Would I follow me?

 As mentioned here, I am have been pondering things like my creative brand and social media platforms and marketing and....all the stuff I struggle with. I am however committed to working my way through things and understanding it all better, so the other day I sat down to assess my Instagram account.

And one of the funniest things I wrote down was "Would I follow me???".

It came about because I was thinking about what I am looking for when I follow an Instagram account as it is one of the questions that Kim asks in the workshop. For me I think it is a combination of things:

• The art work and style have to appeal to me
• I like the look of an account to be consistent - that sense of when I go there I will find the sort of things I like on a regular basis
• I don't enjoy too much irrelevant information or imagery - food, travel, people etc
• However it is nice to have those occasional moments of life outside the art revealed.
• I like to see the person, the maker on occasions
• I like to see the process as well as the outcome
• I like to see close up details of things and the whole
• I don't like to see  a heap of promotion for events, mostly because living in a small country town I am unlikely to be able to see any of them!

I was surprised by the number of things that fed into an account's appeal and I wondered how my own account would stack up against my collection of 'criteria'.

And as I imagined, I was a bit disappointed and not entirely sure that I would follow me at all!

The first full screen from my Insta account (on my phone which is where I mostly look at Insta) when I did this check, had some book-ets, a close up of paper, some jewellery a stack of books, a promotion of the garage sale, a silver wire nest, promotion for Libris Awards, some cards, a black and white shot of some artwork, more promotion this time for for the pop up show in Scotland, some earrings, and black and white photo.

So I didn't give myself many marks for consistency, lack of promotion, or images of the artist or works in progress. And personally I just really don't like yellow and it felt 'ick' to see it on my page!

The next full screen of images was a bit better. The colour palette was more consistent, there was a photo of me, a bit of promotion and a real sense of the exhibition Hame which was the main focus at this time. Also a couple of random domestic arty moments which may or may not work.

Going further back, things were a bit hotch potchy, but the palette was soft and soothing, a mix of my work and others, and a lovely domestic moment (the vases) which seemed to complement the arty things.

I went back one more screen and the colours and paper-based nature of things worked well, the artists' books and the cards. I imagine the pax was for the International Day of Peace. The earrings sort of stood out a bit as different. I liked the pop of gold leaf int eh Circles of Concern.

My learnings from this were to really consider what I posted - both the why and the what - and to see if I could get the mix right of consistency with variations and interest, colour groupings that pleased the eye, and to use promotion very carefully. Especially when the colours don't suit me! I noticed some folk would have their art for a show on the front and the last image in the carousel would be the promotional image. The text would talk about the exhibition or show or whatever it was, but the promotional material wasn't the number 1 thing.

I am also now testing and trialling reels and stories - making short videos from images and adding music here and there. It is all a bit hit and miss at the moment, but a worthwhile thing to pursue I think.

The process is also making me think about, and try to understand, what I do where (like here on this blog) and what I do on Insta and what the website is trying to do and how they all fit together.  Fun times!