Welcome to my Instagram project and a big thank you to Ohn Mar for this class. I really found your Pinterest Tall Pin class helpful so I was excited to try this one. It feels a bit awkward to put myself out there like this but here goes. As with all of my projects this intro will stay at the top of the feed and new content will be posted at the top. Scroll down to see the history.

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH...17 DAYS

+17 Posts.
+44 followers.
(Since beginning of challenge.)

So we are well past the two week mark with this class and technically the challenge is over but I still haven't finished refining my profile. This week I was finally able to get a new profile photo taken. I visited my friend Cindy and we went to this great white brick wall behind her shop and took several fun photos. I got some more traditional head shots as well, but I knew that I also wanted to try something fun with this little butterfly that I just finished illustrating:

I'm very happy with how it turned out! I made sure that the whole image fit well inside the circular profile image and before I could even put up my introduction post someone sent me a message to tell me how much they loved my profile image! Yay!

Next week I want to work on the story features. I see so many new and interesting ways that people are using them - I just have to figure out my own approach. Below is my screenshot for this week. I didn't post as much this week - I really need to line up my ideas again for next week. It helps me to plan ahead.

 

 

WEDNESDAY, FEB 7TH...8 DAYS IN

(Yesterday when I took my 1 week screenshot I had 550 followers. Tonight as I post this update I have 556. Six followers in 24 hours is very, very new to me! You might also notice that I have posted 11 times in 8 days which is at least once a day. A couple of times because of a Spoonflower contest I posted more than once a day. If you know me you know I like math so I have to include some more. At this rate I'm consistently gaining just over 4 followers a day. If I continue at this pace I will reach 1000 followers in 111 days. (1000-556 = 444; 444/4 = 111) That will be May 29th. I think I'm going to be a true geek and chart this in my bullet journal, lol!)

So when I first began this project I was a afraid - there were no other projects in the classroom, lol. I think no one wanted to go first! I was afraid that people would see my project, see me on Instagram and then just assume that I was trying to gain followers.

What I've learned in the past week is that Ohn Mar's strategy essentially boils down foremost being consistent and persistent by which I mean continually showing up and doing the work. It is work - especially when you are also creating and taking care of your family! The other thing that I realized is that all you really have to do is be kind, be encouraging, and be genuinely honest and engaged.

While the number of followers I have has grown at a significant pace for where I was at when I started I think the most important thing is that I feel more engaged both with my followers and with those that I am following.

I've included my screenshot mid Tuesday afternoon which is within hours of one week of starting this project. You will notice that I still have the same profile picture but that I have updated my profile section. I hope to get a new profile picture up in week 2 even if it means one of the boys takes it! I also want to create featured stories that are a bit more choreographed. That's prime marketing real estate that I'm not taking advantage of.

END OF WEEK 1 SCREENSHOT

 

SUNDAY, FEB 4TH...5 DAYS IN
I have gained 23 followers since Wednesday morning which is an average of almost 5 a day. I have updated a bit of my profile changing to my new brand name "It's Amber". I also made some changes to my bio that I'm trying out. The first line reads, "On a journey from art school dropout to licensed & published illustrator." I left in Homeschool and boy mom as those are things that sometimes attract as many of my followers as my art. I did also put a message in at the bottom saying that it is okay to message me for commissions and freelance work. 

I'll post a new screenshot on Tuesday.

The other thing I did this weekend is a little animation to celebrate the 500 follower milestone. I attempted an animation. It's a bit rough but I think it manages to still be celebratory. I'll be posting it tomorrow along with the class hashtag.

BEGINNING SCREENSHOT

(First of all, this screenshot is so true to life. Notice it's shot at 2am - because often my thyroid disease makes it hard to sleep and I watch Skillshare videos. Also note the battery life of my phone. My iPad was on the charger cord because of said video watching and I probably had just enough battery left to snap this screenshot when I came to that point of Ohn Mar's video, lol!)

Below this screenshot I will list a few observations that I made and also things that I want to improve about my profile and my feed scroll.

 

Observations:

* My profile picture is a bit outdated - I've been using it for almost two years now.

* I'm not sure if 'Artist' can be changed but if so what would I put there?

* My profile description is a bit emoji heavy. I've also noticed that on android phones the emoji's appear differently and are less clear. This needs to be revamped. I want to keep something about homeschooling or family because that is appealing to a lot of my followers but I'm not sure this is the best way to do it.

* I like my link.tree link. I might want to rethink what I'm linking to and the order in which I'm linking. I'll post a screenshot of that later.

*My feed. The first three images that you can see here are okay. They are the build up to a large project that I'm working on - a repeat pattern for the Spoonflower Origami contest that's going live next week. Mine is titled Triassic Garden. I pulled back from trying to do all of the contests and just picked one and have poured lots of time and energy into it. I've shared my process along the way and am dribbling out the motifs this week before revealing the final repeat next week just before voting begins. Not sure how this strategy will play out but that's why we try stuff, right!

 

**It might be interesting to note that in the 24 hours since I started this challenge and even before I could post this project my following has grown to 536.