Urgh, Instagram.

What are we going to do with you, eh?

Those of you who are eagle-eyed, you will have noticed that I’ve not been as active on Instagram as I once was.

That’s because I literally couldn’t be bothered to post anymore.

I had nothing interesting to post, I was getting bogged down by how my feed wasn’t looking aesthetic anymore and I lost inspiration.

People underestimate how long it takes to create a good social media post. The same applies to Instagram.

From actually taking the photo, getting the best lighting, background, location, to editing it, choosing filters, whitening backgrounds, to then finally coming up with an engaging caption and hashtags. It’s a ball ache. 

Despite my love-hate relationship with posting on Instagram myself, I feel like the majority of my spare time is spent scrolling through other people’s Instagram posts that pop up on my timeline. Which can be such a procrastinator.

I envy those instagrammers who can take eye-capturing landscape photos, wanderlust travel photos, delicious food photos and flawless outfit shots. I think to myself “why can’t my photos look like that?”

It get me down, not going to lie, but I’m still determined to make Instagram a social platform that I love posting on.

Let’s talk Instagram…

Instagram themes

Sometimes I hate them, sometimes I love them.

But I can never crack them!

I’ve read all the blog posts telling me how to get the “perfect Instagram theme” and I’ve downloaded all the photo editing apps.

But my photos still come out looking patchy, dis-coloured and like a toddler has taken the photo.

I’ve had various of Instagram themes on my feed. Some of which I’ve been really proud of in the past.

For example:

I was very happy with this theme as it showcased my love for Autumn. It wasn’t forced, but around October I happened to have alot of autumnal themed photos, so I wanted to showcase those which lead to me naturally having an Instagram theme I didn’t intend on having.

Again, because I was posting lots from Barcelona, I somehow accidentally got into an Instagram theme.

Conclusion? Instagram themes only work when you’re posting content from a certain time, season or location and you have no idea that you’re accidentally creating an Instagram theme.

I have never purposely tried to make an Instagram theme in my feed. It only seems to work when I have lots of photos that I’ve enjoyed posting on. I think that’s when you get the best quality content…

Followers

Out of all my social media platforms, Instagram has always been the hardest one to gain followers on.

One minute you gain 5 followers, the next minute you loose 10.

And even in 2018, there are still people out there who are using the hashtag #followforfollow and are following and unfollowing accounts when you don’t want to follow them back.

Fair enough, we should all be supporting each other, but I believe if there is someone you don’t want to follow back, you shouldn’t be forced to.

But unfortunately, Instagram has given me trust issues. Especially when you see people only have 50 likes on their pictures, yet they somehow have over 11.5k followers, most of them being fake profiles.

No one has time for paid followers.

Unfortunately, Instagram is a numbers game and the big brands and companies look for that when it comes to finding the right influencer to represent their brand or product.

But if I’m going to get anywhere with Instagram, I’m going to just continue being me and posting what I want to post and just keep working on delivering quality over quantity. 

Who knows, my Instagram numbers might improve (or they might not, but that’s okay).

Forcing content

I don’t think you should force content on Instagram, unless it’s relevant.

Not only do I find this with my own personal Instagram, but when posting for social media clients through my job.

I loathe posting on Instagram as part of my daily responsibilities at work, because I feel like I’m just pushing content that’s not relevant.

Same applies to my own Instagram. I didn’t post anything between 26th December to 13th January because, despite doing lots and having that time off for Christmas, I literally had nothing to post that I felt was going to be engaging for my followers.

I’d rather not post anything at all for weeks on end than post something lame and irrelevant which I will just end up deleting in a few days time, if it means getting good content out.

I think if I’m faced with a situation where I find I have nothing to post, I’m not going to kick myself over it and make myself feel bad. If I have something to post, it will come across naturally instead of forced.

Sharing the love

I have seen other bloggers and influencers do this recently and it got me thinking whether I should start doing it more frequently.

Instagram stories has become a great place for influencers to share their daily lives, share new Instagram posts, blog posts and with Instagram’s new features like polls and stickers, it makes seem Snapchat so 2017.

Instagram stories has also been a place for bloggers and influencers to share their favourite Instagram accounts and I absolutely LOVE this new trend!

Not only does it share the love and gets other bloggers interacting with each other, but because of this, I have found so many new Instagram accounts to follow!

I did my first one the other day and the reaction I got was incredible!

It was the highest number of viewers my Instagram story ever received, plus I got followed back by those who I mentioned who hadn’t followed me before. So I’m definitely going to continue doing this in the future.

So I guess Instagram can be okay…

It’s like Marmite. But in the end, I always go back to Marmite cause I love it secretly. 

What are your thoughts on Instagram? Do you have a love-hate relationship with it?

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