I don't understand Instagram

[robbins.photo]

There are plenty of people make a great living using Instagram.

True. Of course there are plenty of people who make a good living shoveling manure too - but I find myself thankful I took a different career path.

 

[Vtec44]

True. Of course there are plenty of people who make a good living shoveling manure too - but I find myself thankful I took a different career path.

True. I wouldn't act holier than thou when toward the manure shoveling people just because I don't know how they do it, especially when they're making millions vs someone who's working for the next vacation day.

 

[robbins.photo]

True. Of course there are plenty of people who make a good living shoveling manure too - but I find myself thankful I took a different career path.

True. I wouldn't act holier than thou when toward the manure shoveling people just because I don't know how they do it, especially when they're making millions vs someone who's working for the next vacation day.

Well, I doubt I'd act holier than thou around them, since I used to do that job.

 

[table1349]

True. Of course there are plenty of people who make a good living shoveling manure too - but I find myself thankful I took a different career path.

True. I wouldn't act holier than thou when toward the manure shoveling people just because I don't know how they do it, especially when they're making millions vs someone who's working for the next vacation day.

Well, I doubt I'd act holier than thou around them, since I used to do that job.

Hey, Mike Rowe made a mint from the shoveling.

 

[Watchful]

Be thankful you don't have 25000 fake friends.

 

[D-B-J]

Be thankful you don't have 25000 fake friends.

I'm just thankful I don't have this kind of negative attitude. [emoji5]

 

[Watchful]

There ya go, good thought.
Should be worth a new fake friend or two.

 

[D-B-J]

There ya go, good thought.
Should be worth a new fake friend or two.

Glad you think they're all fake. [emoji41]

 

[table1349]

Got to love this about the world today.
Instagram Went Down for 15 Minutes and People Freaked Out

 

[spiralout462]

This is one site I have never visited and have no intention to do so. I wish I lived in the 19th century sometimes.

 

[table1349]

When i posted this photo it was not done tongue in cheek. It really is that important to some people. Go figure.

 

[Watchful]

How often do they stop by for a visit?

I agree about not ever needing to go to social sites. I have a real social life with real friends in person.

 

[Vtec44]

This is why some of us have real friends outside of social networks, and also have friends on social networks. They different for different reasons and some people just don't get it. LOL

On another note, I have made some close personal friends on forums just like this. They come to all social events my wife and I throw every year.

 

[jsecordphoto]

How often do they stop by for a visit?

I agree about not ever needing to go to social sites. I have a real social life with real friends in person.

They aren't friends- they're potential (and actual) customers.

 

[andrewdoeshair]

I have a large Instagram following (116k right now). For me it was that I happened to be doing the right thing at he right time. The way I approached men's hairstyling was backward to the rest of the barber/stylist scene and because it was actually how I operated and what I believed (not faked for followers) it caught a lot of attention. After the followers started growing I read a lot of marketing books to find out why (Seth godin is amazing). The following gave me some amazing opportunities I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, like traveling the world to teach how I style hair. It also got me into photography, I started noticing that some hair pictures got more attention than others, and the quality of the work had less to do with it than the composition of the picture or the expression on the client. Neck tattoos and beards will sell any haircut.
Anyways, all that said, I get a lot of questions on how to grow on Instagram and my first response is a question. What do you want to get from your following? Usually stylists and barbers tell me they want endorsements. I've gotten maybe $1,000 worth of hairstyling tools for free because of my following, but it took me 1000's of hours to build the following- if I was doing it for free brushes it would be the worst paying job on the planet. I do it because what I know works for me, it's built my clientele tremendously over the past decade, and I've seen many of the philosophies build clienteles for dozens of other stylists and barbers. It's like an itch to communicate something that I used to think was a universal truth but learned later was unique (basic idea is that hairstyling is less about product and more about techniques)- the rest of the industry is trying to sell products to solve hair problems and I'm trying to get technicians to act more like teachers.
I got side tracked. Sorry. What I'm getting at, is Instagram can do great things, but you get better clients the old fashioned way and you can buy gear by working 1/100 as long at your day job as you would by sitting and interacting on IG. Plus people can smell if you're trying to get followers vs trying to offer them something of value. A following is a side effect to sharing inspiration, education, or entertainment and it usually works better if you're not faking it. Or you could just steal content left and right and get a repost page with 500k followers. The goal with every post should be to evoke people to tag their friends.