Why I'm Quitting Instagram As An Artist.

[@DyzghinandLynx]

being free of instagram has been the best decision of our life

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

I'm glad it's helped you!

[@mimosachroma]

That's exactly how I feel as well! IG is so draining, the constant hustle and everything for such a small reach!

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Exactly this!

[@MariaMilenovasArt]

Instagram hinders Artists so much.

[@hameley12]

Wow! I completely understand why so many artists are leaving the IG app. I used to have a page dedicated to my photography/calligraphy business and another store for my clothing business [recycled materials and giving them a second life] but then Facebook merged and bought the company. It was infuriating and I was scared of leaving the app thinking I would not be able to reach more people. Then a friend of mine told me about Wik [personalized website]. Now all I have is my own website, Twitch and Flickr. I have embraced the new community and they have welcomed me. I hope everything goes well for you on your journey and congrats on your baby! I'm sure he will be blessed. Take care, Ellis!

[@DaisyKraft87]

Adding to this: Instagram is designed to keep you in the app as long as possible. Even if you try to exit the app by the back button (andriod vers), it jut pops you to the top of the feed and refreshes itself, there fore getting your attention again. Its also really unstable for me, especially this last week and a bit.

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Yes! I forgot to mention this but it's another toxic trait of the platform that I just find really unsettling 🤢

[@HanmadeDesigns]

I felt the most liberated when I deleted it for over 4 months, but a small part of me wanted to still keep in touch and support small businesses. It's such a dilemma. Now time is precious, I'm conscious where I spend my time. Back just before I deleted the app, when I primarily posted my art, I found I was having to make 2-3 hours pieces fit into 15 seconds worth of attention grabbing video, and it drained me to the point of deleting it. At the time I watched the BBC3 documentary, and it just made me want to turn invisible to the world. Knowing how powerful of a tool it can all be for business is a tough one, but likewise have been toying with the idea of using youtube as my main platform for communication and story telling for the business. I just wished I could find the solution to my 'stories' type content, or how to best use it. I think you've made a wise decision, spoken well 😊

[@cyberpunkholiday]

THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL! YES! I am also leaving.

[@blacksandee]

The annoying thing that I noticed now is that there are way too many artists timelapse demos/tutorial reels. I mean it used to be that artist are actually trying to show, express and hopefully sell their Art rather than suddenly all become art instructors. There was a mystery to their process...I am scrolling past all of it, I want to look and admire the art!

[@zellafae]

I really needed to hear this, I’ve been trying to grow my instagram and post consistently, but its just too much for a few likes here and there. I want to take more time and make prices i really like and make for me again

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Yes to this!

[@tiffanycerasoli3540]

Thank you for the advice. Left Etsy and thought I’d plug into instagram. But I hate social media so I was dreading it. I think I will continue to use it as a type of portfolio and lead to my website

[@jemmarossart7727]

100% agree with everything you said, it’s exhausting! Running a business is hard enough without having to create content all the time and constantly thinking what can I post next! I’m also a fellow Mama too and trying to find the balance of everything is so hard and mentally draining! You should be able to switch off and enjoy family time or time with your friends without feeling you have to be posting something or constantly checking stats etc.. it really is toxic! It’s been such a struggle keeping up with it so I’m trying to take a step back and focus on my KZbin too as I feel Instagram either qgives your work some views but then it’s dead or they decide it’s not getting seen at all whereas KZbin like you said people can watch your content back like vlogs etc rather than a few second clip.. it’s much more valued! Thanks so much for sharing this Ellis, it’s so comforting to know I’m not the only one feeling like this.. your video has really given me a lot to think about going forward so thank you!🥰💕

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Thank YOU Jemma 🥰

[@saitdesigns]

I’m glad I’m not the only one that was thinking Instagram is a nasty platform that exploits its content makers

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Very much with you there!

