Should we play it cool or get real on social media?
11 Aug 2015
Hey everyone, it’s Mariah here – from amaysim’s Comms team.
If you had to commit yourself to just one Instagram filter for the rest of the year, would you struggle to choose? For me, the struggle would be very real – I reckon Lo-Fi is probably the best filter for #foodporn, but I somehow always end up back at Valencia. Would you be brave enough to ditch the filters all together and forget the unwritten rules of social media?
Here at amaysim, we’ve commissioned a bit of researchi into the matter and found that almost a quarter of Aussies (22.6%) would prefer to see more photos in their feeds with #nofilter. But that doesn’t mean we’re all looking at the world without rose-tinted glasses filters.
In fact, just under half of us Aussies (49%) are editing, cropping and filtering photos so that our lives look a whole lot cooler – it’s easier to fish for likes that way.
Do you reckon you need to get real on social media?
For starters, if you can name more Instagram filters than Aussie Prime Ministers, then the answer’s probably yes. But here are some interesting stats that I reckon will catch your eye:
- Nearly half (46.5%) of users upload an image to social media at least once a week.
- 76% of people aged 18-24 will edit photos just to get more likes.
- One in five of us delete photos that don’t get enough likes.
- And we make that ~important~ decision within just half an hour of posting the snap.
Are you guilty of any of these? Don’t worry, you’re not alone – some of our amaysim crew have also admitted to needing an Instavention at one point or other.
Min, our Creative Content Chick, is no stranger to putting her best selfie forward: “I always take selfies with the same hand as my ‘good side’ – it sounds vain, I know, but you don’t want your selfie to look like your Myspace profile pic from 2006. I’ve even had a taxi driver offer to pull over so I could get the right shot while I was taking selfies in the car.”
And our Marketing Intern Mariah confessed that while travelling through Europe last year, she waited to post her photos when it was either early morning or late at night back home in Sydney: “That was when I noticed my photos would get the most likes on Facebook or Instagram – and there’s nothing more awkward than posting a holiday snap that no one double-taps.”
But what if we just got real for a bit? With one in three Aussies asking for more true-to-life photos on social media, there are a few ways we can get the ball rolling. Post your brunch or holiday snaps whenever you feel like it, stop worrying about looking “candid” (because if you have to think about it then you definitely won’t look natural) and save that time you’d put towards a flat-lay spread for something more time productive.
Are you a self-confessed filter fanatic in need of an instavention, a slave to the staged photo or a spur-of-the-moment snapper who posts everyday pics in all of their blurry glory? No matter which is your chosen social sharing standpoint, who are we to judge? The beauty of social media is that our accounts are ours to express the aspects of our lives and personalities we choose to. Hit us up in the comments to let us know which photo posting style tickles your fancy.
Cheers,
Mariah
i The research was conducted by Pure Profile on behalf of amaysim in May 2015, involving a sample of over 500 Instagram using respondents from across Australia, aged 18 years and older.
