Do you use Instagram?

[Jerome Marot]

Instagram appears to have evolved into one of the most important social photography site. Do you use Instagram yourself? If you don't, maybe you should. According to the following article, having a strong Instagram presence may be a prerequisite to get photographic work, at least for fashion photographers.


"How social media is transforming the fashion industry"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35483480


"In some cases, not just the models but the entire backstage team - including the make-up artists, stylists and producers - are selected according to their influence on social media.
"We won't do a photoshoot that goes on a billboard somewhere unless everyone involved has some sort of [social media] following and some sort of leverage," says Mr Venneri."

"Behind-the-scenes pictures and videos shared on its Instagram and Snapchat feeds of the Brooklyn shoot had some 15 million impressions in the eight hours the shoot was live.
The fashion retailer has nearly 40 million followers across 20 different social media platforms and openly admits that it has become as much a media content producer as a design company."

 

[Robert Watcher]

I started my public Instagram account 5 months ago (I've had a personal locked one for family and close friends for over a year) ---- when I came to recognize it's importance in the Social Media field.

My Public Instagram account for those who use Instagram, is @travelliteshootheavy
(A Follow is not required to access my gallery)


I am astonished at the number of people in various fields who not just follow me but like images on a daily basis. There are models, cinematographers, singers and musicians, sports enthusiasts, commercial entities selling products that are in line with services I would offer - as well as some photographers.

As well I have started getting more requests these past few months, for portrait work from previous clients in Canada (who see that I am still very active with my photography, when they may have wondered if I wasn't any longer) ---- as well as several requests and purchases of large prints of images someone has seen on my Instagram Gallery.

I have not relied on getting a whole pile of visitors through the various schemes that will get you thousands of (useless) visitors - but have targeted a few specific genres through hashtags etc, that have so far given me almost 800 organic followers with no cost and without much effort on my part.

 

[Jerome Marot]

That is very good news for you. Common sense dictates that there must be some photographers profiting from Instagram without having a massive follower count, but you are the first one I meet. Congratulations!

 

[Asher Kelman]

This is interesting stuff! Should make one motivated to get followers. I get request every day for links to "linked in" from people I have never heard of and lots of women trying to establish contact via Skype. I have assumed that the first just wants more folk on their data base to market to and the latter want a sugar daddy in the USA

I can see it's best to have private and public accounts and that Facebook and Twitter are the ones to invest effort in.

So how often do you update?

Also why does this have a NSFWP warning???

Asher

 

[Jerome Marot]

I get request every day for links to "linked in" from people I have never heard of

Yes, LinkedIn does that to everyone. Note that the requests often do not arise from the people themselves, but from LinkedIn internal systems. LinkedIn is just trying to get you to be more active on their servers.

and lots of women trying to establish contact via Skype.

Go to your skype preferences and uncheck the part where your skype i.d. is published in skype's directory.

I can see it's best to have private and public accounts and that Facebook and Twitter are the ones to invest effort in.

Facebook's terms of service prevent one from having more than one "personal" account and that one is where you family, kids, etc... will link you. If you want to have a second, public presence on Facebook, you normally need a "business" account.

I suppose that the rule is not really enforced for celebrities, like Brooklyn Beckham discussed in the original article.

On the other hand, the largest segment of the world population experiences the Internet through a cell phone and these devices typically only allow one account for each major social network. The typical social network app is also quite inquisitive, which in turns means that social networks like facebook have a level of spying abilities unprecedented in human history.

For us photographers, the major change is, of course, that the vast majority of images are experienced on a phone screen and should be constructed with that display in mind.

Also why does this have a NSFWP warning???

The warning reads "controversial, not PC and the like" and I have more to post. We don't have a warning for "not PC, but SFW".

 

[Jerome Marot]

The following video is probably not politically correct, since it originates from a hacker group. Hacker artist Constant Dullaart tried to demonstrate the problems underlying social validation by actually creating an army of followers and see what would happen. Yes: social ranking can be hacked and one can become an instant celebrity with hundreds of thousands of followers. The spooky part is that journalists will simply believe it.

The conference was presented in the latest chaos computer club congress and can be seen or downloaded here: https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7517-the_possibility_of_an_army

A fascinating show. The part about the army, facebook and instagram starts at 17:00.