Did anyone notice I now have an “Instagram” link on the social media menu on the side of this website? No? Well… it’s there!
I’ve used primarily Twitter for my social media updates. I’ve heard from many people that Instagram is the hottest social platform du jour. You can’t really advertise your brand, or indie game, without it. I thought I’d give it a try. In many ways, I love it and hate it.
Instagram profile as seen in desktop web browser
I generally hate social media. It’s silly. But there is no other real way to apply ‘free advertising.’ I gave up on Facebook a long time ago, found Reddit to be the best platform to get feedback (IF you have real content to share, and are a regular user of the forum), and found Twitter to be the easiest platform to use on a regular basis. Semi-regularly… I’ve had trouble forcing myself to update it. I irregularly make posts about once a month, not really having much to say. In the past year, despite having over 1,000 followers, I rarely get any feedback beyond A.I.-bots that repost if you use a certain hashtag. Text, photos or video, doesn’t really matter.
“Instagram” is a bit different. To summarize it, it forces all posts to use photo (or video); that’s the main content of every post. You can add a short sentence or series of hashtags with it, but the photo should say it all. Best suited for travellers and vloggers who live by the motto “let me take a selfie.”
My initial experience: user engagement is definitely better than Twitter. At first, most of my posts would get a dozen “likes,” and occasionally a comment or two. Great! That engagement did slow down a bit… after the first two months, I now get as low as 3-4 likes per post, but occasionally it shoots up again to more than 10. Still better than other platforms, from my experience, even if it doesn’t come close to users who regularly get a million likes each day. As for “followers”… it follows the same unwritten rules of Twitter: following someone expects that they will follow back, and vice-versa, and users will flip-flop often on your followers page as they try to grow their own fanbase. I decided not to play that game as severely as I did with Twitter, so my follower count has been stuck around 50, just barely over the amount I follow. Compared to when I just started, it doesn’t seem to make much difference as to whether you have followers or not at all, as long as you use hashtags on your posts. Also, video posts don’t seem to do particularly well (data through a mobile app is always in short supply), unless it’s important to the joke or message.
As an excuse of having something to post, I post two types of content: my “Indie’d” webcomic (of which I already have over 100 strips to post), and screenshots of my current and old games. Typically, the webcomics get the least traction, sensible since the humor targets a small audience, and is generally un-exciting compared to color screenshots of a game. I originally posted content every day, a recommendation from other small-business users online. It’s exhausting, and now, I post a couple times on weekends only.
So Instagram is good for user engagement, but what don’t I like about it? The biggest issue is that it’s a mobile app. ONLY a mobile app. Not a proper website. You cannot post photos from your PC. Instead, you must download photos from your smartphone, and upload posts from there.
…. What?!??! I know it’s 2019, but people DO still use Windows computers!!! It’s somewhat impressive that Instagram is doing their best to prevent spam and encourage “selfie-culture,” but artwork and other photos tend to be better when enhanced and prepared on a proper PC. This alone is a massive hurdle for most businesses, and while existing users seem to appreciate the lack of commercial spam, I suspect Instagram’s opportunity for growth will severely diminish in just a couple years. If it weren’t for using scheduling software, like I do with a free account with “Later,” even I would have quickly given up (but with “Later,” it’s just a couple buttons away whenever my phone gets a pre-set reminder). Even then, Instagram is much more protective compared to Twitter with what other apps can do to automate posts. Even compared to Reddit, I can’t think of a more restrictive platform.
Another issue is that Facebook owns Instagram, and tries very hard to tie the two together. If you are an active Facebook user, that’s not a major issue. As for me, having once had but abandoned a Facebook page… it’s essentially impossible for me to properly make one again to tie it to my new Instagram page. I’ve tried many times. I can continue to use Instagram, but declaring it as a “business page” or setting up any paid advertising is not allowed without a verified Facebook account. In recent months, it’s not unusual to think some people would deliberately not want to use Facebook, so this type of practice to force it upon users is irritating.
Finally, using Instagram, including formatting images to “the correct aspect ratio” and scheduling them, is exhausting. More so since I’ve tried to post at regular intervals. The result is that time I’ve spent writing new comics has diminished dramatically. And as of this writing, I haven’t posted anything to Twitter in about 2 months. Social media advertising really is a full-time job, something that a part-time-indie-already-stretched-for-time doesn’t have much time for to use effectively. It’ll probably take me at least a few more months to find the right balance to using it.
All the same, indie developers and artists have to go where the trends are. Instagram is still one of the most popular platforms today, and it’s photo-centric approach is well suited to visual art, films and games. It would be foolish not to use it. At least, to promote your games at first for a few years. Eventually, one would hopefully get enough of a reputation that they could post on a private blog and abandon social media altogether.
Anyway, below are copies of my most popular posts so far, as of the first (approximately) 90 days. Another issue with Instagram is the difficulty in finding ways to sort posts of an account by any metric other than time… I got these top 5 based on the “Insights” page inside my own Instagram account. Note that most of the popular posts came from January, early in my account’s lifespan. Curiously, a specific webcomic late in my account’s life got a lot of likes… maybe it’s a little more true than anyone is willing to talk about?
