"With the slightly desperate air of a balding man rearranging his comb-over" - what a perfect description of what these changes have felt like 😂 As always, love your grounded and thoughtful perspective Sara. I think the pressure to fit into the popular trends of Reels is what gets overwhelming for me. I'd much rather find simple ways that I can make them that fit into my own artistic style and require less effort to film, even if they don't reach as many people. I've kind of come to the decision that it doesn't matter if my IG stays small, so long as I like what I'm sharing. It has to work for me first.
One of my biggest takeaways with all the changes on the app has really been realizing that you can't put all your eggs in one basket. We don't own these apps, and as we can see they'll change them on a whim to suit their own interests and bottom line. I think it's really important to have a separate space that you own, like a personal blog or website, where you can share in whatever format works best for you. IG can then just be a way to share snippets of what you have elsewhere, so you don't feel boxed in by the format restrictions. Like you said, it's just packaging.
With no insult intended to balding men anywhere, of course! 😆❤️ You do you, guys!
But yes! I have been quietly bullying people into building email lists and diversifying their platforms for *years* now for exactly this reason. As all the platforms (even inboxes - think about gmail’s algorithmic sorting) become increasingly profit-led and digitally interrupted it’s only going to get more and more important.
It really shows how solid the old blogging infrastructure was - people came to your website for you, just to see if you’d updated, because they were invested, and the reward was well worth the effort. Those are the kind of relationships that are future proof, no matter what the internet does next.
Hell yes to this! And my substack has grown like wild fire compared to my email list - I think it's taken me this long to understand what people want to read.
It's a SKILL, right? Figuring that out is honestly like 99% of the battle of growing an audience online. It's hard to hear when you're at the start and just want to land on the right answers straight away, but trial and improvement is the only way!
I finally set up my newsletter in July after delaying for so many reasons, and I'm so glad I did. Honestly the connection is so different, getting replies about how much an email brightened someone's day or made them think differently about something is so fulfilling and joyful. Also after listening to hashtag authentic I moved to Substack from mailchimp just this week, loving it so far! What a fantastic platform.
This was super interesting to read Sara. A large part of why I started my Substack was because I was so tired of playing the algorithm game on Insta (and my captions were indecently long so it made sense to go to a writing specific platform). What I’m curious about - and what I wonder if you cover in your workshop - is how to make reels work when you want to direct people away from Instagram and, more specifically to writing? It doesn’t feel as though reels are conducive to sharing snippets of text?
100% agree with this take! And it's a huge reason I started my own Substack. The stress of having all my eggs in the basket of fickle social media was flatlining my creativity.
So interesting! And it makes a lot of sense. Funnily enough I keep saying Substack has the same energy now as IG did in its golden days. It sounds like quite a lot of the team from back then are with Substack now too!
I totally agree. I didn't use insta in it's hey day - joined around 2015 but didn't really know what I was doing which is a shame as I was a new mum and lonely and think I would have LOVED the connection and creativity. I just thought it was about posting food and coffee photos haha.
Ah this was exactly me except in 2016 - we would have been Insta besties if you'd found the community then! I remember being very confused by it - 'what are these orange hearts that keep popping up?' haha
Exactly! I've been putting a lot of thought into where else on the internet I want to share my art and writing. Substack is one, but also investing time in my own website has become very important to me. I feel like in the heyday of Instagram, websites became kind of sidelined or very barebones - when people asked about your work, they asked for your IG handle. But all the shifts have made it really important for me to have a space that's completely MINE and that I can style however I want to without worrying that it'll become irrelevant the next time Meta decides it wants to try something new. Thinking about it as a home for my work online, and all the other platforms are just windows inside.
Ah, what a refreshing read, Sara! You always have the ability to shoot straight but in a hopeful, "let's get to work" way. Thank you for that. Looking forward to attending the class. I've already sent it to someone else and basically demanded they sign up as well because I KNOW it's going to be good.
Aw, thank you Breanne! Your faith in me means a lot! Looking forward to hanging with you on Monday, even if it’s just you, me and the friend you forced into coming 😂❤️
Beautiful writing and I ABSOLUTELY agree on the gram! I’ve signed up.
