The Evolution Of A Business On Instagram

You know how DOVE chocolates have those sayings inside the wrapper? Well, I had one recently that was a dare - "Take a weekend off of social media". That made me laugh, because I have been doing that for a long time now. But how have I gotten to where I am with how I use Instagram and what things have driven the changes? That's what I'm sharing today and I hope it can help you decide how to make Instagram work FOR YOU, not the other way around.

Here's a brief timeline of SJP on Instagram:

• 2017 - I got my account in July (originally called Image Bearers) and was posting once a day with a break on Sunday.
• 2018 - Changed my name to Sarah Jane Photography and "officially" started my business. I believe this is the year I started posting every other photo as a graphic and I had my first logo and brand colors. By this point I've switched from posting daily to posting whenever I feel like it/when I have new work to display.
• 2019 - My style is shifting and I'm realizing that what I've been doing isn't working anymore so I start the process to rebrand. Started to post more consistently, which means twice a week.
• 2020 - New logo, new brand colors, and somewhere around the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 I started checking Instagram three to four times a day. I believe my weekends off may have begun near the end of this year.
• 2021 - Took my first month off in January. Significantly cut back on how often I was checking the app. Once I check on Friday (and post), I'm off for the full weekend.
• 2022 - I'm taking back control!!!!

Instagram was my first social media (SM) account. I had grown up hearing about people being addicted to their SM and I knew I did not want that for my own life. So at the beginning, I committed to only going on once a day. That was it. I had my friends who were also on there keep my accountable. I honestly don't remember now, but I think that my Sundays off started from the beginning, but at the very least, it was an early-on commitment. I should also mention that I had all notifications turned off for the app.

As time went on, I grew more confident in my ability to control the platform and not let it control me, so I went on a little bit more. My engagement grew until I was checking it three to four times a day. Why so much? Well, I had heard that the more you engage with other people's accounts, the better it was for your account. So I was going on to interact with other people's content. It was fun! I had a great community on there and just really enjoyed the time I spent on the app. I still took my day off and if I missed days, it was no big deal, so I knew I wasn't getting addicted.

Posting was an interesting struggle for me. At the very beginning, I was posting daily, but as I learned more and started to create a brand, I didn't have enough quality content to keep that momentum so I just posted whenever I had new content or something I wanted to share. But then I learned that the more often you post and if you post consistently, the better it is for your account. So I decided I'd post twice a week, Mondays and Fridays.

Now we move to 2020. I'm on Instagram multiple times a day, I've turned on message notifications so that when my cousin tries to call me, I know, and, of course, I'm seeing all the things that were 2020. By the end of the year, I was DONE. I wanted off completely. I was burned out and almost afraid to open the app. What I used to enjoy I was now "scared" off. So I did something I'd heard of other people doing but had never done myself. I took all of January 2021 off of Instagram and it was THE BEST!!! I came back with a new plan, refreshed and ready to go. That plan included creating themes for my Stories each day, turning off notifications, and updated content, based on things I had learned from Instagram business influencers. I stayed pretty consistent with that plan all year but wasn't seeing much return or engagement from my audience in exchange for all the time put in.

Which brings us to 2022. I don't know if you've caught on to this theme, but all along I've been doing what OTHER PEOPLE were doing or said to do. While I think it is a great idea to learn from others, especially if you don't know at all what you're doing, you can't be them. I think all this time I was trying to be them, rather than taking inspiration from them and fitting it to be me. What does all this mean? Well, I am taking the practices I've learned and doing them my way. I'm still trying to post twice a week and I'm still trying to go on daily, but I'm not stressing about it. If Monday's post goes up on Tuesday, fine. If I don't open the app at all on a Thursday, who cares? I'm still taking all weekend off after posting on Friday and I'm going to do more things that I like and are more "me" in my Stories. Trying to be like everyone else only got me so far and now I'm not going anywhere. So I'm going to start being more "me". After all, what sets my business apart from everyone else's is ME!


I hope what you take away from all this is that social media is supposed to work for you. Get ideas, listen to advice, but at the end of the day, don't be a slave to "best practices" if they don't work for you and your life. All these platforms aren't supposed to be your life and it is okay to take back control. They are tools that can be useful and fun, but when they become more than that, it's time to make a change. You can do it!

I'd love to hear what you think about SM and how you use it. Does any of my story resonate with you? What would you like to hear more about?