[Closed] Does anyone use Instagram?

You need to make target users with similar interests using # or @ for starters. What are the cars? No one will find your stuff without description or tags

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-use-instagram

its all about tagging. Find as many hashtags as you can that are relevant to your hobby/business and tag every post you make with them. The more the better.

how do I gain followers and get likes.

Dress up like an elf and walk around reading Marx.

https://twitter.com/ElvisTheAlienTV/status/1444751892865765378

^ noted.👍

I've started following and forwarded it to one of my mates who I know will be interested in what you produce, or at least photo's of them!

Much appreciated, I need to get the hang of the tagging thing...

I don't use Instagram, but I am curious now - might as well post a link to your eBay too 🙂

I quit Instagram as I find it's rocket fuel for depression. I don't need any help being miserable.

As others have said - you need to use hashtags to build your page - i'm crap at it hence why i've not got many followers. i'm @matt_cooks_and_rides

It's free to turn your account to a business account, then you can look at some basic information regarding your reach/audience etc.

You can then pay to promote your posts so it reaches more people.

I changed to business account for something to do one day (I don't have a business) and they occasionally send me a free "voucher" to use on promotion. I've never done it obviously, as I've got nowt to promote

On the very rare occasions I look at IG I'm just amazed at the number of tags people add to photos, I would have fallen asleep before I finished adding them all. #Nofilter #Justwokeup #STW #DearGodMakeItStop...

its all about tagging. Find as many hashtags as you can that are relevant to your hobby/business and tag every post you make with them. The more the better.

This is a start point.
Get a list of relevant hashtags saved and use them on every post, I think you're allowed 30 per post ish?
Tag people who have big followings and are relevant to what you do in the hope that they'll repost and/or interact with it.
Generally interact with others, comment, repost, make yourself part of the community.

With the Instagram Professional account, how useful is it for general contant?

Be interesting to see how well hashtags work, which ones get more engagement and so on. How well does it show this @richardkennerley ?

I quit Instagram as I find it’s rocket fuel for depression.

I spend far too much time on Instagram and after reading this I deleted the app. I might actually sleep properly instead of flicking through photos of other people's amazing lives.

@danposs86 not sure how useful it is, I'm not in the business game, just did it out of interest one day!

But it says your posts reached X number of people, so many percent by tag, location, followers etc. Then whether they like it, follow you, forward it etc. It also does a basic demographic break down, I'm mostly followed by middle aged makes for example.

This is all free and takes no time to do, you just go into your account settings and switch over. My "business" is "personal blog" 🤣

A mate who does run an eBay business spent an evening just liking posts and following hundreds of people, X number of those people will follow you back.

I quit Instagram as I find it’s rocket fuel for depression. I don’t need any help being miserable.

I do find this. No matter what you make, lots of other people will have made something way more awesome than you.
I try to limit how much I look at. It's damaging to compare yourself constantly.

I do use it for my business though and I do get business and contacts through it. People really like to follow projects through 'stories' and regular posts.

As mentioned, it's all about the hashtags.

There are apps available that help you optimise the hashtags you use.
You're allowed 30.
You enter a hashtag into the app and it comes back with 30 relevant hashtags which you can copy and paste into your post.
It's not a bad way to get started with hashtags until you get to know what works.

I also have a file on my phone where I keep groups of 30 hashtags relevant to a particular area of work that I may have produced. When I want to post something similar to a previous post I just copy and paste my own hashtags again.

What I tend to do is to write a description of what I'm posting along with the post. I'll also @ anyone or any company that's been involved with what I've done.
I'll post that, and then as a comment I'll paste my 30 hashtags.
Keeps things a bit cleaner and easier to read then.

People follow hashtags that they're interested in, so finding the most popular hashtags relevant to what you post is key to growing your audience.
As you start to enter a hashtag, a pop-up will appear giving you suggestions as you type. It also includes the amount that each hashtag has been used. Try to pick the ones that are used the most.

It's very nice to get feedback on what you're doing but I do think you have to be a bit careful about how much you look at.

It can be easy to convince yourself that everyone is better at everything and you suck....which can suck.

I spend far too much time on Instagram and after reading this I deleted the app. I might actually sleep properly instead of flicking through photos of other people’s amazing lives

Happy to help! I deleted Facebook and Instagram from my phone at the same time and could literally feel my brain chemistry adjusting back to normality. I'll sometimes have a glance on the PC but I don't post or interact anymore and I'm much happier for it.

More relevant to the thread...I did actually use it for years when I was working as a photographer and had a steady supply of quality content. I never once received any useful contacts or job offers through it. They all came from people I already knew and word of mouth.

Still, it was nice to have somewhere to put stuff. I never achieved thousands of followers. Probably because I didn't chase them and put the work in.

