Tag: Instagram

maipenquynh goes Instagram. A topic that won't let me go. I wanted to encourage myself to use Instagram more by carrying out an experiment. I've done two rounds so far. The first round was summarised here and I drew my conclusions. Today's post is about the second round.

The framework

The second round started just under a week later. At the beginning, I had set it up very similarly to the first round and told myself that every week, I wanted to upload 2 posts with an analogue photo. Getting closer to my IG persona was also on the agenda. Again, all within a period of 6 weeks.

I quickly changed my plans. I realised that I didn't like the 2 posts per week at all and that it was taking all the fun out of it. In the end, I reduced my goal to getting closer to my IG persona and posting more according to my gut feeling. It should be more about the journey, the fun factor and the things I would learn along the way when preparing and posting things.

Conclusion

I still had the most fun with Canva. But it's a lot of work to prepare the slides (is that what they're called?). This bit of graphic design with colours and fonts is cool, but I sometimes I was occupied for quite a long time to get an acceptable composition.

Even though I redefined the goal, in summary I lost sight of the experiment quite soon. The desire to experiment was gone and it was just something I had to do. Picking the photo I wanted to post. Preparing, posting, done. Of course, it was handy that all the Madeira posts were online on the blog at that time. This meant that most of the content on Instagram was quite the same.

When I look at my feed now, I don't really feel connected to it. ... Does one have to feel connected to one's Instagram feed? One doesn't have to but that's my expectation. Just like on the blog, I curate images and words and share them with the world. That's a piece of me. So I do want to feel a bit of a connection.

Getting lost on the way

I mentioned it at the end in the PS of the post for the first round, which I wrote right before this one: In retrospect, I really don't know what I wanted to achieve. I'm confused about myself. Maybe that's because I started thinking too much at some point. Even though it was initially planned to be a lot of fun and experimentation , at some point it turned into a duty and suddenly the fun and experimentation were gone.

Positive aspects of the experiment

What I liked about the experiment as a framework was that I had given myself a time frame and at least tried to set a goal.

The time frame helps to have a beginning and, above all, an end. After the end, I can look back and form my opinion. The goal description provides orientation at the beginning, in the middle and, of course, at the end of the experiment. The difficult thing is to formulate the goal in a meaningful way. I still need to work on that a bit 😀 By the way, I use the SMART method.

A quick look at the very beginning

While writing this, I opened my first post about maipenquynh goes Instagram and would like to say a few words about it. At that time, I told myself to just go for it. Post photos, use hashtags and see what happens. I didn't know how and what I would post.

Conclusion: Hashtags annoy me on many days. Sometimes I feel like doing it but it's no longer a must for me. I also had the feeling that they didn't help much for the recent IG posts. Simply posting didn't work either, which is the reason for this experiment in the first place. Instagram is work. I would like to emphasise this here and now. But what I've learnt from these experimental rounds is how I want to post my photos and announcements. One step further, hooray!

Closing words

These two experimental rounds have shown me that this approach doesn't fit me. Thus, I'm still looking for a good relationship between myself and my maipenquynh IG account. As this very vague desire, to use and to play on Instagram, remains, this maipenquynh goes Instagram-journey most probably doesn't end here. Even though, at the same time I ask myself whether I'm not taking this whole Instagram thingy too seriously and whether it's taking up too much space (see these two posts).

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.