[RougeNoir]

(01-18-2016 06:33 AM)Fisto Wrote:  

I unfollowed QC because he floods IG feed with the same or similar photos, this is how you lose followers.

[Matrixdude]

I want to make an instagram but I can't decide on an interesting handle (username). How important is this?

Any tips on choosing an alfa handle?

edit: clarification

[262]

^^^
"Alpha Handle"
"Alpha Playboy"
"Alpha McQueen"
"Alpha Alpha Alpha ... Did I Mention Alpha?"
"Alf-Ah"
"Alpha Sigma Sigma (ASS)"
"Tau Nu Alpha (TNA)"

[Iso]

Buying followers to increase your follower total:

Yea or nay?

[Tresdus]

(01-22-2016 08:21 PM)Iso Wrote:  

Buying followers to increase your follower total:

Yea or nay?

I bought 1000 and I have 1400 now. I think it looks kinda cool and isn't as suspicious as if you have 20k.

[germanico]

(01-19-2016 08:53 PM)Matrixdude Wrote:  

I want to make an instagram but I can't decide on an interesting handle (username). How important is this?

Any tips on choosing an alfa handle?

edit: clarification

Use your name or as close as you can find to your actual name.

John Smith - @johnsmith, @jsmith, @jaysmith, @smithjohn, etc.

@alphadude, @imdaboss, @followmebitch @bestinstagramhandle or such just sound lame and try hard. 'Namsayin bro?

[Sebastian]

I started posting random pictures from the trips. nobody gave a damn. (I wouldn't either)
I had like 50 followers (a lot of fake accounts)

I started shooting females only and posted about 10 girls so far. My followers grew to 160 but it's absolutely nothing compared to my effort.

The thing is instagram whores care about your followers. if you have good number of followers, you will get more respect (pretty stupid I know) People with good followers act like they are something. If you are a guy with low numbers and want to collaborate something with a user with high numbers, you have to kiss their ass. That's the instagram culutre. followers = wealth

I am thinking about just buying accounts so it would be easier for me to hit up girls and ask them come out for shooting.
My photo quality would be the same. But girls would react differently to higher followers.

[The_CEO]

Cool "datasheet".

Question:
If you "Send a Message" to someone through this app with the "send a message" drop down option,
is the message private or does it post it on their feed for all to see?

[Duke Castile]

No that's private but there is nothing from stopping her from taking a screenshot and posting it.

Why did you put datasheet in quotes? Is it an ironic datasheet?

[The_CEO]

Thanks / Good point

Re: Quotes,
No, they area regrettable grammatical mistake.

[ManAbout]

Is it worth getting a decent camera for instagram posts or are the iphone/samsung cameras good enough?

[CleanSlate]

I've never really taken a look at instagram nor do I plan to anytime soon, but this is an interesting and quality datasheet, especially the ettiquette and psychology behind how and why people follow/unfollow others. As mentioned by another poster earlier in this thread, I feel instagram takes a lot of time, which I don't have right now. But if I free up enough time to take up instagram, then I'll be coming back to this datasheet.

One question - can people tell when a photo was taken? Let's say I post a photo from 5 years ago... is there a way people can readily tell it was taken 5 years ago and not the day before?

I'm asking because I have thousands and thousands of old photos of myself and previous trips that I can use to drip-feed into my instagram page without too much effort. I have enough to show an interesting life even if I live like a hermit for several months, but if people can tell that I'm posting photos from years ago I would think it'll make me look bad.

[Roosh]

How am I doing so far: https://www.instagram.com/kingroosh/

I'm really not into IG but I need to bulk up alternatives now that Twitter is on the way out.

[Off The Reservation]

del

[HonantheBarbarian]

Fisto and other Instagram macks, I have a question on a slightly different vein.

I recently set up my Instagram a few months back as a semi-professional page to get my drawings and designs out there (I am a student and trying to make a name for myself before I actually hit the industry). It's not a "lifestyle" Instagram, there are no pictures of me, just my work so I'm not sure how that factors in.

But on another tip I would also like have it as a nice DHV to show girls I am trying to bang and maybe meet some decent chicks off it as well, without compromising professionalism, of course.

The thing is, I'm just not getting the action I would like, in terms of followers, likes, pretty much everything. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why certain pieces are liked a lot and others aren't. Like I'll post a picture of a finished piece that I know is good and it will get like 20 likes. Another day I'll post a pic of something stupid like the pencils/markers I use and it will get over 40 likes. It makes no sense.

