Step Away from the Instagram

Of all the social media platforms, it's Instagram that really stole our hearts. Do you remember what it was like in the early days? Kat joined late in 2010, when the app was iPhone only and you couldn't import photos, or edit them beyond a few over-the-top filters. She recalls how inspiring it was to see what her most artistically inclined connections could achieve with (at best) an iPhone 4 camera, and how refreshing it was to play on a platform that was all about visuals, not links and clicks. (And no ads! Remember no ads? And a reverse-chronological feed... we could go on forever...)

Of course, times have changed. And that's fair — you can't offer a service like that for free forever. But using Instagram for work has stripped a lot of the joy out of it. As for using it as a marketing and customer engagement tool, like many maker businesses (and Workshop!) do, it can be extremely effective — but really risky, too. Earlier this year, for instance, the platform suddenly deactivated Garland Magazine's account. No warning, no explanation. It was finally reinstated, but in many cases that doesn't happen. Scary, right?

We're not saying to ditch Instagram, but we believe it's smart not to put all your eggs in one basket. So in this issue, we discuss two marketing tools that will help you diversify how you reach your customers. Plus, we have an interview with member Rosie Schinners, a jewellery designer and collage artist from Salt Spring Island, B.C. Thanks for chatting with us, Rosie!

Yours in making,