Emmet Van Driesche
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notes from the stump

For me

3/24/2019

5 Comments

 
Robin Wood just wrote a new blog post about how he uses Instagram. As always, it was thorough, articulate, and generous. And something about it didn't sit with me right.

If I try to put my finger on it, it stems from the idea that Instagram rewards those who post only once a day, and also that if you are operating a business through Instagram then it's important to maintain the integrity of of the top nine posts, making sure they are on message and form a cohesive whole. The thing is, I think both of these things are true. I think Instagram DOES reward people who post once, and I think it is easier to amass a large following if you only post about one thing. Spoons, for instance.

I also think it's deadly boring.

When I follow someone, I LIKE knowing a bit about their life. I LIKE that my feed has captured personal moments (not private moments, there is a difference) that are the most meaningful things.

I try to post three times a day. One for me, one to promote something I'm doing, and one to provide educational value to my community.

What is Instagram for, anyway? If it is just to amass a large following, and if that comes at the price of creating a body of work that renders me more distant from my community, more one-dimensional, then count me out. That sounds like a recipe for getting stuck. I've seen it, seen people who feel like they CAN'T share more of themselves for fear of alienating a following built of people who aren't interested in all the other parts of themselves.

We run the risk of becoming caricatures of ourselves.

Is my approach slower? You bet.
Is it sometimes hard to feel like I could do things differently and get more followers, build momentum I see other people amassing? (Leaving aside for the moment the ridiculousness of comparing ourselves to other people who are living completely different lives, started in different places and have different goals). Yes, it is hard.
Is it tempting to think of how I can game the system rather than focusing on how I can make Instagram valuable to me? It sure is.

But at the end of the day, I have this one life. I have one moment, the present, to try to make a difference in the world. I have only right now, and one thing for sure I know is that I want Instagram, and ANY social media or technology I use, to work FOR ME, not twist myself to fit it.

So if you visit my feed and see something that's not a spoon, deal with it. If I post more than you're interested in, that's fine; it wasn't for you. It was for me. And you can take it or leave it.






5 Comments
TML
3/25/2019 04:31:48 am

Good observations…

have to remember where RW is coming from… the top dog of Heritage Crafts UK (or whatever it is called) promoting traditional English crafts, for which he got an Order of whatever… and sells axes that he gets the heads made in China… mmmm… and is producing hook knife blades on a mass scale… but Is that the state of “heritage” craft in Britain today… mmmmm!
Sure, these are putting tools into more eager hands for reasonable cost… but do to the scale is surely limiting what sales could go, at least partially, to these true heritage craftspeople.
It is much like so many sellers at local “maker’s” markets designing something and then getting it churned out in countries of low production costs.
It is about chasing the dollar or pound or whatever currency but unfortunately is somewhat selling one’s soul to the devil, as it were.

But each to their own path…

Reply
Emmet Van Driesche
3/25/2019 04:53:17 am

in all fairness to Robin, when he set out to make hooks and axes, there were many fewer makers of hooks and the market was relatively underserved. I think he is filling an important role in the market and doing it as ethically as he can while staying true to his original mission. And I don't think him selling for less than smaller scale makers is hurting them at all, if anything he's doing them a service by bringing more people into the scene a portion of whom then want to go buy more expensive tools but would not have reached that conclusion without a lower cost alternative first.

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TML
3/25/2019 05:13:19 am

counters granted… but there does "appear" to be a huge contradiction to one who is in the position of pushing British heritage crafts sourcing tools, or at least components, from China…

TML
3/25/2019 05:21:53 am

anyway… this is a distraction from the essence of your good post… so you are welcome to delete these comments
cheers

James Austin
4/2/2019 12:45:08 pm

Hi Emmet,

I'm a bit late to the game here, but I just read the Robin Wood post, and then found this here and find this a pretty fascinating conversation. I'm really just starting out with Instagram, and have been reading everything I can about it. I think one of the differences between you and RW is the nature of the product you are selling. RW has a pretty simple product: tools. You are selling something a bit more complex, yourself. You work in a variety of niches, but it seems they all flow from your personal identity, as a crafter, a farmer, a writer, a teacher. Makes sense that your IG would want to highlight all of that. When I look at your feed it always seems to hang together remarkably well.
Sorry for a bit of ramble, but I've been spending way too much time thinking about this lately.
Thanks for a great post!

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    Hi there!

    My blog has evolved into a series of short essays on the nature of entrepreneurship, craftsmanship, and their overlap. If either of these topics is something you think about, you will probably like this.

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