I found carousels were performing better for me so instead of squeezing time into reels I do one a week for my own feel good factor and do carousels the rest of the time.
I surveyed my audience and over 70% said reels were too fast and they couldn’t focus in on the images/ message/ intent. It was a relief as I felt the same! 🗝👩🏽💻💼
Thank you Claire! ❤️ Glad to hear carousels are still serving you, and I wholeheartedly agree with your strategy of quality over quantity. It’s too easy to find yourself running on a content treadmill you never really chose!
I’m firmly in with the 70% of your audience who find reels over stimulating. Even when they absorb my attention it’s not a relaxing experience in the same way still imagery is. The plan for Monday is to look at ways we can lean into that!
I’ve signed up to the workshop and can’t wait. I have to admit to hating reels one minute and then desperately wishing I could create them like some of beautiful ones that appear in my feed.
I think we all have to be willing to evolve and to lean into creating and consuming the content we feel most aligned with. ❤️
I hope it was helpful Claire! There’s absolutely no reason you can’t create things that are equally beautiful, right? You can do it in photos so why not in moving photos?
You’ve hit the nail on the head once again Sara! 🧡 I’ve got to say, I agree with you regarding the vibe here on Substack, very much Instagram of years gone by. Your great grandmother sounds like an incredible woman 🧡🥰. Here’s to creating content that serves, calms, grounds and ensures people feel less alone and more connected 🥰
It’s not always easy to come to, is it? I find myself relying a lot on certain touch points (like my great grandma) that help me zoom out a bit in life. If Instagram was brand new now, and it launched with the whole package, would our thoughts about it be different? It’s an interesting experiment for the mind!
It is a bit of a challenge. I am stepping back from Instagram for the moment to regroup and understand how I want to use it. Your podcast on substack was hugely helpful in clarifying where I want to be and how I share my story. Thank you.
I've only just heard of substack today and I'm trying to work out what this all is! It feels very much like the blogging days preceding Instagram!! Already, after only reading a couple of 'posts' (??), I've somehow found you- who I have lost touch of on Instagram- but remember from the earliest of Instagram days when we were friends and you had that very exciting instagram feature. I'm so intrigued!!
Just to say, I really enjoyed the workshop! I never hated reels the way many people do, but I do resent the time they take as a self-employed creative who has a million balls to keep in the air. The other day, I put up a reel of myself working with my cat and it got over 100k views in a few minutes, unheard of by my standards! But truly it didn't mean that much to me in the end, it was nice, but I don't need likes and high view numbers. I stay with Instagram for the true connections, the creativity. What motivates me is to be of help or inspiration to people with my content, not flash videos that go viral quickly but get forgotten just as quickly later on.
I’ve watched your Reels Workshop twice ( thanks for all the tips) and what I gleaned from it, as well as from your podcast about “ why niching is bad” is that it’s OK to just to be yourself, your wild self and it’s OK to resist and rebel against the pressure to have to put yourself in a box. How liberating!! Thank you so much!
I’ve been wrestling against this notion of having to choose one thing to focus on and reluctant to discard all the other important parts that make up my complex creative self. I now feel free to shine my light in the world any old way I want, and no, I will not be pressured into labelling and boxing in my gender identity either.
P.S. I also am in love with your idea of sharing glimpses of tiny moments and leaving stories unfinished…
The bit about your great grandmother not having a voice really got me .Great article Sara. I think I can get into reels, you can still write a longer caption and I’m happy to focus more on using my phone rather than lugging the SLR that I convinced myself was a better choice.
"With the slightly desperate air of a balding man rearranging his comb-over" - what a perfect description of what these changes have felt like 😂 As always, love your grounded and thoughtful perspective Sara. I think the pressure to fit into the popular trends of Reels is what gets overwhelming for me. I'd much rather find simple ways that I can make them that fit into my own artistic style and require less effort to film, even if they don't reach as many people. I've kind of come to the decision that it doesn't matter if my IG stays small, so long as I like what I'm sharing. It has to work for me first.
