How I’m Planning On Giving Instagram A Back Seat In My Business.

Finding a less stress free way of getting a creative business seen.

There’s been something bothering me for some time now about how I share my creativity and what I make.

Hello, I thought I’d share a recent pic so for everyone new- you can see who’s writing and creating pictures. I’m Emma - I write about gardens/flowers, vintage interiors and life as a creative business owner. I run A Bunch Of Wild which is a flower growing, styling and floristry business and Emma Connolly Designs where I make ceramics and paint, I have a studio in my garden and I sell predominantly online and at Brocantes. Until now Instagram has played a huge part in getting my business seen. I’m not going to ramble on about the good old days or algorithms- it’s simple, Instagram is now huge, like mahoosive, there are millions of people all over the world using it so it was always going to become watered down over time. I was lucky to of been around early and have multiple accounts to build a community on, quite a number of my followers became friends, some I now see in-person which is lovely. But I have made the decision to not give it so much attention anymore and to grow my businesses and my voice/images in other ways. In a way Instagram did us a favour introducing reels, I was somewhat reluctant at the time but eventually I found my way of creating videos that I like and I know I’m getting better at them, not brilliant but considerably better than my first, practice makes perfect.

I’d been looking for a way to slow down the scroll and wanted a more meaningful and calm experience for myself and my readers/customers - enter Substack. I can’t remember how I came across it now but it’s something I recommend to all my creative friends to start. I love the way I can share what I’m doing and my thoughts on here and how invested my readers are, I like how it gets delivered by email so it won’t get missed, sure people can choose not to open it that day but I know it’s been delivered and it won’t disappear in a scroll. Of course it’s not just Substack I’m investing time in and this isnt a post bashing Instagram, I’ll still use it but it won’t play the leading lady anymore- more of an extra. There are four platforms I’m now using which may sound a lot but actually they can all be linked together and it all makes sense I promise. There are so many time saving ways on linking things.

First off I recommend anyone wanting to make a living from their creativity be it a handmade item, written content or online classes have their own website!