Find me on Instagram

More and more I post on Instagram.  Flowers, cards, knitting, new recipes, weird visitors to my bird feeder.  Mostly I want to share colorful images that give a glimpse of what I'm doing and hopefully some will be inspiring, too.  I hope you will check out my feed and follow me if you like. You can find me at https://www.instagram.com/lisaecherd/

While my favorite social media are blogs and message boards where I can follow a topic of conversation, Instagram is my favorite of the common, popular platforms. Facebook is my least favorite.  Lately, Facebook has come under heavy criticism.  Personally, I've never liked it.  Why?  The best way to explain is to compare it to a platform that is worlds better imo.  Instagram is owned by Facebook but they could not be more different.  I'm still learning what is available but this is what I've learned so far.

The Instagram interface is clean and uncluttered.  The advertising is scattered within the posts but you can easily breeze by it.  (And a little hint, if you view Instagram from a computer as opposed to a phone or tablet, there are no ads.) There is one column of content.  My favorite thing about Instagram is that posts are in order by most recent to oldest.  So when you scroll along and come to something you have seen before, you are done.  It usually takes me less than a minute to browse my feed so I can do this several times per day and easily keep up. You can change this view order in Facebook but you have to change it every single time you view.  Facebook is based on a popularity contest so they want to most viewed and talked about posts on top.

I also like that I only see the people I follow, not the people they follow because they shared a post. Sometimes I enjoy seeing on Facebook what has been shared but usually it is photos of people I don't know.  The drawback on Instagram is that I can't see the interesting things people might share nor can anyone share my content to increase followers except in their 'stories.' The only other drawback to Instagram is that you must have a mobile device and post from the app or respond to comments via the app.  You can view, like and comment from Instagram.com.

Instagram has added a 'story' feature where you can have a photo or video each day as part of your ongoing story.  I do this a couple of times per week.  My stories expire after 24 hours and you can't see the old ones.  I think that if I get enough followers, I'll have the option to share more stories but I'm not sure of the details yet.  To see my story or anyone's story, click on their photo.

I've only done one video so far in Instagram but I plan to do more.  I will continue to do YouTube videos but this is faster and will allow me to share quick techniques.  You can always find my posts at the above link so even if you don't keep up regularly you can go to anyone's Instagram that isn't private and see what they have posted.  And the interface for that is also very clean just a 3 column wide shot of all the photos and then you click on the one you want to see in detail.  No advertising is in that view.

Personally I believe that what you put online might as well be open to the world.  If someone sees it on their screen, they can capture it and post it on a forum like Twitter that is open to all users anyway.  My least favorite thing about Facebook is the concept that everyone you know and many people they suggest who you don't know are 'friends.'  I have friends - close friends, old friends, acquaintances, business associates, family, etc.  I don't share the same personal information with all of them.  If I share it online, I make it available for everyone who wants to read it.

I choose people to follow on Instagram based on content.  I get to know a little about them, get inspired and see beautiful things and places.  I follow people from all over the world.

And the number 1 thing that is better about Instagram than Facebook?  You can Pin from Instagram.  You can not Pin to Pinterest from Facebook so all those great cards and pages I see on Facebook can't go to Pinterest which is the best place to store ideas for future reference in my opinion.  Instagram also has a Save feature where you just click on the heart and it saves a posts for you to refer to anytime on yet another very clean, orderly screen.  There are a dozen other things I find cumbersome and annoying about Facebook but you get the idea.

So if you haven't tried Instagram or you haven't found me, I hope you will check out my feed and follow if you find the photos interesting.  For now I will keep Facebook and post an update when I add a video but I don't post other photos that aren't linked to a video nor am I adding 'friends.'  LisaEDesign on Facebook is open to all.

You can find me at https://www.instagram.com/lisaecherd/  Thanks for visiting today!