A Lesson in Humility
Over the past few weeks, I’ve taken a closer look at my Instagram account and realized I’m following almost as many people as I have followers. As a photographer, my engagement on the platform has been less than ideal, and the algorithm often prioritizes content from accounts that have little to no interest in interacting with me or my work. So, I decided it’s time to clean house and unfollow accounts that don’t follow me back.
In the past, (as a new photographer) I’d follow models or photographers I was interested in collaborating with. But over the years, I’ve learned that this approach doesn’t serve me well. My feed has become cluttered with content from people I no longer plan to work with or who aren’t genuinely interested in connecting, or (to be honest) have lost the opportunity to work with me.
Moving forward, I’ll only follow accounts where there’s mutual interaction—whether that’s through following each other, meaningful DMs, comments on my work, or shared professional interests. I have an intake process for Clients as well as new models and photographers I work with. This way, I can focus on engaging with people who value a two-way connection and keep my feed relevant and inspiring.
I get that this might seem a bit self-centered, but honestly, that’s how social media is supposed to work: sharing, connecting, and interacting. Why should I invest time engaging with accounts that don’t engage with me in return? It’s about making social media a tool that works for me, not the other way around.
Here is how I figured out who I follow but don’t follow me back. I did not invent this process but this was the simplest. I do suggest copying list B to an excel or google doc so you can strike the accounts from the list who you have unfollowed. Simply because you can’t remove all of them at one and will have to do this over a week or several weeks and need to keep track.
Youtube Account: Edward Strum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il2q1kPMTsU
If you plan to do this yourself. Be careful because one of the risks of unfollowing large numbers of accounts at once is the possibility of Instagram flagging or even disabling your account. I’ve heard stories of people unfollowing 100+ accounts in a short period, only to have their accounts temporarily disabled until they could prove they were real users. Honestly, that sounds a bit extreme, but considering who runs Instagram, it’s not surprising.
Instagram’s priorities seem pretty clear—they care little about their users and prove it daily with constant algorithm changes that frustrate the masses while leaving bot accounts and hackers unchecked. It’s ironic how quickly they crack down on legitimate users but fail to address the real issues threatening users on the platform. Instead of doing a simple thing, like rolling out “Meta Verification” for everyone to combat fake accounts. They decide to charge their users for it which in turn condones the behavior of bad actors that regularly terrorize and attack its user base. This is a billion dollar company and user support should be free anyway.
If we’ve worked together and your account accidentally gets caught in the cleanup process, causing my content to disappear from your feed over the next few weeks, please don’t hesitate to follow me again. I’ll make sure to follow you back right away!