One of my biggest takeaways with all the changes on the app has really been realizing that you can't put all your eggs in one basket. We don't own these apps, and as we can see they'll change them on a whim to suit their own interests and bottom line. I think it's really important to have a separate space that you own, like a personal blog or website, where you can share in whatever format works best for you. IG can then just be a way to share snippets of what you have elsewhere, so you don't feel boxed in by the format restrictions. Like you said, it's just packaging.
With no insult intended to balding men anywhere, of course! 😆❤️ You do you, guys!
But yes! I have been quietly bullying people into building email lists and diversifying their platforms for *years* now for exactly this reason. As all the platforms (even inboxes - think about gmail’s algorithmic sorting) become increasingly profit-led and digitally interrupted it’s only going to get more and more important.
It really shows how solid the old blogging infrastructure was - people came to your website for you, just to see if you’d updated, because they were invested, and the reward was well worth the effort. Those are the kind of relationships that are future proof, no matter what the internet does next.
Hell yes to this! And my substack has grown like wild fire compared to my email list - I think it's taken me this long to understand what people want to read.
It's a SKILL, right? Figuring that out is honestly like 99% of the battle of growing an audience online. It's hard to hear when you're at the start and just want to land on the right answers straight away, but trial and improvement is the only way!
I finally set up my newsletter in July after delaying for so many reasons, and I'm so glad I did. Honestly the connection is so different, getting replies about how much an email brightened someone's day or made them think differently about something is so fulfilling and joyful. Also after listening to hashtag authentic I moved to Substack from mailchimp just this week, loving it so far! What a fantastic platform.
Aww 🥰 this is lovely to read nodding along same same
This was super interesting to read Sara. A large part of why I started my Substack was because I was so tired of playing the algorithm game on Insta (and my captions were indecently long so it made sense to go to a writing specific platform). What I’m curious about - and what I wonder if you cover in your workshop - is how to make reels work when you want to direct people away from Instagram and, more specifically to writing? It doesn’t feel as though reels are conducive to sharing snippets of text?
100% agree with this take! And it's a huge reason I started my own Substack. The stress of having all my eggs in the basket of fickle social media was flatlining my creativity.
So interesting! And it makes a lot of sense. Funnily enough I keep saying Substack has the same energy now as IG did in its golden days. It sounds like quite a lot of the team from back then are with Substack now too!
I totally agree. I didn't use insta in it's hey day - joined around 2015 but didn't really know what I was doing which is a shame as I was a new mum and lonely and think I would have LOVED the connection and creativity. I just thought it was about posting food and coffee photos haha.
Ah this was exactly me except in 2016 - we would have been Insta besties if you'd found the community then! I remember being very confused by it - 'what are these orange hearts that keep popping up?' haha
Exactly! I've been putting a lot of thought into where else on the internet I want to share my art and writing. Substack is one, but also investing time in my own website has become very important to me. I feel like in the heyday of Instagram, websites became kind of sidelined or very barebones - when people asked about your work, they asked for your IG handle. But all the shifts have made it really important for me to have a space that's completely MINE and that I can style however I want to without worrying that it'll become irrelevant the next time Meta decides it wants to try something new. Thinking about it as a home for my work online, and all the other platforms are just windows inside.
Same same
Agreed! Substack feels very freeing in comparison to other social media right?
Ah, what a refreshing read, Sara! You always have the ability to shoot straight but in a hopeful, "let's get to work" way. Thank you for that. Looking forward to attending the class. I've already sent it to someone else and basically demanded they sign up as well because I KNOW it's going to be good.
Aw, thank you Breanne! Your faith in me means a lot! Looking forward to hanging with you on Monday, even if it’s just you, me and the friend you forced into coming 😂❤️
Beautiful writing and I ABSOLUTELY agree on the gram! I’ve signed up.
I found carousels were performing better for me so instead of squeezing time into reels I do one a week for my own feel good factor and do carousels the rest of the time.
