Photography

Posting a regular basis helps. Also sticking to one type of content (and general photography doesn't count) like dogs or night landscapes. Also go back in time to when the algorithm actually helped people with still images.

I just said it on another recent post but Imma say it again

Instagram is not photographer friendly unless that photographer does a bazillion of Reels of "how to get this photo" every week.

Tagging, consistency, as well as just networking in general. I got a lot of work simply by just mentioning it whenever I was out and about anywhere. From there I just slowly grew my account as word of mouth spread, and my work got shared more. Stay consistent, and learn social skills in order to be able to market yourselves to others.

Collaborations

Stills and insta are dead. The only thing people watch are shit videos taken on a dji gimble and don’t stop watching idiotic vertical video. Sorry for the rant. But these fucking assholes ruined proper photo and video. If it wasn’t for the software they wouldn’t even know how to frame a shot

Before there was mass exodus of post reach due to how instagram inorganically show posts to people using algorithm. I get less then 1% of views per post that i had prior.

I shamelessly exploit my cute cat and put his antics on Reels to draw in followers; sometimes they end up interacting with my photos

Turn your photos into reels, like 10 Best at a time, make a little jazzy video….it gets pumped to so many random feeds. If it’s good you’ll get some followers. But also make sure you have tons of stuff already on your profile. If I see a cool pic or video I always check the profile to see the rest of their work before I follow

I started paying ads. That’s what social media is for, IG is unfortunately not a photographic platform anymore.

I've used Instagram for photography for just over a year now and I still have around 160 followers. It takes time I guess

Someone reply to my comment so I can come back to this thread at work in the morning 😂

Growing on instagram currently means you need to make reels. There's a few trends for photo editing you could do. You need to use trending audio. You need to post often. post reel and photo at the same time, interact with other peoples posts, and post stories daily. Bonus points for interactive story posts.

Insta is also constantly changing what is needed. Right now, I believe posting reels to your followers is a bad move, but posting reels to the discover page is really good. (but your followers wont see it.)
Reels under 10 seconds do the best.

When you are posting photos, make it a carousel post always.

a year or two ago I heard when posting photos, include a filter on it every time. You can put it down to 1%. Instagram won't show it if you don't/

I think getting into the flow of posting as much as you can is a first. Then trying to play the algorithm comes next. It may be too overwhelming to do everything if you're just starting out.

Views and likes don't mean anything without an organic following. You have to interact with other people just as much as they have to interact with you. Even if you happen to have one viral post, it doesn't mean any other post is going to work off of that traction or build a community.

You're forgetting the "social" part of social media.

If u check subrreddit /Instagram, u be surprised how many thinks hiring bots or buying accounts are normal to them. I say just post whatever u want and don't worry about like count cause its likely not ur fault but insta weird algorithm.

Oh and one more thing, if you do want to post photos on Instagram always post a carousel of at least five or more photos. It's really the only way that static images will make it because they will keep referring the post to people with a different slide.

It helped when you kinda recognizable figure when insta came to life. And when a 2-16 million subscribers celeb tag you or follow your insta. It’s strange that people tend to follow every account their celeb is following. What is not helpful is to have a private account and declined all the requests if people have less followers when they are following. My top was 4000 with that strat.

Once I got 191 likes with a short reel. If I get above ten likes on a picture it’s “fairly good” I don’t really know. Good luck. I just stopped looking at the numbers and just post when I have things to post.

This might get lost but as someone with over 10k followers and a stupid reel with over 1m views…

Instagram doesn’t make sense and the algorithm is stupid at the moment.

Still, I try to post a reel daily and stills content 2/3 times a week.

You need to think about the following when producing continent for social media:

Engagement: Does your content encourage the viewer to like, comment, share or head to your page? Does your video encourage the viewer to watch all the way though?

Value: Is the viewer getting some value for their time? Are you entertaining them? Or are you educating them?

Audio: are you using trending or original audio. If you’re using original audio your sound design needs to be half decent and have depth.

I’m terms of stills posts you can provide value by uploading 10+ images in a carousel format, there’s a few tutorials of how to do this in photoshop but I’m also working on my own as I don’t feel that they’re great.

My Profile

I use Insta as my own little art gallery. I fucking love my photos and I’m always scrolling through them and digging the framing and the colours. Double-digit likes is always a big day for me. I’m just about to self-print my second little book from purely Insta photos. I really don’t think it’s the place to get famous for photos, but it sure is a good challenge to curate a personal collection.