Another thing I can't figure out is some of the other artists out there on Instagram are at the skill level of a 6th or 7th grader on grade school, they have only maybe 23 total posts (which, not to be a dick, but their not even very good) and still manage over 1k followers. Every piece they have garners several hundred likes. None of my pieces have even broken 100 likes. I can't figure it out for the life of me. Are they buying their followers as well?

After reading your OP I know I have been using too many hashtags for sure. I thought I would reach more people that way.

I also stopped posting every day or two, but that's also because my work has been put on hold the last few weeks temporarily.

[RichieP]

So for someone who's never really dived into social media...

I can see the value for a business, or if "you are the brand". e.g. artist, athlete, performer, etc.

I just wonder what the average guy is going to do on IG to get any kind of concrete results?

Presumably the way it works is become a kind of "mini-celebrity" and actually leveraging that for connections, right? But don't you need to be actually doing something exotic or uniquely interesting/captivating? Like really building a personal brand, telling a particular story?

I'm sure no one cares about seeing tons of my "day in the life" photos.

Even if I manage to appear really interesting. Like say I'm travelling around doing loads of cool shit. I post it on IG, I drum up followers somehow, some pictures get liked... then what? Aren't I just another dude posting the same old "look at me" crap?

Can you guys give an example of the kind of narrative you told through pictures on IG, and how you leveraged it to create new social connections, invites or dates/lays?

I don't really get the whole ecosystem.

[Beyond Borders]

(01-19-2016 08:46 PM)RougeNoir Wrote:  

(01-18-2016 06:33 AM)Fisto Wrote:  

I unfollowed QC because he floods IG feed with the same or similar photos, this is how you lose followers.

I don't understand why the meme.

Seemed like a fair and polite enough criticism with an explanation of why to back it up. I think QC would take it as constructive, no?

It's pretty common on social media for people to make the mistake of taking a bunch of similar photos. I've done it myself without really thinking about it. It's because the tendency is to take a shitload of photos of your trip or day or whatever, and then you like a small handful of them so you post them without thinking about it.

But I think Fisto is right that aside from those who are really into photography (or parties who have a signficant interest in your life, like your mother haha), people would generally only want to see the best out of the mix.

[Sebastian]

It would be hard for an average guy to stand out unless he puts a lot of work.

It's a picture app after all. You can create nice pictures even though you live in nothing special to look at town working in a convenience store. But it will take great amount of labor to post good ones.

Some people do it because they just like doing it.
Some people do it because they get self-esteem boost from likes (mostly meaningless)
Some people do it because they want to be popular.

I started shooting females for photo/video. I get these sensations when I grab a great footage. (something average person might not care or won't understand)
I shot couple minutes of video hanging out with a girl from instagram. it took me like 24 hours to edit. They say it's cool when I show to my friends but nobody gives a shit in the end compared to effort I put in. I can't do this if the goal was only on banging models. It can happen but it would be a lot less time consuming just hitting on pretty girls at bars few times a week.

In the end, I just get self-satisfaction when I watch my own work. that's my primary motivation that nobody can't take away from me.

This is the reality. don't be delusional. you are an average joe, not super talented photographer. nobody will give a shit about your piece. most likes you got was auto likes, from fake accounts and people who just want to sell their stuff.

(01-25-2016 05:04 AM)RichieP Wrote:  

So for someone who's never really dived into social media...

I can see the value for a business, or if "you are the brand". e.g. artist, athlete, performer, etc.

I just wonder what the average guy is going to do on IG to get any kind of concrete results?

Presumably the way it works is become a kind of "mini-celebrity" and actually leveraging that for connections, right? But don't you need to be actually doing something exotic or uniquely interesting/captivating? Like really building a personal brand, telling a particular story?

I'm sure no one cares about seeing tons of my "day in the life" photos.

Even if I manage to appear really interesting. Like say I'm travelling around doing loads of cool shit. I post it on IG, I drum up followers somehow, some pictures get liked... then what? Aren't I just another dude posting the same old "look at me" crap?

Can you guys give an example of the kind of narrative you told through pictures on IG, and how you leveraged it to create new social connections, invites or dates/lays?

I don't really get the whole ecosystem.

[Duke Castile]

Manabout - No you don't need a special camera unless photography is a real hobby for you.