I surveyed my audience and over 70% said reels were too fast and they couldn’t focus in on the images/ message/ intent. It was a relief as I felt the same! 🗝👩🏽💻💼
Thank you Claire! ❤️ Glad to hear carousels are still serving you, and I wholeheartedly agree with your strategy of quality over quantity. It’s too easy to find yourself running on a content treadmill you never really chose!
I’m firmly in with the 70% of your audience who find reels over stimulating. Even when they absorb my attention it’s not a relaxing experience in the same way still imagery is. The plan for Monday is to look at ways we can lean into that!
Looking forward to it. Yay creativity!
I’ve signed up to the workshop and can’t wait. I have to admit to hating reels one minute and then desperately wishing I could create them like some of beautiful ones that appear in my feed.
I think we all have to be willing to evolve and to lean into creating and consuming the content we feel most aligned with. ❤️
I hope it was helpful Claire! There’s absolutely no reason you can’t create things that are equally beautiful, right? You can do it in photos so why not in moving photos?
This is brilliant, thank you Sara! The story about your great grandmother really puts things into perspective - incredible.
I’m glad! I hesitated to include it, not sure it would translate to anyone outside of my head, so I’m relieved to hear that!
You’ve hit the nail on the head once again Sara! 🧡 I’ve got to say, I agree with you regarding the vibe here on Substack, very much Instagram of years gone by. Your great grandmother sounds like an incredible woman 🧡🥰. Here’s to creating content that serves, calms, grounds and ensures people feel less alone and more connected 🥰
Thanks for this Sara. Perspective is everything. ❤️
It’s not always easy to come to, is it? I find myself relying a lot on certain touch points (like my great grandma) that help me zoom out a bit in life. If Instagram was brand new now, and it launched with the whole package, would our thoughts about it be different? It’s an interesting experiment for the mind!
It is a bit of a challenge. I am stepping back from Instagram for the moment to regroup and understand how I want to use it. Your podcast on substack was hugely helpful in clarifying where I want to be and how I share my story. Thank you.
Love this ❤️ I'm at the point now where I barely post anything anymore, really need a kick up the insta arse! Looking forward to the Reels zoom!
Looking forward to seeing you there Nicky! I promise, any arse kicking will be entirely gentle and loving
I've only just heard of substack today and I'm trying to work out what this all is! It feels very much like the blogging days preceding Instagram!! Already, after only reading a couple of 'posts' (??), I've somehow found you- who I have lost touch of on Instagram- but remember from the earliest of Instagram days when we were friends and you had that very exciting instagram feature. I'm so intrigued!!
Just to say, I really enjoyed the workshop! I never hated reels the way many people do, but I do resent the time they take as a self-employed creative who has a million balls to keep in the air. The other day, I put up a reel of myself working with my cat and it got over 100k views in a few minutes, unheard of by my standards! But truly it didn't mean that much to me in the end, it was nice, but I don't need likes and high view numbers. I stay with Instagram for the true connections, the creativity. What motivates me is to be of help or inspiration to people with my content, not flash videos that go viral quickly but get forgotten just as quickly later on.
I’ve watched your Reels Workshop twice ( thanks for all the tips) and what I gleaned from it, as well as from your podcast about “ why niching is bad” is that it’s OK to just to be yourself, your wild self and it’s OK to resist and rebel against the pressure to have to put yourself in a box. How liberating!! Thank you so much!
I’ve been wrestling against this notion of having to choose one thing to focus on and reluctant to discard all the other important parts that make up my complex creative self. I now feel free to shine my light in the world any old way I want, and no, I will not be pressured into labelling and boxing in my gender identity either.
P.S. I also am in love with your idea of sharing glimpses of tiny moments and leaving stories unfinished…
The bit about your great grandmother not having a voice really got me .Great article Sara. I think I can get into reels, you can still write a longer caption and I’m happy to focus more on using my phone rather than lugging the SLR that I convinced myself was a better choice.
Hope it was helpful ❤️ Down with fear! These platforms have to be fun, or we’re never going to be able to stick to them!
Danielle you don't need to fear, your content on Instagram I always think is so good!