Couple of things.

One post per day. No more, no less.

Instagram stories, dont just add your post to the story, but make dedicated images to be posted to your story, like behind the scenes, how I got this shot etc.

Tag reposter pages and get them to repost your content with credit.

Reels, you have to post reels now. You can still get decent traction on photo posts, but a significant percentage of your posts will have to be video rather than stills.

Persistence. It took me far longer to crack 500 followers than it did to jump from 1k to 2k.

The real question is anyone with 1k+ followers that is actually profiting from their time spent on instagram? I know it's nice to get recognition and all, but its a really soul sucking way to go about it.

I question how valuable Instagram is to photographers, or if it just distracts you from doing photography, because you're counting likes and trying to boost exposure on a site that wants you to PAY them for that.

Instagram is a self-generating, self-sustaining feedback loop. I like Instagram to see what's out there on hiking, backpacking, gear, and such, but as a user, I have no choice but to watch those stupid reels. If I hover for more than a second on a reel, I know I'll other get related reels that are of no interest to me. I know spend more time trying to scroll past reels to find what I want, than enjoying the photos that are of interest.

Got reposted by @Instagram in the first few years of it’s existence which skyrocketed my account

I’ll say I made a separate account for a niche subject I photograph. I only have 650 followers but I’ve got a few jobs out of it.

Interact with other accounts. Like other people stuff and comment.

Also make sure to not do every thing all at once. Space it out through out the day (especially when you start out)

What is your account? I will check out your photos!

Make reels

I mainly use IG as a gallery/portfolio. A lot of people (even actual customers) find and interact with me there. I don't live off photography, but I've almost made it a self-sustaining hobby.

For real interaction, sadly, the best option is to either post in X/Twitter/WhateverElonNamesItToday or Reddit. I suggest not doing it for the likes or whatever, they don't matter.

My personal opinion is to not care about likes. You'll be chasing likes instead of doing photography for love. It'll ruin it for you.

Any alternatives to Instagram? I do like a lot of street stuff on there. If i use flickr or most sites I'll never proper street stuff, it will always be generic, more cityscape landscape stuff.

I didn't know Instagram was such a dead place. I don't comment much, like a bit.

i've seen a roll today on instagram, it was a video where a guy said "im a photographer and i took this photo" then some music and his photo shows up. it's crazy. it's essentially a photo in a form of a video. others are right, instagram promotes videos.

Find a community outside of Instagram. I think 90% of the attention my work gets on Instagram is from friends, family, acquaintances and fellow artists I’ve connected with. I don’t expect much outside of that circle. But I’m also not trying to game the algorithm. I’m not interested in that.

Post one picture per day max. Post reels if you really want engagement but i haven’t sold my soul yet, just posting pics hahah It takes forever to build followers but keep it up! Also network with other platforms, it helps

I HATE instagram. For professionals it’s dead.

Now it’s a shitty algorithm with integrated tiktok swiping thing.

If you want just a followers, do what is popular in trends.

This being said, what are the best options for photographers to show their work and get a reaction outside of reels? If instagram can’t provide the right marketing feedback, where do we go?

Hey, I'm in a similar place as well. I've started an Insta page to showcase my photographs of what captivates me.
Can you share your InstaID? May be we can follow each other and have another like from like-minded persons?

Here's mine: Praveen Samudrala (@praveen_captures.png) • Instagram photos and videos

Idk this is still working or not but. I've got under 1k followers but i got lot of engagement from my photos and video back then. The key is consistent with your tone and the content of photo. For rising ur like try using hastag and follow some photograper like their photos. If you have more than 2 photo just use photo slide. (FYI)I'm not using instagram since 2018. So idk how the algorithm work now but of its still same u can try it.

tik tok views are fake and inflated. i used to be an active instagram user and amassed about 3k followers with hundreds of likes and dozens of comments on most posts. i think what attributed to my success was the fact that it was mostly hobby photography that focused on particular subjects. i am a published commercial product photographer, and occasionally shoot paid portraits of both people and vehicles.

@cichlid_visuals • Instagram photos and videos

like i said i have not been active in a while, and you can see the steep decline in like and activity as time went on, but if u scroll down a short bit, you will see the large amount of likes and comments and such.

overall what im trying to say here is you get what you put into it, and consistency, both in subject and activity, is key for success.