Just a bit of a morning update. We’re a small office so we share responsibility for uploading photos on the company Instagram. If there were a hundred of us maybe we’d have an intern to take care of our social media, but that is not the case. I don’t use the platform personally, but I’m under the impression that it’s sort of an essential for any contemporary business, especially one based in visual media-related services. I suppose my personal opposition to it, besides just wanting to spend less time on my phone, is that it’s so trend-based. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not rolling my eyes and saying, “ugh, fads” like I’m some kind of separatist rebelling against popular culture, which is honestly just as cheesy of a stance. I just don’t have enough of a personal investment to keep up with the flood of visual stimulus on that platform. Besides, I think that tendencies form sort of naturally, and some types of images prevail over others once the bulk of visual information reaches a certain critical mass. I suppose the point I’m trying to get to is that I haven’t developed an eye for these kinds of trends. Axonometrics, textures, and knolling – my dictionary of trends to refer to in order to effectively use Instagram is limited to these three categories. I’d add cats to the list, but then I’d just be pandering (I do love cat photos though). Here’s my question: is it useful to rely on these trends from a marketing standpoint? It seems like people’s eyes are conditioned on this kind of platform to look for images that are pleasing in the same bent like a 21st century, digital version of picking berries. I do rely on these kinds of images, like the textural photo I took today. I threw a GoPro on top of a pile of coffee beans for a double whammy of caffeine-dependent/product-based gratification. Is this the best strategy for social media marketing?