My original goal was to, in essence, try out photography. This was a story of discovery. Initially, I was discovering the ins and outs of nature photography. What it quickly became, however, was a lesson in the difficulties of gaining a social media following.
Initially when issued this task, I predicted it was going to be a challenge. To put it more bluntly, I was horrified. I felt very thrown out of my comfort zone. It took quite some time for me to choose an interest that I was not only willing to share, but also willing to produce content related to it on a consistent basis.
After much deliberating, I settled on photography – something I’ve always been vaguely interested in, but I’d yet to dedicate much time to it. I was inspired by Instagram accounts such as fr_gavril to create one of my own, where I planned to post weekly. My goal was to ‘take the opportunity to enhance my skills in photography, thus leaving the door open for others to do the same’.
What followed in the next ten-or-so weeks consisted of many alterations. There were moments of inspiration followed by weeks of pausing, and I’ve come out of it with a newfound respect for successful Instagram users that I never thought I would ever feel.
I began small. I kept my first post as simple as I could muster in order to emphasise that I’m at the beginning of my journey.
Before posting what would end up just being a close-up of a stick, I chose to establish myself by posting a short series of nature photos that I’d taken in the past.
One of these old photo posts managed to achieve something that my actual post for that week could not, and that was a like. Only one like, but I’m willing to celebrate anything.
This moment was as much of a milestone as it was a sign of my ineptitude.
My lack of collaboration and my avoidance of self-promotion outside of Twitter (or was it refusal? probably) continued to prevent me from progressing with the social media component in any meaningful way. I failed to truly come out of my shell, instead choosing to focus solely on the content.
Speaking of the content, I trucked on from there. Instead of sticking to a strict schedule, I opted to maintain a sense of spontaneity with the development process (although I’ll admit, I did not intend for this to translate into the posting schedule as well). I have a tendency to wander around aimlessly in my free time, so I like to think this worked out in the end.
The reason why I have yet to discuss the Twitter side of things is because I treated it as an afterthought (so this is performance art at its finest). For some reason, I found tweeting twice a week more difficult than maintaining an Instagram account. Because I’m not very involved in the photography world, I chose to have my second tweet of the week to be centred around film, tv and music.
Once again, the struggle to turn it into something relevant was almighty. My first post was me simply stating: “Better Call Saul is a good show”. I believe I got the hang of it in the end, but it may have made me realise that I’m far more basic than I previously believed.
I’m afraid to admit it, but the milestones for the project itself hardly ever got bigger after that first like. It was only just four weeks ago when I began to use hashtags. This was a feeble effort to give my page more attention. However, it did get me another like (again, another single like, but I’ll take what I can get).
To the end, I feebly fought for attention in an already overcrowded market. I’ve learned that I’m simply not built for this method of projecting. My attempts at redefining my idea were typically phoned in, and have proven that a social media career would not be a sustainable option for me (not that I’ve ever wanted to go down that road).
I like my photos, though.
Joseph's Media Blog 
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