[@ToxicCatt-y7c]

People are straight up slamming other artist online saying that the reason why they don’t grow as artist online is because their artwork sucks. Like just because they don’t draw the same stuff other people are drawing and making short videos putting on performances, doesn’t mean they’re less relevant. 😅

[@finelimedesigns]

you articulated so many of my feelings. I'm still in the early stages of my illustration career and I've been going back and forth on this for months. I'm not sure I'm ready or have other platforms that are where I want them to be before I pull the plug. But I find IG so noisy now. It's frenetic and it makes me anxious. But this video did give me the push to become a patron - something I've been meaning to do for months. So I'm excited to have access to all of that content now :)

[@shkhan84]

I know we are watching this on a social media platform as well but this form of content is still more intimate and long form than Instagram. Also you're absolutely right about the deliberate glitchiness of Instagram because whenever i try to curate or unfollow extra accounts ive hoarded over the years Instagram keeps going back up to where i started and i have to scroll down all the way again to the point where i was unfollowing and curating my list of following

[@thgritic102]

15:27 This EXACT reason why i hate SM so much. It gives off the illusion that what you're making isn't what people want. I work in figurative mixed media area, & SM is all about fanart or celeb charcoal drawings when really statistics on Google (dif websites so lets just use the search engine lol) says in first place is abstract art & second place is figurative art, esp in the black community. So really, I'm actually in the right field/medium. It's just that SM is trying to trick me into doing "popular" art for their algorithm vs what brings in the bread for myself. I'm so over fighting it 😒

[@Noealz]

Its the worst, but youre awesome : )

[@bijouxartjewelleryundkunst4429]

4:40 absolutely right. This from someone who made hundreds of reels and short videos on Instagram. The average view duration is between two to four seconds. You could have the most interesting artwork and it wouldn't matter because nobody will see it. Probably what happens is that the fifteen or so people who like you posts just quickly like them and leave them without watching them just so you go back to their reels and like their reels back!!! The reels don't get seen!!!

[@missrainartwork]

Omg you speak from my soul here… I just can’t do reels anymore, it’s not my world and I still feel guilty,… it’s crazy what that app did with artist 😮‍💨 thank you for this video !🌷

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

This is such a good way of putting it! Thank you for watching 💕

[@timdanyo898]

I post about once a month and check in to see what people are doing about once or twice a week. I figure it’s ok to keep and add to my account, but not to take it seriously. If someone’s curious they can look me up on there and get an idea of my work and what I’m up to creatively, but that’s about it.

[@holycrappitsjo]

I'm catching up on the parts of this I missed yesterday, and I can't believe how much I'm longing for how myspace was. When it was good, it was SO good. I could keep up with friends' posts, I discovered so many bands, and also made a lot of local & international friends. Anyways, yeah, I just....the amount you have to produce to make content just to get your actual work seen, it's exhausting, and I absolutely cannot keep up. Not even close. I do spend a lot of time watching (mostly listening) to KZbin videos, and really make an effort to mute any other social media apps because I hate the push notifications. I'll go to check the tag or mention, and then spend 20 minutes on there accidentally. The "pause app" feature on my phone has gotten a lot of use this year. Thanks for being so real about this, it does make me feel so much less alone in my experience with all of this. 🖤

[@CiroDesignStudio]

I feel the exact same way Ellis!! I use Instagram mostly to post pictures that I already took for something else and not specifically for the platform. If I feel like recording a reel, I will do that and post it. If I don't feel like recording one, I won't. I have quite a few reels that never got posted because the reel got deleted in the middle of me filming/editing it, which makes me no longer want to film a reel so instead of starting over again, I just leave the app 😂 It definitely doesn't help with getting good reach on posts or gaining followers but I choose to spend my time on the things I value much more than Instagram. I feel like there is not enough time in our lives to begin with so I want to spend it with people and things that I enjoy, that make me happy and have a good influence on my life. No social media platform has so far made it on that list 😊 I am looking forward to seeing where this journey takes you and I can't wait to follow along here on KZbin!

[@bijouxartjewelleryundkunst4429]

5:30 you think this is a big problem. Imagine people spending hundreds or thousands of hours creating posts that literally nobody sees because they get two to four second average view duration time!!! That! I call a big problem! I am talking about millions of creators!

