Instagram: Back on the train after stopping for a long break

I am starting what is my second attempt at Instagram. The first did not go well. More accurately I didn’t get Instagram. I thought of it as sterile. A place were you posted those carefully crafted pictures of an outgoing life filled with people posing with the filter applied. Snapchat was much more raw, immediate and fun. Now that Instagram has copied features from Snapchat a return to Instagram is something I have decided to do .

Why now?

• Instagram and the US elections. I follow politics using Twitter. Seeing how presidential candidates use Instagram to connect with voters will be a good learning curve.
• Share my interests in cinema, tech and books. I won’t be narrating my day using Instagram. My life is not that interesting besides social media is not the place to pour the entire contents of your life into. I have my Leuchtturm 1917 paper notebooks for that.
• Learn. Is that possible on Instagram? Guessing it is. Twitter is a great place to find stuff to read, try absorb and learn.

Starting out again on Instagram on an open not locked account leads inevitably to spam followers . Sorry Sandra, automated bots are not my thing.

We need to talk about hashtags. My attitude to them is shaped by Twitter. Any more than two makes your tweet unreadable and desperate for attention. On Instagram some posts can have ten or eleven. I get that hashtags drop your post into conversation streams but I will be frugal with hashtag use.

Some questions

• Can you survive on Instagram not post pretty pictures?
• Who should I be following to learn more about tech, social media and new ideas?

Answers and any other tips welcome. Follow me on Instagram