Growing My Account on Instagram

I joined Instagram back in 2009 or so and just used it as everybody else did. I posted concert photos, cool places and photos with friends. I noticed that about two or three years ago that when I posted a few images of art, architecture and design things that I started to get some serious likes. Probably around 300-500 likes per image at that time. It was a little surprising and a little exciting, so I kept doing it. I posted probably twice a week or so and tried to keep it to the best design work I was doing or a sketch from vacation or a building I was dreaming up. After months and months of this, my followers grew from a few hundred to a few thousand to tens of thousands to just over 50k total followers earlier this year.

The Big (Bad) Instagram Update

Back in March of 2017, Instagram changed the primary way in which the app had always displayed posts to users. One of the biggest changes that Instagram made in their update is that posts from accounts you follow no longer show up in chronological order. Not only can you not see the posts in chronological order, but you don’t even have the choice to reorganize them in any order other than what Instagram has decided. A lot of people were upset about this change.

So How Does Instagram Decide Which Posts to Show?

When instagram released this new algorithm they stated that the feed would be “ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most”. This included a number of changes, but one of them is incredibly hurtful to how certain people access and get exposure to their own followers. Instagram limits the posts to your followers based on their user behavior. If they like images of dogs, they’ll be fed more images of dogs and therefor will not see a lot of other posts that are happening because Instagram isn’t quite sure if they’ll like those photos.

Why the New Instagram is Failing Me

I haven’t been very active on Instagram for a number of months now - my followers are dropping, as they naturally do over time, and I don’t care about getting new ones. The overall experience is terrible. Not only are there more ads integrated into your feed along with the unwanted “suggested” posts from people who you don’t follow, but Instagram is selecting which posts you see from people you follow. If you like images of dogs, you’ll be fed more images of dogs and therefor will not see a lot of other posts that are happening because Instagram isn’t quite sure if you’ll like those photos. You’ll notice very quickly that your entire feed is filled with the same types of photos. Is this improved experience or limited experience? I’d say limited.

The Big Problem

The big problem with this type of user image targeting for me is that I post very diverse content. Even though it’s all design related, sometimes I’m posting a 3d rendering of a building we designed or a photo of a pen drawing or a screen mockup of an app or website we designed. In general, when a user clicks like on the rendering images, they’ll continue to get the images of renderings that we post, but they might not see the other types of images unless they’ve liked images like that in the past also. What’s the point of having a lot of followers if they don’t see your posts?

My Little Test

I wanted to see what the difference would be between a successful post from the past and the same image posted now. I took a post that had 1,658 likes and when I reposted it I found that the new post only received 210 likes. That is an incredible decrease in likes. Another thing that is happening is that Instagram is punishing those who are not using the app and interacting constantly. When I click like on a lot of posts and comment on a lot of posts I’ll get a greater return on user interaction - comments on my post will go from 1 or 2 to 25 if I interact more. While I understand that overall the community is better with very active users, the punishment is creating low quality interaction. The degree of punishment for those who only interact for 5-10 minutes per day versus hours per day is far too harsh.

Shouldn’t quality posts and quality interaction outweigh a large quantity of poor interaction? I’ve noticed a huge increase of what I’d simply call garbage comments like “nice” or “cool” or one thumbs up emoji. A little of this is fine, but not when it completely replaces any meaningful dialogue on a social media platform.

This Is Why I’m Switching to Steemit

In the limited amount of time that I’ve been on Steemit I’ve noticed quality comments, interesting and diverse posts and a general sense of community that is lost in other social media platforms. Maybe this is driven by the fact that there is currency involved or maybe people are interested in trying something different or maybe it’s just a better platform in general. I’m not quite sure what the answer is yet, but I’m in for the ride and excited to see how it plays out. I’m encouraged by the possibilities of Steemit as it relates to cryptocurrency and its potential as a major player in the future of new-age social media platforms.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Steemit as a social media platform and how it differs from the other popular platforms.

Ciao for now, Steemians.

- Weston (aka @design-guy)