[@BiancaHaeckDesigns]

Ellis, share your Warhammer account! Would love to see it! :) Also, totally agree, I stopped posting regularly to IG with my art, and it was freeing!

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Thank you ☺️ its fairyofsigmar

[@scarletchild]

What is warhammer? I’ve been trying to search for it to no avail but I’m so curious

[@TheDottyRoom]

Spot on! I feel the same way & have been planning my exit too. It's hard - I like being a user of IG but as a creator on there, it's the absolute pits! And all the negatives outweight the few positives. Have you watched the Instagram Effect on BBC3? It sits down with the original team members at IG before FB bought it & they talk about what it was like to watch from the inside the transition from a feel-good picture sharing app to what we have today, and also why they left. It left me with even more of a bad taste in my mouth. I think you're wonderful talking about it - you're so articulate 👏🏻 Lots of love xx

[@mzzbevcreates]

It's funny how you mention the danger of Instagram as well as other Social Medias. I did something similar with Facebook where after finding myself in that zombie zone (that's what I call it) from scrolling and scrolling and scrolling ,etc., I went ahead and unfollowed everyone on my friends list except for my kids and other close family and omg, what a difference it made!! What I do now, is purposefully go to a friends page and see how they're doing and get in touch with them. But I no longer waste my time just scrolling and scrolling. I agree that it can be detrimental to one's health. With IG I'm very careful who I follow and I don't take it serious, it's just fun for me and like another commenter stated, "I post and go". Now with TikTok, that's my end of the day laugh, I follow people who are funny and inspiring but then I put it down and go on to a good book. Looking forward to all that you do Ellis, I enjoy your vlogs and of course, your art talent :)

[@emmaneary6120]

Pretty sure I agree with everything 😬. For me IG really lost its charm when it added reels. So I pretty much have a 'post-and-go' approach. Take a quick low-effort photo, post it, see a couple of pics and stories from my artist buddies, then leave. I add a quick story here and there. But I know there's no point spending lots of time or effort on creating a post no one will see. As a consumer I've never spent a lot of time browsing/scrolling on social media - it just doesn't hold my attention luckily - maybe because I'm unsociable or my interests are too specific I don't know. But I can spend hours window-shopping online for art supplies and books instead 😅.

[@Artist1974CH]

Instagram really lost its charm after Facebook bought it. Anything that big Corporate America touches, it goes to the trash bin.

[@carolineshergold3467]

This was really helpful. Thank you.

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Thank you!

[@artbysoffi8261]

I hear you and agree in most ways, but as a newbie with showing my art and try to get peoble to find just me and maybe my art then mean something to someone. I have no idea how to reach peoble othervise because its hard to attract the right audience for just me. I agree that Instagram have gone worse and don´t show your content but for me it´s all the same here on youtube 😬

[@bijouxartjewelleryundkunst4429]

5:00 the programmers should design something that a person is made to stay at least 10 or 20 seconds on each reel and no less than that. Within that time a person has a chance to either be interested or not. But no. The reels get seen two to four seconds average view duration!!! Literally they're just not seen by anyone.

[@ingrid-b-art]

All really good food for thought - I feel a bit trapped as there's still a lot I like about the app in terms of staying in touch with community and seeing other artist's work that I love, but I also feel as though I've never really been able grow very much on the platform (probably because I don't follow the trends haha) and I don't like that it pushes people to make content they may not like making...

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Completely agree with all of this!

[@Artist1974CH]

Instagram has no community. Not anymore. It has billions of users who Mark Zuckerberg , his shareholders, and Adam Mosseri consider them as suckers.

[@maggie_1984]

I agree, but how to advertise yourself ? I'm a small business owner, and this year has been worse ever :(

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

I'm focussing more on email marketing & KZbin mainly. I think with the way Instagram has been, it's a wake up call for us to not put most/all of our eggs in one basket because it can just get taken away & we have zero control over it. Reaching for other forms of marketing has been very interesting to learn about but I sure as hell don't depend on Instagram like I once did. It feels super scary at first but totally worth it from my experience. Hope this helps! 💕

[@rhythmworkshop7926]

To quit SocialMedia is the best thing you can do!!! Because there is absolutely nothing social about social media. The word social media is totally misleading. What is supposed to be social about it?

