Over the summer, I attended the first GoPro Creator Summit, in Banff, Canada. It was a collection of 50 high-profile content creators in the GoPro Family鈥斺攁nd then me, the lone journalist and the person with by far the smallest social-media following of anybody attending. Could this event boost my stats?
I went into the summit with just over on Instagram, which isn鈥檛 bad for a freelance writer, but it certainly doesn鈥檛 qualify me as a tastemaker, trendsetter, influencer, what have you. I鈥檒l freely admit, though, that sometimes I look at the photos or videos of someone with a massive following and think, Come on! My stuff is at least as good as that, isn鈥檛 it?聽Well聽maybe they know something I don鈥檛. My goal for the week was to learn the tricks of the trade, both from GoPro鈥檚 social-media team and some of the big-time influencers聽in attendance, and see how many new followers I could garner.
Pro Tips
The two-day summit featured two classes each聽morning and adventures like mountain biking, wake surfing, and rafting聽each afternoon. The activities gave people a chance to generate content, but they also afforded me the opportunity to hobnob with a lot of the influencers to pick up some of their tips and tricks. Most of the best info came from the classes, though.
Given my focus for this article, I opted to sit in on Leveraging GoPro to Build Your Brand鈥攍ed by attendees and travel bloggers and 鈥攁nd Building Your Social Audience with GoPro, taught by Katie Marylander, GoPro鈥檚 senior social media manager, and Mike Maholias, GoPro鈥檚 global social media manager.
Here are the tips I gleaned from the two workshops as well as聽talking to the various influencers at the summit, which I聽then later put to use in an attempt to make myself Insta-famous.
Practice Timing
Nearly every influencer I spoke with聽said that one post a day was their maximum. They don鈥檛 want to inundate their audiences with too much stuff, but also, it鈥檚 not easy to come up with new, quality content to post all the time. Atanmo聽said she wants to catch her followers聽when they鈥檙e聽most likely to be active and engaging: when they wake up, when they鈥檙e on lunch break, or around dinner. For this, the Insights feature on Instagram is important,聽showing you where most of your audience is and when people are聽most likely to be scrolling.
Respond to Engagement
Everybody emphasized the importance of interacting heavily in the first hour after you post something to your main feed, with the first half-hour being the most critical. If somebody comments, comment back. Instagram鈥檚 algorithm is looking for posts that are generating a lot of discussion. So聽if you respond to every comment, that鈥檚 twice the comments you would have, which makes the algorithm think that this is something people might want to see and discuss, thereby putting聽it in more people鈥檚 feeds.
Know Your Audience
According to Marylander, people scroll through 300 feet of content a day. That鈥檚 dragging your thumb from end zone to end zone on a football field. 鈥淵ou have to have content that thumb-stops them,鈥 she said. What that means, exactly, will depend on your audience. If most of your followers know you as a mountain biker and are tuning in for that, a beautiful sunset may not generate as much of a response.
I found another trend in the feeds of those I met at this event: shameless聽self-promotion.聽I picked seven of these聽influencers聽at random and analyzed their 50 most recent posts. I found that, in 82 percent of those posts, the creators prominently featured themselves, including聽one person who was prominent聽48 times in 50 posts, one who was in 49 of 50 posts, and another who was in all聽50 posts. It鈥檚 worth noting here that this, too, depends on your audience. I follow聽a lot of landscape photographers who have聽huge followings, and they never post shots of themselves.
Hone Your Content
One of the attendees, YouTuber , told me that with travel photos, anyone can go to the same lake and get the same shot, and you probably can鈥檛 compete with the professional photographers from national magazines, so聽that鈥檚 why your unique perspective is important. 鈥淲hy am I watching you tell the story? What is it about your experience that鈥檚 different?鈥 she asks. To this end, Encheva聽includes聽plenty聽of personal thoughts聽and stories about聽the experiences behind her photos in聽lengthy captions.
