Last night I got 10 new followers
During the night I got ten new followers. But only one of the ten new followers liked any of my photos before following me. Which suggests they hadn’t really been attracted to me by my photos. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. A lot of them seemed to be starting out on Instagram and were probably just choosing some followings a bit randomly.
And we all like getting new followers, don’t we? When the craze for getting rid of your “zombie” followers was around, I didn’t see the point. If they don’t fill up my notifications feed with likes and comments, they’re not bothering me. And, as I’m trying to make my way in the iphoneography business, some people pay attention (rightly or wrongly) to follower numbers.
I noticed I’ve been getting 20 or so new followers every day, seemingly out of nowhere, for about 2 months now. For one deluded moment, I thought I had been added to Instagram’s suggested user list. But looking at the people’s profiles on that list, I didn’t seem to fit the bill. Most already have 5 or 6 figure followings and most are good-looking and young. But I couldn’t be sure (I’m not that bad looking). The Inspector Clouseau in me led me to contact my new follower number 10, the charming @caramelalban. She told me I was a featured user on the niche website Extragram. I couldn’t decide if I was disappointed or not.
So what do we conclude about this? First, the 90% absence of comment on my photos suggest that photography isn’t that important for a lot of people on Instagram. Big revelation, you might say. But as I blogged before it’s a bit like television: you don’t have to tune into channels you don’t like. Second, people get a bit hung up about getting new followers. But as this shows, most people get new followers mainly because of some external force - eg Extragram or Instagram’s featured user list - that has nothing to do with their photos. Nine out of these ten new followers seemed to have no immediate interest in my photos and only followed me because I was featured.
But on balance I decided I wasn’t disappointed.
Where are these new followers coming from?
