It can be hard to come up with new content for Instagram consistently if you’re unwilling to move outside your comfort zone.
We’ve all been there, one minute we’re living the high life on Instagram, posting new content daily, building a following, and interacting with our followers, and then, it all drys up. You stop posting consistently, your following decreases and you’re soon forgotten about. So what can you do to get yourself out of a rut? After the break, we will share with you some ideas that will hopefully help spark you back into life.
A recent article on the Digital Photography School website touched on what photographers and content creators can do to help get themselves out of an Instagram rut. Yes, we know, this is such a first-world problem, but for us creatives, it can actually be painful not to have any new content to share. We are born to create and share, and when we are out of ideas, well, it’s just depressing. So what did the Digital Photography School recommend?
The first thing they suggested was to follow tried and true posts. Don’t just post images from your shoot. Share behind the scenes images from your sessions so your followers can see what sessions look like from your perspective.
Perhaps you could take part in #followfriday so that you can not only build up others on the social media platform but so that you can perhaps increase your following, too, by sharing and recommending the work of others. The last thing they suggest is to participate in #throwbackthursday so that you can share images from your past, heck you can even talk about how far you have come in your skill sets over the years. These are all excellent ideas, but they are a little safe. To really get out of your rut, you need to get out of your comfort zone.
What would we recommend that you do to get your creative juices flowing so that you have content that you can post regularly? Shoot genres that you don’t usually shoot. These new images will give you plenty of images to share. You can still keep the same aesthetics when it comes to editing your shots so that your gram pictures have a consistent look and feel, but trying your hand at different genres will likely attract new followers for you. Doing this will also show your existing followers that you aren’t afraid to branch out and experiment. It’s a win-win situation.
Join a photography challenge that like one of the 365 photos in a year challenges that forces you to take a picture of something different every day. You could even just shoot something with your phone if you don’t want to carry your dedicated camera around with you. Just document something that is happening in your day, or share pictures of moments that make you happy.
One thing I will say is this. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself. Not every picture you take and share has to be an absolute banger. Photographers and media creators, in general, seem to have forgotten about the joy of just taking images for the fun of it, instead, it all seems to be about trying to impress people who live on the other side of the planet. Make photography fun for yourself again, shoot without expectations and just post what you capture. You’ll be surprised how much more approachable you will come across to others.
Do you have any tips and tricks you’d like to share about how to get out of an Instagram rut? Please share them with everyone in the comment section below. If you need more ideas on how to make your Instagram game improve, check out this tutorial. Feel free to share your IG accounts, too, so that everyone can follow along with you.