Instagram kind of baffles me. Actually, that’s not totally true. I understand the desire to share photos with people; that is a pretty easy thing to understand. What I think I don’t understand is how/why people use it for so many other things. It is a pretty terrible medium for sharing anything other than low-res photos, and yet …
Back when it was a hipster photography service, I could wrap my head around Instagram, but what is it now, really? The “Stories” feature is especially baffling.
I teach a couple of classes on the music industry. Among many things, we often talk about marketing, branding, and general “how-to-get-people-to-support-your-band” ideas. I am not an expert in this field, but I try to steer the conversations in directions I think will be fruitful.
My students have tried to help me understand the power of Instagram, and I wonder if I am just not wired right to “get it.” For example, so, so, so many bands have Instagram as their only “presence” on the internet, and this seems like a bad idea to me.
To summarize where my conversations seem to always go when I talk about this with my students:
Instagram is where all of the people are. If you want eyeballs on your “content,” you have to put it where the eyeballs already are.
So far, I understand this completely. I still wonder why all of the eyeballs are there, but I get the idea of “go where the people are.” But, here is where I tend to get lost:
I can’t listen to your band’s album on Instagram. I can’t buy concert tickets on Instagram. I can’t really do anything super useful, save “like” photos and (short) videos you’ve posted.
This isn’t bad in and of itself. There is nothing wrong with “engaging” fans in this way, I suppose. But, what I don’t really “get” is when a band’s only online presence is Instagram. Yes, this is where the “eyeballs” are, but if they can’t listen to your album, buy concert tickets, or really do anything else of use, it seems like a waste of energy to make this be your only online “presence.” In fact, of all of the “social networking” services, it seems to me like Instagram is the worst one for musicians. The simple fact that you have to use weird hacks and add-ons to post any links seems to be evidence that it’s not really a ver good site/service for doing anything it wasn’t specifically built to do (i.e. share low-resolution photos). This is a limitation, by design, of what Instagram can do, and therefore, a limitation in how it can be very useful for musicians.
My thoughts with all of this has always been something along the lines of:
Social networking sites should be a springboard to your own website. Social networking sites should be a gateway to a place you control.
Again, I am not any kind of music-marketing guru; I (very often) feel like I shouldn’t actually be teaching this class. I am very much open to having my mind changed on this. I don’t like feeling like some sort of luddite or fogey who just “doesn’t get it.” Like those pompous blowhards say, “… change my mind.”