This blog is a continuation of my getting personal with my blog. We live in an age where being open and honest is the best policy. Ironic isn’t it? We grow up learning “honesty is the best policy” but as we become adults, we feel this need to keep things to ourselves that might make us look weak or show that we struggled with anything. I’m a huge fan of open discussions being socially acceptable because while at times, they may be tough conversations, it’s a great way to learn, grow, and inspire. I recently evaluated my social media and asked myself and Natasha, why do I feel this need to have to use everything. There was a time that I was trying to keep up with Facebook, Facebook Pages, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. I felt if I was going to be a successful photographer, I needed to be where my potential clients were. I almost immediately deleted snapchat because it’s a waste. LinkedIn, I still go back and forth on. I haven’t REALLY tried using it yet but I see the potential of it being a good resource to use professionally. Unless you want to post about political things, Twitter is pretty much pointless too. All that was left was my personal Facebook page, my business page, and my Instagram page. And when I say “page,” I mean pages, because I have photography, Harris Creative, and A Wedding Podcast. To keep things simple, I’m focusing this discussion on just photography. My personal Facebook page is solely meant for connecting with people on a personal level, keeping up with friends and family and that’s it. At this point, I had my Facebook page and Instagram on my phone. If you use either of these for business, especially Instagram, you’ll know that the algorithms are constantly changing. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with the latest algorithm change because once you figure it out, it’s changed again.
I started evaluating my usage on these apps. I would spend hours every week on Instagram. Hours! It was always my #1 app in regards to screen time. I posted on average, about once per day. The problem is if you want to be successful on Instagram with the algorithm, you not only need to post multiple times per day, but you also need to post stories constantly and spend time engaging with other pages. If you don’t, the algorithm will deem your profile was uninteresting and you’ll notice your engagement going down. Now, I’m not complaining about this necessarily. It makes sense. The problem is, this requires you to be on the Instagram app ALL. THE. TIME. I tried playing by the algorithm rules. I started doing everything I said and I noticed my engagement going up. You may be asking, so what’s the problem? It worked, right? It did. However, that was 1-3 hours per day on Instagram, just for my photography business.
Here’s the bigger problem, absolutely no business came in the form of Instagram messages. In my evaluation and discussion with Natasha, it hit me, I’m doing all this work and at this point I was ready to do even more, for no return. In business, it’s always good to evaluate what you are doing. Going with the 80/20 rule with my time and business coming in, Instagram wasn’t even 20% of my business. It was literally 0% of my business, but about 75% of my time and my mind. Most of my business comes to me from my website and/or email and my Facebook business and personal pages. So why would I put so much of my focus on an app that literally produced 0% business for me? I enjoy using IG, but for the sake of my business, my time, and more importantly, my mind, I determined it would be best to remove it. My accounts are still active. I’m not deleting my accounts. Maybe I will, but I also realize there is a small chance that someday I come back. I have no intention of doing so, though. I please don’t read this as I was failing on IG and this is why I deleted the app. On the contrary, my last 2 or 3 posts were some of my most successful posts in regards to engagement.
After nearly a week, what do things look like? Let me tell you, the sky is bluer, the air seems cleaner, and I literally could not be in a better place when it comes to my mindset. It was a massively freeing feeling deleting the app. My screen time is down 25% and this is with focusing more time on my facebook page. And in regards to my business, I’m able to focus so much more time on what I truly enjoy doing, outside of taking pictures of course, and that’s blogging and interacting with other people! I’m a storyteller and while my grammar or paragraph structure may not be the best, I love to blog, I love to tell stories through type and imagery.
My challenge to you is to evaluate your time. If you are a business owner, you do not need to use it all. I realize something may blow up and Facebook won’t be relevant anymore. I do not think it’s Instagram though. Numbers for both IG and FB are down and continue to decline. Honestly, I partly believe that we are about to enter an age where people desire face-to-face. It’s a better way to connect and network, it’s a better way to have a conversation, and it’s just so much more personal. Even as a content creator for businesses, unless you have the resources to pay someone to control your social media, focus on just the one or two that are most successful for you. I’m not saying I won’t try new apps or social platforms. I even gave TikTok a solid minute before the cheesiness was too much for me. I’m always up for trying new ways to expand my business and reach. But at some point, it has to transition from experiment to a solid decision on how it truly affects your business, your life and your time. Your time is so valuable and for me, personally, IG was too much of a time-waster and it was not at all productive for me or my business.