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Thoughts on Instagram

I’ve been wanting to talk about my use of Instagram for a while. This post isn’t meant as a rant against Instagram nor do I have any negative feelings toward Instagram. I totally get why people use it. This is mostly about how it doesn’t fit with my own online behavior and why.

I have been sharing photos on Instagram off and on for about 2 years now. Over those 2 years, I’ve struggled to figure out exactly where Instagram fits in with the rest of the social media services I use. I primarily use Twitter and Facebook. I sometimes want to share a photo to Twitter and not Facebook, or to just Facebook, or to both. Instagram of course allows you to pick where you want to share whatever photo you are posting. But Instagram is its own thing too — just like Twitter and Facebook. You post a photo to Instagram, people can “heart” a photo they like and leave a comment on a photo you post. But if you share that photo to Twitter or Facebook, you get separate “likes” and responses to that photo in addition to the ones on Instagram. For me, I realized I was managing engagement on photos I’m posting to Instagram in multiple places. I have some people leaving comments on a Instagram photo on Facebook or replying to me on Twitter, and then some people commenting on Instagram.

For me, I realized I was managing engagement on photos I’m posting to Instagram in multiple places.

Unlike others who are heavy users of Instagram, I don’t have a big audience there. The audiences I talk to online are on Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter, this is more public where I can engage with lots and lots of other nerds and geeks like me. Facebook for me tends to be more private and personal — with a lot of engagement happening with family and super close friends. If I want to show off some new nerdy thing I have added to my collection, I’d most likely share that to Twitter. If I want to share some cute photo of my puppy, I’d share that most likely to Facebook. (Sometimes I’d share the same photo to both.) So I essentially share photos I post to Instagram to one of these to get the photo in front of people I want to see it. So why wouldn’t I just publish photos directly to Twitter or Facebook depending on who I want to see the photo?

So why wouldn’t I just publish photos directly to Twitter or Facebook depending on who I want to see the photo?

The other issue for me is how Instagram makes photos look. I know a lot of people love the “old-school” feel with Instagram’s filters and squared look. Originally, Instagram locked you in to sharing squared photos but now they support showing photos in portrait and landscape orientation. But when I share my photos, I want my photos to look as great as possible. When I share photos directly to Twitter — they look great. When I share photos directly to Facebook — they also look great.

Speaking of Twitter, when I share an Instagram photo on Twitter — the photo doesn’t even show up natively in their timeline forcing people to click through to Instagram to actually view the photo. This is what it looks like when I share a Instagram photo to Twitter:

This is what it looks like when I natively post a photo directly to Twitter instead of using Instagram:

If you want folks to see something and having have to jump through hoops (clicking someplace else) just to see it isn’t a great experience.

So in thinking about this some more, I’ve decided I won’t use Instagram to share photos to Twitter. Photos I want seen by my Twitter followers I will just post them to Twitter. However, I’ll still use Instagram to share photos to Facebook. This leads me into some feedback I have for Instagram. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, I would love the see some synergy between how Instagram exists with Facebook. Why can’t Instagram’s comments use Facebook’s commenting platform? Why can’t the “hearts” on Instagram photos be the same as “likes” on that same photo on Facebook? Why do I have to manage these two independently of each other? I’ve had this argument with several die-hard Instagrammers who completely disagree with my suggestions but I find it weird they are so separate. Those die-hards like having their little Instagram community separate. This, to me, doesn’t make any sense.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts on Instagram. How do you use Instagram and handle posting photos to Instagram and sharing them to other places?

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