maipenquynh goes Instagram - An experiment, round 1

Instagram for the blog - a recurring topic. I blogged my first thoughts in February 2023 , when I also launched my account. But I wasn't satisfied with what I had. And that's the starting point for the experiment.

I shorten Instagram with IG or Insta depending on my mood.

Day -4 / The experiment and the question

One thought kept occupying my mind: maipenquynh Instagram, for real – yes or no?

To approach this, I did an experiment. I'm going to consciously use Instagram. For 6 weeks. And see how it feels like and what it gives me or whether it's just extra work without any positive feeling.

The question is: Is Instagram really that much work for my blog and is it worth it? Can I integrate the work into my everyday life? Will Instagram increase visibility for me and my blog?

Day 1 / Starting

• Upgrading bio of maipenquynh account
• Writing a post regarding the experiment and doing my thing
• Effort: in total, I spent about 1-2 hours on it. Formulating the text, looking for pictures. Indeed, it was a bit of work. But let's see - this was the starting signal, so perhaps a little more effort is justified.

Day 2 / Stastistics

• Let's take some numbers for comparison: starting on day 1 with 22 followers

I have continued my journal, but from here onwards I am pooling my findings:

Canva

I've played around with Canva for both posts and stories. It was always pretty cool and a lot of fun. Playing with fonts, colours, shapes and composition.

Stories and their importance

I have never posted a story until I became an active instagramer for maipenquynh. I was pretty Boomer-like in that regard. And still am, actually. But at least a a little less!

I have learnt why people repost their own posts in stories so often: this makes them more visible. How surprised I was when a good friend told me that she doesn't go through her post feed at all. So whatever I uploaded as a post wasn't seen by her at all.

Discouraged

Once, I had exactly zero likes for a post. That hurt. I realised that the post was not very exciting (Internet findings (2)). Nevertheless. Since then, I've differentiated more between a post and a story.

Being on the fence

Every now and then I realised that I had lost the focus and the question. For example, by looking at a note like this: ‘It's hard to be on IG and not be seen and liked. Not personally, but for the IG persona.’ and times when I forgot about the game aspect and asked myself: ’How can I achieve the state where I do IG for myself? And seeing it as a fun game?"’

I had to actively actively think back and remember the beginning and the aim and purpose of this experiment. What was it about again? ‘showing my analogue photos, but perhaps also showing a bit more of life again [...] sharing photos as best I can.’

Authenticity and being myself

I feel like I'm not so much me on the maipenquynh Insta account. From the writing style. And I didn't feel it that much either. Is that also a matter of time until that sets in? Or was it the context, the experiment and that I wanted to present myself as an IG persona that made me feel like this? I know myself from my personal account - and that definitely felt different. More cosy, more me. So who, then, is this IG-maipenquynh? Do I like her?

Final statistics

41 followers on day 42. Note: I advertised myself in my personal circle. 

Some posts have a handful, sometimes even two handfuls of likes.

Goal achieved?

I deal a lot with well formulated goals - and this goal was not well defined xD

I was able to integrate IG into my everyday life but in the end I didn't do that much. In the beginning, the 6 weeks went by faster than I thought, but in the end I didn't really care. I still did my weekly post à la 1 analogue photo and posted stories for new posts.

In my opinion, the experiment hasn't changed my visibility - I am just as (less) visible as before. The account is irrelevant for my blog. In retrospect, when I look at the structure of this experiment again, this is not that surprising.

Was the work worth it? No, not really. At least not within the defined framework.

And even though I was very disillusioned and demotivated at the end, I quickly decided to do a second round. Because Instagram is still an interesting tool in itself. Especially for photos. And I couldn't let go of it. And anyway, isn't everything a journey in some way?

Closing words

My favourite recognition: I don't understand Insta 😀 Although I use it every day, my understanding regarding content creation equals ZERO.

And that is understandable. Just because I use a medium doesn't mean I know how it works. That's when I realise how much I underestimated Instagram as a medium.

PS

I started writing this post when the first round was over and the second round was ongoing. Now that I'm finishing the post, the second round is also over and I'm 6 weeks richer in knowledge.

Now I realise all the more that I didn't really know what I wanted to achieve. When I scroll to the top, to the beginning, a central question arises:

What was it really about? To have fun with the IG account? About commitment and regular posting? About visibility? To showcase my analogue photos? About my maipenquynh IG persona and establishing it? To get people from IG to my blog? For advertising?

With this pile of question marks I close this post and continue my thoughts in the post for the second round. Here: Part 2.

• Category: Something with Photo, Mein Blog und ich (My blog and I)
• Tag: Instagram, lernlogbuch, ziel- und prozessorientiert