You know when you watch a film, and the main characters success is measured by a dramatic rise in Instagram followers as their Instagram followers tick up exponentially by some rotating dial of glory in the corner of the screen?

Not for me.

Four days of lots of Instagramming and my count went from 204 down to 203.

Quite how I got 204 I have no idea. I’ve had a few goes at posting in previous periods, I think 250 posts and ended up over several years with 204.

Okay I’m not that stupid. I know the clever people at Instagram certainly do not reward you for not just posting regularly for four days. How their algorithms work, who knows, but they are really smart and they know exactly what they are doing for their benefit. I do not.

I’ve chosen Instagram as it is a good platform for vintage items and because I have the Meta Business Suite on my business Facebook (15 followers} I can schedule posts. Which means I can post consistently, which Instagram reward. I think.

I know all the tricks I need to learn to gain traction and know I will never learn them.

What I know now is that I can spend some time deliberating over a post of my chosen field and get no likes, or take a picture off the internet of one of the old punk bands I like, say the Damned, put hashtags of the Damned and the members of the group and get up to 20 likes. 85% of my views come from hashtags.

So sure I could start an Instagram account nicking images off the internet and getting lots of followers and likes. But I am doing this for my business and frankly I am not interested in doing the former.

Not to be defeated I posted consistently last week and by Sunday 30^th July my followers were 207. Up 4, whoop whoop.

One light at the end of the tunnel! Interestingly I posted a picture of an original oil painting I own by an artist called Patrice d’Hervalbanthe and immediately had a message from someone in France wanting to buy it. It is not for sale, but shows the potential for niche things, such as pilfered punk rock images!

If the science of social media was simple, everyone would be good at it and despite all this, there has been a hint of light at the end of the tunnel. Next week I intend to study some videos and restart my Pinterest account. I think growing anything is an enormous effort and all you need is a tiny piece of good news and a tiny leap forward every week to keep you feeling positive amongst the fails and frustration. I guess as at least 90% is fruitless, but in many ways that is a good thing as let’s face it with no guaranteed reward or anything to show for it, it is human nature to quit. So, to continue is actually hard work but a mixture of determination and curiosity could be the key!?