For GoPro鈥檚 , Maholias聽must pick聽a still image that will be聽highlighted on the company鈥檚 Instagram feed (with its 14.6 million followers). Things that catch his eye: scenes that are fully natural or fully urban, not a mix (i.e., not a stunning landscape with power lines and a few cars),聽vibrant colors and action,聽and a subject or element to add聽scale. In addition to purely epic stunts, he鈥檚 looking for humor and happiness聽(such as kids and pets)聽and 鈥渓andscapes that make viewers want to buy a plane ticket.鈥 And then there are things to avoid, like feeding or disturbing wild animals, trespassing, and breaking the law with a drone.
Limit Video Lengths
GoPro says that cutting the fat and keeping videos short (30 seconds or less) is best for both Instagram and Facebook. In fact, Marylander said that they get eight times more engagement on videos that are six seconds or less. People will watch聽those multiple times, which makes the view count go up, which makes Instagram and Facebook think it鈥檚 really good,聽tricking聽their algorithms into bumping you up in other peoples鈥 feeds so it gets in front of even more eyeballs. Also key when considering video content:聽a strong finish, with something that gets the viewer鈥檚 heart pounding right at the end; that tends to聽boost聽the chance that people will聽comment.
Putting It into Practice
I did my best to act on all this newfound information. It seems like being active in the comments during the first hour really does help. After a week or so, though, I found myself losing patience. I didn鈥檛 like responding to something that didn鈥檛 inspire a genuine reaction (like a bunch of emojis), and forcing it felt a bit craven. I started feeling beholden to keep up with the comments.
I also did my best to keep my stories active and post things that my audience might engage with. Asking questions helps, certainly. Referencing my most recent post in my story seemed to help push viewers over to my main feed to check it out.
Other things I just couldn鈥檛 come around to, at least not yet. While the seven influencers I analyzed聽averaged 41 photos or videos of themselves out of every 50 posts, I realized I only featured myself in聽six out of 50 posts before my聽trip to Banff. Whoops. In the time since, however, I鈥檝e tried posting more shots with myself in them, but this still feels a bit forced. I don鈥檛 mind it when it鈥檚 natural, or when it鈥檚 a shot I鈥檓 excited about, but I mostly travel alone and shoot handheld. I鈥檓 rarely going to dig out my tripod just so I can take a picture of myself. Mostly I just want to post what I want to post, which brings me to my next struggle point: consistency.
Looking at the feeds of the influencers I met, I noticed聽themes running through their photos, be it聽colors or types of shots. One person seemed to be going through a blue period (a modern-day Picasso), while another was enamored with the reds in sunsets. Looking at my own profile, it鈥檚 a jumbled mess, ugly, jarring, disjointed. But that鈥檚 me. Sometimes I鈥檓 taking shots of beautiful landscapes, sometimes I鈥檓 on a bike or a snowboard, sometimes I鈥檓 snapping聽, sometimes I鈥檓 , and sometimes I capture聽. I know this hurts my viewership, but it鈥檚 authentically me. At least it鈥檚 honest. If that hurts my numbers, so be it.
The other big struggle聽for me聽is shooting vertical video specifically for Instagram. I get that it鈥檚 more comfortable to hold your phone that way,聽and it looks great in stories and such. But here鈥檚 the thing: as a filmmaker, you often only get to shoot something once. Are you going to shoot it vertically, which will only look聽good on phones, or are you going to shoot horizontally聽(the way human eyeballs are oriented) so it can also be viewed on TVs, computers, and movie screens, and look good everywhere?
The Upshot
Semantics aside, GoPro was not able to make me an influencer in three days.聽Or, really, I wasn鈥檛 able to make myself into one. I started the event with 5,196 followers聽and had 5,237 by the end of it. A net gain of 41 isn鈥檛 bad, but it鈥檚 hardly a sudden rush of influence. Then again, here I am, four months later, with over 6,100 followers, so maybe that consistency paid off in the long run. But ultimately, I didn鈥檛 care. I鈥檓 going to share the moments from my life that I want to, the causes that are important to me, and the things that make me laugh, whether they look good on a grid or not.