Perhaps the OPs shots are just unappealing? It’s easy to get caught up in one’s own importance. The declining hits could be considered a judgement from the consumer. For many of my shots on Flickr I suspect hits come from nerds researching specific films, or lenses, and only occasionally because the subject appeals. Then there are some that seem to be vaguely popular for reasons I cannot fathom. Personally, given the immense number of images continually being added to these platforms, it’s a miracle anyone notices anything. Personally I don’t care as it is just a hobby for me.
I worked for the evil empire that owns IG. Suffice it to say that the algos are all about monetization and demographics tilt towards young, female audience because that's where the money is. 18-26 age range. Same as what TikTok focuses on. Video is key and Meta learned this the hard way when TikTok almost wiped out IG around the highly coveted audience base I mentioned.
Isabellandscapes and others have carved out a niche with largely overprocessed but Instagram friendly content. And many of them are sponsored by the likes of Sony.
RoamingScott wrote:
Stop caring about likes and just freely share your work without expectations.
As I wrote a year ago: it's not about likes: it's about getting enough views to make the botheration worthwhile of posting on Instagram and choosing the hashtags.
I would get hold of a young person who uses Instagram and have them give feedback on your photostream. Else, just post pictures and stop caring about the likes.
Mitch Alland wrote:
As I wrote a year ago: it's not about likes: it's about getting enough views to make the botheration worthwhile of posting on Instagram and choosing the hashtags.
Jaree wrote:
I would get hold of a young person who uses Instagram and have them give feedback on your photostream. Else, just post pictures and stop caring about the likes.
Occasionally, I get Instagram PMs from people who bought my book and write me how much they like it. They're mostly young (both men and women) and usually like the photo stream; but I don't think any one of them bought the book because they had seen my Instagram account. As for likes, as I wrote in my post just above yours, it's not likes that concern me; it's the paucity of views, which have declined so much in the last few years, for the reasons stated by some people earlier in this thread.
Mitch Alland wrote:
As I wrote a year ago: it's not about likes: it's about getting enough views to make the botheration worthwhile of posting on Instagram and choosing the hashtags.
I explained pretty clearly a year and a HALF ago why IG is dead for stills. Nothing has changed since then.
You're using IG like it's 2016 despite seeing evidence that it doesn't work anymore (your wall of hashtags for instance, which IG has bluntly said will HURT your standing in the algorithm) and still caught up in caring about views and likes. I'm not sure what more can be said to sate you.
My original advice, which was to use social media as a street sign pointing people to your own website, is still my best advice. My small-ish website gets about 5,000 unique views per month and those views lead to much more interesting outcomes than my IG (sales, sponsorships, collaborations, meeting cool people, etc).
One thing came to mind looking over this thread again, would I even be interested in any of this if there was no money involved. It's not like I enjoy it, really, or that it makes sense to me. Because if thats the only reason you're doing it, it's not as likely to go too well
Mitch Alland wrote:
As I wrote a year ago: it's not about likes: it's about getting enough views to make the botheration worthwhile of posting on Instagram and choosing the hashtags.
Stop using hashtags. Just write what you want to and be sure your keywords are in what you write. Or participate in official brands' account hashtag promotions. Choose brands that you see responding to people that participate: Nikon, Fujifilm, Leica, etc. Some brands are just not active in this way.
But to your point, even if you get a lot of views, what's the point to that? Massive views on IG are often bot-driven so that the bot accounts look like real people to the IG police. Look at the stupid stats below for this IG post I made, which was a single photo with audio added. Do you really think that each account viewed my post 48 times (views divided by accounts reached)? Do you think they watched it continuously so that it looped 48 times? I guess if they set their phone down and just wanted to listen to the audio, then maybe.
Outside of bot activity, the only content that gets you massive views are 1) America's Funniest Home Videos style content and 2) authentic phone-captured video of you discussing something that is insanely interesting to a lot of people or is some kind of bait, rage or otherwise.
IG is just as dead for photos as Flickr. Post for your own enjoyment and to share your work with people you know.
IG just laughing at me. Look how many people saw but didn't like.
highdesertmesa wrote:
Stop using hashtags. Just write what you want to and be sure your keywords are in what you write. Or participate in official brands' account hashtag promotions. Choose brands that you see responding to people that participate: Nikon, Fujifilm, Leica, etc. Some brands are just not active in this way.
But to your point, even if you get a lot of views, what's the point to that? Massive views on IG are often bot-driven so that the bot accounts look like real people to the IG police. Look at the stupid stats below for this IG post I made, which was a single photo with audio added. Do you really think that each account viewed my post 48 times (views divided by accounts reached)? Do you think they watched it continuously so that it looped 48 times? I guess if they set their phone down and just wanted to listen to the audio, then maybe.
Outside of bot activity, the only content that gets you massive views are 1) America's Funniest Home Videos style content and 2) authentic phone-captured video of you discussing something that is insanely interesting to a lot of people or is some kind of bait, rage or otherwise.
