if you’re putting yourself out there, shooting incredible work, and pitching yourself to the brands and magazines that you’d like to shoot for.
What do you think? Do you worry about your Instagram following much? Let me know!
