Does anyone else "not get" Instagram?
I know Instagram is hugely popular, personally I just don't get it.
I guess it depends upon how your using it. If you have a lot of friends I can see it being fun maybe sharing images in the same way people do on Snapchat. My gf and her sister and cousins are always sending each other funny stuff like here's this guy picking his nose in the car next to me type stuff. Her sister loves taking pictures of everything she eats throughout the day. Her cousin will send us pictures of his blunts he's smoking. Personally though I don't really have many friends, I keep a pretty small circle and am not really into sharing mundane daily things so for that reason it really holds no allure to me.
Now the business/marketing angle. None of my current businesses really lend themselves to Instagram. Fashion items, gadgets, etc can do really well on visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram but my products don't really do well on there. For affiliate marketers you can't really use links with the exception of a bio link so it doesn't really lend itself to that as well, at least not for my uses.
Also, unlike Pinterest there's no boards so unless your continuously posting, you can't just post a couple times a month and stay relevant.
Personally I know it's incredibly popular and while I've tried to be a part of it and tried to use it I just don't get it.
Just curious anyone else's opinion of Instagram? Do you get it?
The one I don't get as much is Snapchat to be honest. Instagram makes more sense to me. I hope Snapchat goes bye bye...... LOL. I hate hearing about early 20's guys being valued at Billions of dollars with crap that isn't profitable. I know that was sort of the case with Insta as well when Facebook bought them but screw Snapchat aka Shitsnap
Yeah I've downloaded Snapchat on a few occasions and given it a try but just can't get into it
Yeah and don't let anyone tell you that you are old because you don't like Snapchat. lol
I feel like Shitsnap will be like Vine. Gone in a couple of years and it will be something new that people are all about.
The only thing I will say is that they sort of keep it fresh with all the filters and people really like those and they keep changing. But keeping it fresh only goes so far when your burn rate is like $50 Million a month or however much that company loses. LOL
The ship has sailed man.
Facebook is in the process of converting it to full pay to play, so I wouldn't even bother with it if you aren't willing to pay.
They changed the algorithm, and locked the most popular tags, plus, by the time you do make into a tag, there are so many real people and bots posting that your post will get buried in a matter of seconds.
I thought that when I started on insta just 7 months ago. But after being on the platform you can literally create a successful page around any niche. You just need to know what angle to approach it from, and do hashtag and competitor research. I think your content in particular lends itself really well to Instagram, because a lot of "entrepreneurship" accounts post or repost generic content, where you actually creating new value everyday. Let me know if I can help you, drop me a line on steemchat I use the same username as here.
Hey @nosajj yeah your right about Entrepreneur guys doing live streams like crazy on there and also posting images and stuff. To me it almost seems like a secondary platform ie you use Instagram short videos to drive people to your Youtube channel and then try to use Youtube to convert them.
Do you find that a lot of people checkout your bio and then continue on to click an affiliate link?
For me personally Instagram is like Facebook, I know I should be on there but but I struggle to stay engaged.
Instagram is just a sales channel, but its actually better than Facebook because Facebook is pay to play, whilst Instagram is free. What works best on Instagram is a link to a lead magnet, to either capture contact details for your email database, or to guide them into your sales funnel. How do you, or what do you convert them to already?
Nope, I don't get it at all. For me it was the one social medium too many. I don't even put much on Pinterest anymore, don't see a lot of point. When I think about having to update all these platforms I just feel tired.
It does seem like a nice way to connect with people ie messeging as I notice some guys I'm talking to about collabing with on Youtube and they always message me through Instagram. Other than that though its just not something I really enjoy browsing or using
Interesting. I haven't experienced that yet. I have people messaging me on 10 different platforms and sometimes I forget to check some of them!
Yeah I feel that, sometimes I feel like there's too many platforms out there to check on all of them let alone be an active part of the community. I'll have people tell me I messaged you on twitter a week ago and I'm like crap I havn't checked Twitter in 2 months. I think the most social networks I can really focus on and be an active part on at any serious level is like 2-3 at a given time. I'll go through phases where I'm digging one platform and then just leave it. I think Youtube and Reddit and now Steemit have become the handful I enjoy the most and plan on investing the most time in
I don't get instagram or snapchat........ I really don't get snapchat... or the filters..... I think it's because i'm old and boring?!
I have been using Instagram for over 3/4 years now, maybe even longer. It has changed a lot since then, especially since Facebook took over and the amount of users exploded... At first it was a fun way to showcase some of your photos, just like on steemit, it was about connecting with unknown people. Not like facebook where you basically already know people you are reaching. I still use it to this day for my photography and I know a few people who make a decent amount of money out of it by using it smart as a marketing tool. I don't know where it will be a couple of years but the recent implementation of instagram stories with a snapchat like function is already taking over slowly. People now have a 5 to 1 ratio of temporary fluff to actual posts like the initial intention of the platform...
I think for a photographer it makes a lot sense it's almost like a place to host a portfolio. I've actually been meaning to take some time to learn a bit m ore about photography a nd spend more time taking photos and was planning on having more of a presence on Instagram but without doing that I feel like I don't have much more to post than like my Youtube thumbnails and say hey checkout my video
Yeah it doesn't work like that, you would have to come in armed with a plan and dedication if you really want something out of it
I've dabbled around with Instagram and it's certainly easy to build followers with that platform but I haven't found a good way to monetize it.
I see a ton of people doing MLM and affiliate stuff on there so I feel like people must be making money or they wouldn't be doing it, but it seems very limiting to me that each post can't have a link only the bio so your either posting about one subject matter or constantly changing your bio link as a marketer.
I'm not really that active on Instagram but with the bots shutting down I'm guessing account growth would slow down as well since I imagine probably a lot of the followers people were gaining were bots that liked everything in that niche.
Good post @rulesforrebels
I know somebody which does CPA on Instagram. It's actually forbidden but he earns a lot of money with it on Instagram.
I personally also don't like Instagram because all the content is so stupid...
Are you saying Instagram themselves don't allow CPA links or affiliate links?
I don't really know but he is using bots for all his accounts and that's forbidden.
Gotcha, I wasn't sure if you were saying affiliate links weren't allowed or bots. Yeah I heard recently a lot of the automation/bot Instagram services were shut down.