Roosh, yours looks good. You have the proper amount of variety between photos. I didn't click on any but just looked at the thumbnails. I've also been to that park in Soux Falls.

Honan - Try having photos of you actually in the middle of the piece, describe what particular technique you are working on at the time or what you are doing. Try to show it in parts in the layout from time to time. No one is connecting with you as a human being, they are just seeing some painting that may or may not look as good in photo as it does in real life. It's important for people to see you at least sometimes. Try making yourself mysterious by only partially being seen. Perhaps from the back or something. Bring the painting to life by describing the inspiration behind it. Tell the story of the feelings you were having. Connect with the person reading it in a way that defines the painting.

RichieP - If you have a following you have leverage. One of the things I did was hire people with large followings to post photos or tweets advertising a product so that it appeared organic. That's just one example. Aside from that it is social status. Part of the fun and challenge is to try and make something that would otherwise be ordinary, interesting. I was on a hike and found an old soda can that was probably from the 50s I took a photo of that holding it as if I was in one of those old ads. You have to be interesting to post interesting things. And if you can do it with ordinary things then you are someone that people would like to see more from.

I also posted a photo of a car I saw parked sideways in a parking space with a a container of chicken wings in the dashboard. Obviously a drunken night by someone. It was funny. Just start observing the world around you, there are neat things everywhere and if you start doing the exercise of viewing it that way it can be fun.

Sebastian, this is one of those things that if you don't enjoy it, you won't be good at it. The idea is to try it and get creative. I am so so about it, I don't like to play the hashtag game or tag everyone but when I did, I was getting a lot of perks.

[I DIDN'T KILL MY WIFE]

I can see how it can potentially be leveraged for nice perks. I can see how some people can get hugely popular and rich from it. I can see how you can get semi-mysterious fame from it.

But man if it doesn't seem like a toxic culture and activity, in a way. I'm just not a person who whips out their camera at the tiniest thing or opportunity to take pics of it and a selfie too boot. Maybe it's an America thing as I saw way more people walking around with smartphones at hand when I visited the US. And, true, when I was in the US on vacation I took a shitload of pictures and selfies. But that was me and a buddy consciously saying to each other at the beginning: "Dude, there will be NO whining about pictures on this trip. Photograph everything from every angle and do it 5 times, we'll be sorting it all out later". And after the big sort, a lot of pics had to be deleted or looked ok but simply weren't all that interesting, "archive pics" basically, but some nice ones came out of it.

But that was a vacation thing, I felt goofy enough taking so many pictures but could justify the time thing because hey, vacation, might as well grab some memories. But on a day to day basis, I can already often times see this toxic mindset manifest itself in some girlfriends' activities when we are meeting up with friends. Their thought process doesn't go "oh let's take a pic for memories -> oh it looks pretty good -> I bet it'd look good on facebook/IG", but in reverse "hey, I need to take a pic for facebook/IG -> reshoot the pic 10 times -> find one that they deem worthy to post", and it's just a really weird mentality, analyzing every moment of your day for that one opportunity to get an IG-worthy pic.

Also as someone mentioned, this seems like an activity that only "alternative lifestyle" people can do with a big amount of success. The creative people, the ones who can allow themselves/travel often for job purposes, the rich, the personal trainers, the weird hobby people etc. You take your average guy who simply hangs out and has fun with friends, goes to a normal white collar job, lifts, cooks, visits family, goes out partying now and then, doesn't seem to be the prime demographic for this activity.

[CleanSlate]

(01-25-2016 03:39 PM)I DIDNT KILL MY WIFE Wrote:  

...

You're not OJ Simpson, are you?

[Daddy Chains]

For the purpose of getting as many organic followers asap, when starting new profile, is it better to dump 200-300 pics at once (in one day) or is better to space it out with say 2-3 photos per day?

[carbassboy]

(01-26-2016 07:21 AM)Daddy Chains Wrote:  

For the purpose of getting as many organic followers asap, when starting new profile, is it better to dump 200-300 pics at once (in one day) or is better to space it out with say 2-3 photos per day?

I would dump atleast 50. So your profile looks like its been around for awhile. No one wants to follow someone who has only 5 pictures posted

[Duke Castile]

Don't dump them, that's a waste of material you can space out and growna following with.

Just post 2-3 a day at peak times.

At that rate you'll have more than enough in no time and you'll have lasting followers that get a feel for who you are.

[Off The Reservation]

del