[@MADD_Crafter]

💯

[@yasminc.89]

"Why I´m quitting instagram as an artist" - while being still on instagram and putting the link under the video? I just don´t get it

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

I think you’ve missed the point of the video, I’m quitting Instagram as an artist as in I’m not relying on it as I once did to market my business. It still exists as a portfolio & traffic source, it would be silly of me to delete or deactivate the hard work that has previously gone into that space. I now use Meta Business Suite instead rather than have the Instagram app on my phone.

[@LilyAmongThorns]

I saw it as “I’m no longer a slave of it”, tied into the hope of getting right with the algorithm and getting a million or two followers and fame and perhaps a small fortune if not just a good living from it….freed from needing to continually post and check posts and feed on it and feed into it continually, a viscous cycle and frenzy that sucks you down a dark hole….instead of just having an Instagram account and having a life as well. 🤔🙂

[@LilyAmongThorns]

@@EllisWoolleyIllustrationI think I got it? 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@yasminc.89]

@@LilyAmongThorns That makes sense...I think instagram is made for just getting money for the platform, they must get rich from so many devastated artists boosting (advertising) their posts just to get more people to see it to get more followers...and you must permanently post bc of the algorithm....and yes it´s like an endless cycle...I must say I feel sooo much better if I don´t use socialmedia in generel, but as an artist, it is hard to get away from instagram. If I just use it as a portfolio, it also brings me not much, if not many people or nobody in the future will ever see it, because the algorithm will only show certain posts of people who post often aso...the very best would maybe be to get away from it completely, because magically, it feels soooo freeing. xD But maybe it´s possible to find a good middleway.

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

@@LilyAmongThornsprecisely this! 👌🏻

[@geokorf]

6k isnt enough? damn.

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

Considering a 6k following reaches approximately 2% of that figure according to my stats & insights, it wouldn't hurt to have a few more would it 😂

[@Marty_YouTuber]

These People aren't quitting Instagram, Look at how rich these people are. You are simply addicted and we all know you won't Quit a platform that makes you rich. According to Hopperhq, Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest paid celebrity on Instagram in 2023, earning an average of $3.2 million per post. In 2022, Ronaldo earned $2.3 million per post. Other high-earning Instagram influencers include: Lionel Messi: Earns nearly $2.5 million per sponsored post Selena Gomez: Earns nearly $2.5 million per sponsored post Kylie Jenner: Earns $2.3 million per sponsored post According to a 2021 leak, Elaluz and Kopari Beauty pay the highest commission of 20%, while fashion brand Zara pays 8%.

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

No denying these people have massive incomes from a platform like Instagram. Huge celebrities & footballers however have their own management & marketing teams who provide structure, guidance & a lot of the planning & prep work that will go into their content. Compared to much smaller businesses like my own where there is only one person doing each task, exhausting your efforts into a single platform like Instagram has proven to not be an efficient or effective use of my time, which a lot of similar small businesses relate to & are discovering for themselves. This is what my video was about, finding alternatives & not getting sucked into Instagrams addictive culture & forever figuring out the algorithm in order to succeed. I’d rather focus my time elsewhere & find my audience in a slower paced environment where content doesn’t disappear from sight within just a few seconds.

[@fotomagrol]

I am a designer and I do have instagram, but I see it as a tool one of many that I have available, I also have facebook , pinterest and Tweeter, I do not feel overwelmed by the app, I have been doing my designs for over 11 years, I started with a Myspace page, and gradually I have been opening or moving to other apps. I see them as a window on a house, you can close it or open it, its your choice, do not fell bad or tired by them, be you, feel free, walk this path how you want to do it and enjoy it.

[@EllisWoolleyIllustration]

This is some solid advice 👌🏻

[@Artist1974CH]

And you don't have a website?