IG is just as dead for photos as Flickr. Post for your own enjoyment and to share your work with people you know.
p.7 #10 · Getting less and less views on Instagram
This is not IG related, but as a sidenote, on Google Maps, photos of Walmart and other places get a lot more views. Now only if Google would pay me a few cents per view.....
p.7 #13 · Getting less and less views on Instagram
One last thought. Have any of you considered becoming a fit young blonde from England who poses in her undies while shooting selfies with a film camera? I think that might be the last path left for stills shooters.
p.7 #14 · Getting less and less views on Instagram
a bit off topic but also kind of not since I always see people say flickr is dead (including in this thread). i still really enjoy flickr. flickr *groups* is largely defunct as a concept, but even there not entirely. the best groups are either extremely selective with submissions or are straight up invite only, but there are some pretty cool ones with load of high quality photography.
if you want engagement there, you generally need to engage yourself. follow lots of people that you find in those cool groups and your home page becomes an endless scroll of some great photography. and if you make an effort to give people feedback, they'll do the same for you.
now, the amount of validation we get from that engagement and whether or not it's healthy is a whole other discussion, but i for one am perfectly content with what i get out of flickr, given what i put into it.
p.7 #15 · Getting less and less views on Instagram
Fescue wrote:
a bit off topic but also kind of not since I always see people say flickr is dead (including in this thread). i still really enjoy flickr. flickr *groups* is largely defunct as a concept, but even there not entirely. the best groups are either extremely selective with submissions or are straight up invite only, but there are some pretty cool ones with load of high quality photography.
if you want engagement there, you generally need to engage yourself. follow lots of people that you find in those cool groups and your home page becomes an endless scroll of some great photography. and if you make an effort to give people feedback, they'll do the same for you.
now, the amount of validation we get from that engagement and whether or not it's healthy is a whole other discussion, but i for one am perfectly content with what i get out of flickr, given what i put into it....Show more →
That still sounds like the exhaustive comment-for-comment behavior on IG. There’s a whole cadre of these folks that spam-comment positive posts to hundreds of posts for the people they follow and don’t follow. These groups all comment back to each other, which does turn up the engagement. But it’s exhaustive and disingenuous by nature since the driving force behind it is to push engagement with your own content. (Side note: That’s one reason I like DPR forums like system because you can’t see who liked what.)
p.7 #17 · Getting less and less views on Instagram
highdesertmesa wrote:
That still sounds like the exhaustive comment-for-comment behavior on IG. There’s a whole cadre of these folks that spam-comment positive posts to hundreds of posts for the people they follow and don’t follow. These groups all comment back to each other, which does turn up the engagement. But it’s exhaustive and disingenuous by nature since the driving force behind it is to push engagement with your own content. (Side note: That’s one reason I like DPR forums like system because you can’t see who liked what.)
hmmm. i've never had instagram, but what you describe here doesn't sound like my experience on flickr. but, i generally avoid accounts with thousands of followers.
but there are so many with dozens or hundreds of followers who post photographs i admire. when i comment on something they post, it's pretty clear i've actually, you know, looked at the photo, and when they comment on my stuff i generally feel like they've done the same.
beyond that, i'm interested in like counts because it's an indirect way to get feedback. mostly i'm curious to see if what i think was a kickass photo turns other people on too. sometimes i'm surprised that what i think is the best one gets very little love.
p.7 #18 · Getting less and less views on Instagram
RoamingScott wrote:
One last thought. Have any of you considered becoming a fit young blonde from England who poses in her undies while shooting selfies with a film camera? I think that might be the last path left for stills shooters.
p.7 #19 · Getting less and less views on Instagram
Fescue wrote:
beyond that, i'm interested in like counts because it's an indirect way to get feedback. mostly i'm curious to see if what i think was a kickass photo turns other people on too. sometimes i'm surprised that what i think is the best one gets very little love.
My philosophical take on this (that you didn't ask for) is that I think we should be more interested in making the work that resonates most with us vs using likes and comments and followers as metrics of "good" and "bad" in the work that we are sharing.
There are very few IRL people I would ask for earnest critique from, so why open myself to feeling that way about random likes from a grandma in Serbia who posts terrible cell phone photos of her garden.
p.7 #20 · Getting less and less views on Instagram
RoamingScott wrote:
My philosophical take on this (that you didn't ask for) is that I think we should be more interested in making the work that resonates most with us vs using likes and comments and followers as metrics of "good" and "bad" in the work that we are sharing.
There are very few IRL people I would ask for earnest critique from, so why open myself to feeling that way about random likes from a grandma in Serbia who posts terrible cell phone photos of her garden.
but grandma's got game, scott.
i maybe didn't articulate very well, but i really meant that i view like counts as a kind of curiosity. i.e., do 'the people' like what i like, or are they wrong? ha
but a like or comment here is worth a lot more.