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I've managed high follower (100K+), high engagement (3%+) accounts with 99% distinct human followers, and I can tell you that there is no prize for likes. It d

I've managed high follower (100K+), high engagement (3%+) accounts with 99% distinct human followers, and I can tell you that there is no prize for likes. It doesn't matter if your photo is getting 10 likes or 3500 likes, dozens of comments and reshares. It just becomes related to relative performance of the other post. So you shouldn't use instagram for that. Also, you should know that hashtags are not competitive at all for many years now, there is practically zero utility in using them at this point and you should only use them for irony or an extended caption, as they can convey your thoughts without a sentence, you're welcome. Although you can still game hashtags, but even then it is just good for balancing out attrition of followers and maintaining an account size, as opposed to actually growing the account. Going back to the main subject, you can use the overall engagement as a resource to acquire other goods and services though, like a currency that is never spent. People, brands will associate and do things for you for free (or with you, for free) because of the dream of your engagement, analogous to why the same brands and people gamble on ads with all the large tech conglomerates, a potential well of engagement. But you are just the dealer building inventory, and dealers know not to get high on their own supply so you shouldn't either. So by realizing there is no prize offered by the platform, no achievement unlocked, not even a digital sticker, you can short circuit the dopamine hits.

alvarlagerlof 5y ago
Yeah, I realized that growing meant nothing meaningful after a while. Kept growing, but nothing changed. This is something that happened 5+ years ago, and maybe three years back. I reckon hashtags were bigger than right? Certainly seemed to work. I could have been able to short-circuit that if I started now I suspect, but I was waay to young.
- vmception 5y ago
  At the scale you are talking about, 700 followers, hashtags can somewhat help with discovery. But they are practically irrelevant to other ways. Yeah, actually I stand by my first statement, the other ways are too relevant to really harp about hashtags. You're better off just commenting on other people's popular posts and asking for passerbys to look at your profile than spamming hashtags or trying to find a trending ones etc. But unless you are in the business of growing profiles for other people, you shouldn't use instagram for trying to gain ever growing exposure as the dopamine is dangerous. I don't have any solution for making that part of your visual arts display interest. If you tried again, you should go back to private or even keep it public only as a portfolio to show people in person. Or to show an identity when you are communicating with a potential romantic partner over the messaging system.
  - prawn 5y ago
    In my category (tourism content), specific hashtags or tagging accounts is a way to get on the radar of target clients. But I'd agree that other than that, it does little but attract followers that are barely relevant to your cause - not in your locale, not legitimately interested in your content, not spending money in your field, etc. And ultimately the right sort of content is what will count anyway. The best player in my industry/locale doesn't load up on hashtags now that he's on the right radars, he just makes great stuff.

alvarlagerlof 5y ago

Yeah, I realized that growing meant nothing meaningful after a while. Kept growing, but nothing changed. This is something that happened 5+ years ago, and maybe three years back. I reckon hashtags were bigger than right? Certainly seemed to work. I could have been able to short-circuit that if I started now I suspect, but I was waay to young.

vmception 5y ago
At the scale you are talking about, 700 followers, hashtags can somewhat help with discovery. But they are practically irrelevant to other ways. Yeah, actually I stand by my first statement, the other ways are too relevant to really harp about hashtags. You're better off just commenting on other people's popular posts and asking for passerbys to look at your profile than spamming hashtags or trying to find a trending ones etc. But unless you are in the business of growing profiles for other people, you shouldn't use instagram for trying to gain ever growing exposure as the dopamine is dangerous. I don't have any solution for making that part of your visual arts display interest. If you tried again, you should go back to private or even keep it public only as a portfolio to show people in person. Or to show an identity when you are communicating with a potential romantic partner over the messaging system.
- prawn 5y ago
  In my category (tourism content), specific hashtags or tagging accounts is a way to get on the radar of target clients. But I'd agree that other than that, it does little but attract followers that are barely relevant to your cause - not in your locale, not legitimately interested in your content, not spending money in your field, etc. And ultimately the right sort of content is what will count anyway. The best player in my industry/locale doesn't load up on hashtags now that he's on the right radars, he just makes great stuff.