For many, Instagram is a great, direct and to the point social media app.  It gets you inspirational photos and videos with the odd comment.  Descriptions include keyword hashtags that let you know what the just of each photo is.  What is often overlooked is how Instagram can help create and fine tune your photography portfolio or for other creative mediums.  Posting a photo, hashtaging and boosting it for as little as 2 and a half dollars you can get some input and see whether the image is a hit or miss.

This is actually a great investment when you are creating a portfolio say for design school or for an exhibit.  You get the word out, might get a few followers that will support your work, and see which ones resonate with the viewers and which don’t.

Much like other social media apps, Instagram is candid and the comments you get will likely be honest – if not brutally honest.  This can give you some much needed reality check, but you’ll need to be careful how you filter some of the criticism (and commendations) given that your target audience may not be familiar with your technique, or your symbolism.  They may not in fact appreciate artistic self-expression – so that is a negative there, this also applies to photography and controversial subject matter.

Despite this, Instagram can be a great tool to see the marketability of your work, and how the “regular joe” may approach your art – it may even surprise you how interpretations can be completely off your scale coming from someone who may not know anything about the context of your work, may in fact open your mind to additional new interpretations.

I think social media can be utilized for a lot of things that can help the success of your work – least of which using Instagram to test out and fine tune your portfolio might be the easiest and most immediate and with the most benefit to your investment tool there is at the moment.