Now that I'm in full time normal job world I have absolutely nothing of value to show anyone. What I don't want to see anymore is all the world travelling, Whistler riding, supercar driving, scuba diving, sexy, rich athletes rubbing my nose in it while I'm stuck in an office in rainy Yorkshire. It totally kills me.

I spend far too much time on Instagram and after reading this I deleted the app. I might actually sleep properly instead of flicking through photos of other people’s amazing lives

Now if this current forced downtime from Instagram and Facebook extended to STW, Pinkbike and TheChive, I might actually get something done today 😉

@danposs86 not sure how useful it is, I'm not in the business game, just did it out of interest one day!

But it says your posts reached X number of people, so many percent by tag, location, followers etc. Then whether they like it, follow you, forward it etc. It also does a basic demographic break down, I'm mostly followed by middle aged makes for example.

This is all free and takes no time to do, you just go into your account settings and switch over. My "business" is "personal blog" 🤣

A mate who does run an eBay business spent an evening just liking posts and following hundreds of people, X number of those people will follow you back.

Managed to amass about 20k followers over the 2 accounts that I run on insta. I’m far from an expert on insta but I think the best way to gain followers and likes etc is by engagement. Post regularly with captions that creates comments, likes and shares and then reply to all of those comments and engage in conversations.

Comment on the bigger accounts posts and engage in their comments sections to get their followers to click onto your page.

Whilst hashtags may look a bit naf it’s definitely worth doing as it makes you more visible to people who don’t follow you.

As stated above definitely switch to a business account so that you can see your insights and how your likes/followers are finding you.

Thanks alot everyone. Thanks to those that have followed too.🤗😎

Managed to amass about 20k followers over the 2 accounts that I run on insta. I’m far from an expert on insta but I think the best way to gain followers and likes etc is by engagement.

This is kind of it - followers count for far less than engagement rates. Some accounts with 10k+ followers have 100 likes and 2-3 comments per post, that's worth little compared to 1000 followers and 300 likes / 20 comments on a post.
Do something specialist that you love and be genuine. (ie mybe not just RC cars but a particular era / style / etc?). Share your enthusiasm. Be found by a small group who love what you do. It'll grow from there very naturally.
Engaging with people helps you be found too if your engagement on other posts is genuine and relevant, ie less of the generic or attention-seeking junk some post.

I don't like FB and have conflicts about IGs ownership but for me IG's been really positive. I only follow a narrow range of accounts though. ie frame builders - the skill levels could make me feel like a bit of a fraud based on what I do for work but I find it inspiring and a creativity spark. Whatever we do, there's loads of people who are way better than us so get used to it : )
Anyone who has themselves in most of their posts can do one (unless it's a friend I'm following of course). Like 'outdoor' accounts who manage to have themselves in all their photos as if they're more important than the landscapes they claim to celebrate. I want to see what people love doing, not people who love themselves. IG is terrible for vanity but it's so easy to avoid.

PS I loved my Tamiyas BITD, the box artwork as much as the cars themselves.

Happy to help! I deleted Facebook and Instagram from my phone at the same time and could literally feel my brain chemistry adjusting back to normality.

Great idea.

One of the best things I did while I was trying to control my smartphone usage (and before I got rid of it entirely) was to take away my bedside USB charger, and charge the phone overnight downstairs. As you say, I felt the changes in brain wiring as I learned to deal with not having my before-sleep scroll. Still, I would do well for a week, and then find my phone back in my hand in bed.

Edit: In response to the original question, no I don't, but best of luck!

I use insta but more sporadically, and I cross post to Facebook. Much prefer Tiktok these days, and I suspect that insta has become more of a business "thing" whereas tiktok seems to be more personal. Could just be the seemingly constant feed of attractive, near naked females I seem to receive on there though? 🤔

A friend is a teacher and her year 9 kids showed her how to buy drugs on instagram. Apparently it's the same for every town. There's a certain hashtag, then your town name, and you can get weed to your house.

I use it for my little business and even did a day-course in 'managing social media' at the start, but try as I might (by doing all of the above other than paying for promotion) I can't seem to attract more followers. 130 in 4.5 years seems very paltry... Is it worth all the time and effort I put into it? Probably not. Certainly no work has ever come my way because of it. Mind you, 90% of my clients are Local Authorities and they don't seem to spend too much time on Instagram. A new potential client did make contact through Instagram once, but I ended up telling them how to do what they wanted for free without involving my services.

It's a wonder I don't starve.

I have that Impreza from your most recent photos, it was my choice for the Tamiya Iconic Cup this year (which I won ahem...), what a right faff it was putting all the stickers on! The blue I used was slightly too light, I backed it with white, wondered if black would have been better but looks like you used white backing but must have been a darker blue.