As I See It - Do You Like It?
Two weeks ago, I was named, really against all odds, as an Admin for the Facebook group, Inspired Street Photography. I came through the back door, as I often do. Almost certainly I was selected, not because of my skill as a street photographer, but because of my inclination to comment and my style of commenting. I am okay with that. I have long since learned to play to my strengths.
I am writing a lot of comments about composition and that helped me be intentional in my photography this week. I find I am drawn to a “triangle of heroes”. In this case, it is the triangle formed by the woman, the statue and the sign.
This turn of events has caused me to think a lot about the role that likes and comments play in social media. In truth, I have always thought about that. In December, the title, “Do You Like It?” made its way into the queue for future blogs. I never pursued it because I could not think of how to do the research. Skip that! This is all going to be my personal perceptions.
Let’s start with a couple of basic premises, social media axioms, so to speak. While they will be true for any topic that is posted, I will refer to posts of photographers. If we post a picture on social media, it is our dear hope that someone, somewhere sees it. We believe the photo has value, and we hope others will see the value. Finally, we inevitably will measure our success by the likes and comments on our post.
Primary diagonals, even implied primary diagonals, move your eye from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. In this case it helps the viewer find the football. If you can move the viewer’s eye you get a little extra time from them. The head on the right is the little surprise.
How people respond on Instagram is different than how they respond on Facebook. Your Instagram community is much more likely to be responsive to your posts than your Facebook community. It is not the job of Instagram Moderators to “like” incoming posts. It very much is the job of Facebook Admins, because if we don’t do it, many posts will never get recognition. There is an upside to this, because being in a Facebook group potentially takes much less time and effort for the member than being in an Instagram community.
I carried my tradition of “liking” every single photo that does not violate my personal ethical standards from the IG platform to the Facebook platform. It is my signal to the photographer that someone really has seen the picture. This does not take any time at all. It seems like the least that I can do. As an Admin I have positioned myself, to some extent, as the person who will comment on pictures that seem to be unlovable, so to speak. Suffice it to say that I have been there and done that, so I know unlovable does not feel good.
A Titans football game ended with the Titans beating the Chicago Cubs. I was looking for the compositional contrast of friends supporting different teams. This is an example of what we call, “A House Divided’.
The thing is, unlovable is sometimes simply a smack from the site’s algorithm god. My insider’s suggestion for those of us living in the Eastern or Central time zone: post as early in the morning as possible. It is afternoon in Europe, and early evening in much of Asia. For Europeans, post later in the afternoon and Asians in the early evening. If your post does not get an immediate response, it can be sent to the post graveyard. Maximize your odds that it is seen.
Also, it is good to have some friends. Although we do not talk about it, I know I can count on a couple of my friends to always comment on my posts. They can count on me to always comment on their posts. This commenting deal is important because it gets the post out of the proverbial graveyard and back on the circuit. Another insider’s suggestion, although I speculate on this rather than know it for certain, is to do yourself this favor, especially on Facebook: If someone comments on your post, comment back, at a minimum with a “thank you”. This is not an etiquette or gratitude lesson. I believe the algorithm gods reward interaction. Your return comment is chance #3 to get back in the viewing circuit.
Signs can provide in-photo captions.
I can absolutely find something nice to say about almost every photograph. It is my “silver lining” philosophy. Thank you to my young friend, Lauraine Frank, for teaching me that. Since I have moved into a super commenter zone because of being an Admin, I am getting a lot of practice on commenting. Sometimes the photos are not the best. No matter. There is something worthy of note on every one of them. Do you know who the grand beneficiary of this is? Well, it is me.
Sprinkled through out this blog, seemingly unconnected to the topic, are pictures from my second day in Nashville over the weekend. I took such awful pictures on Saturday, I had to go back. It was my most intentional day since January. The way I made it intentional is to think back on the hundreds of comments of things that I found interesting in other people’s posts. And then I went after that. I am feeling pretty good about the results. I sure hope I get some positive feedback when I post them on social media.
I am definitely drawn to images that just have body parts. Most often they amuse me.