Instagram And The Visual Nature of History
One of the biggest platforms for historians has been Instagram. Why? Because many of our understandings of the past have come from photographs, paintings, lithographs, etc. Visuals have defined how we reflect upon historical events and eras for generations. What has helped the new generation of historians has been the influx of social platforms that are geared toward fast, entertaining, or educational imagery. Instagram checks all of the boxes.
Instagram is a free-to-use service, now owned by Facebook/Meta. Obviously, you can run paid ads on the platform as well, but let’s not worry about that right now. We’ll just cover the basics.
It is forecast that by 2023 Instagram will have an audience of almost 1.2 billion around the world!1 The United States leads the way as far as active usage and this number is only going to climb as Instagram has solidified its place as the go-to for quick images with corresponding text.
Let’s focus on the United States numbers for a moment. As of December 2021, most users in the U.S. were between the ages of 25 and 34 (33.5%), with 18 to 24 (21.7%) and 35 to 44 (19.7%) following close behind. Surprisingly, this is one of the platforms where users identifying as female outweigh the males; 56% of users identify as female while 44% identify as male.2
What do these numbers mean for those of us in the humanities fields? Well, if we are to reach out to new types of audiences based on age or gender identity, these numbers may show us that those who are about to graduate high school to those who are in the early-mid years of their career are prime for the taking. We can direct our efforts towards a younger demographic of historians to ensure that the message resonates with them and they may wish to be involved more heavily moving forward. Instagram has been around for some time and with its acquisition by Facebook/Meta, with its slightly older audience, be prepared for this audience to get “older” as well.
Pop culture icons are still leading the pack as far as followers. This can be used to our advantage so don’t dismiss this! For example, National Geographic has a whopping 214 million followers. Their posts generate thousands upon thousands of interactions, whether they are “likes” or comments. The beautiful photography definitely draws in the viewer and then they may progress to the text beneath to understand what is going on in the image, where it was taken, etc. This can be our model.
How do we create a great Instagram post? First, what is your message in the post? Do you want to highlight a historical site? A new book? A garment? Once you figure that out, take a great photo of it (don’t get overtaxed with the lighting, etc., just do the best you can), use the filters provided to make it look appealing, and then provide a great description. I like to keep my descriptions to about five sentences maximum. I don’t want to overtax the user with an in-depth analysis of a historical home, for example.
After you finish with your description, it’s time for hashtags. Yes, I know some of you will roll your eyes because it has become cliche BUT bear with me. When using good hashtags you can increase the traffic to your post by a large amount. I’ve seen two to three times the amount of people viewing a photo with relevant hashtags than not having any or sticking with the same old ones (#history, #historian, etc.). Think about the month you are in, or a pop culture event happening currently. Perhaps you can use "#womenshistorymonth” for a post about a famous woman from the past when we are in the month of March. Maybe you can write a post about baseball during the world series and use the hashtag #worldseries. You get the point. Make it relevant!
What are some historical things we can post that are visual in nature? Well, we have a plethora of images that we take at historical sites, in the archives, and on our travels to and from these places. Post them! We have access to so many historical photographs that the possibilities are endless! If it meets your message and mission, post it. Obviously, if it is not your image, give credit where credit is due. Remember, we don’t take from others and give ourselves the credit!
You can also do short videos in your feed. Keep them to around 30-45 seconds due to the nature of people scrolling. You also have the Stories feature which will be at the top of your feed. You can add a Story and there is where I would put a longer video (say one minute or more). If it’s visual, do not hesitate to put it on Instagram.
In a later post, I’ll talk about how to get more users to follow/interact with you on the platform (you won’t pay for them). So don’t worry about getting to a certain number of followers; just post! I’ll also go over how we can go live on Instagram to interact with our audience.
Instagram is fun, quick, and easy to use. It literally takes two minutes to make a great post and it’s free advertising for your brand!
https://www.statista.com/topics/1882/instagram/#topicHeader__wrapper
https://www.statista.com/topics/1882/instagram/#dossierKeyfigures