The Algorithm Is Not Your Audience
What I've learnt after 10 years of sharing my work online
Whenever I talk shop with a fellow artist, whether they’re another weaver, a potter or a woodworker, a painter or a print-maker, the same topics come up again and again. Rising studio rents, VAT bills, shipping to the EU, and of course - always - the challenges of making content for social media.
Artists have always had to network, strategise and market their work. In theory, Instagram and other social media apps are a frictionless way to do just that. But as I’ve found in my own practice, and many of my fellow artists have found in theirs, social media can become all-consuming if you’re not careful.
Recently, I’ve been reflecting on how to approach social media, and Instagram in particular, in a more balanced way. After all, Instagram has been a huge part of my creative journey, and I’ve been using this app to share my art for 12 years. In that time, it’s gone from a place where I shared simple photos (remember when you could only post square pictures?) to a place that demands a bewildering number of different types of content to keep the algorithm satisfied.
And as I started to work on this piece, one thing became glaringly obvious to me. I was spending too much time trying to give Instagram what it wants.
You And Instagram Want Different Things
There’s been plenty of discussion in the 15 years of Instagram’s existence about how the app is designed to keep us scrolling. But I haven’t seen as much discussion about how the app is designed to encourage us, as artists and creatives, to produce a certain kind of content for it.
All the fancy engagement metrics - the likes, the saves, the follows and views - all of these are bolted on to convince artists to make “better” content, more “engaging” content - the content that keeps users on the app for longer. Instagram wants you to make content that people will watch, that hooks them in the first few seconds and keeps them watching. It wants you to share your biggest and best and your troubles and traumas, anything goes as long as it keeps people watching.
And as soon as your content isn’t eye catching enough, the algorithm will start to show that content to fewer people. Because all Instagram cares about (say it with me now) is keeping people on the app.
For lots of people, this is perfectly fine. If you want to be a content creator, then your incentives align with Instagram’s. You want people to stay on the app too - so long as they’re consuming your content and not anyone else’s. But if you want to be an artist, you should only use Instagram if you are prepared to ignore all of its signals and cajoling and use it for what YOU want.
Unfortunately, instead of recognising this limitation earlier, and figuring out ways around it, I’ve chosen spend the last few years giving the platform exactly what it wants.
Giving Instagram What It Wants
As time has gone on, I’ve dealt with Instagram’s increasingly demanding algorithm by making more and more of the content that appeals to it. This has been great for my follower count - and catastrophic for my art practice.
Below is a list of all the things I’ve done in the last few years to get my content pushed by the algorithm. These are all things that genuinely did work for me in terms of growing my account, expanding my Instagram audience and getting my content seen by more people. If you’re just starting out, you should absolutely feel free to take inspiration from this list! But - as you’ll see - there are downsides.