For my online presence research I chose the commonly known, Adobe portfolio and the universally known, Instagram. These two have been personal resources that I have grown to use over several years. They help me create a growing portfolio that is shareable through numerous mediums. During this entry, I will discuss how they’re qualities fit my means of interaction with the photographic social space.
Adobe Portfolio is a tool for artists to display, share and possibly profit their work. It is one of the many applications and features available from Adobe. The beautiful thing about Adobe is that you can purchase their applications individually or bundled through subscriptions or a one time payment. The application is loaded with templates and guides to help you create the sharpest website. They even have options to purchase your domain to professionalize your brand. In my experience, setting up my site was quick and easy! I was able to search a themed template I liked and quickly found myself uploading images. There were moments when I had issues or found bugs with my site, but thanks to Adobe’s customer support, I was able to fix them in no time. Now my site is used to promote my brand and quickly network with other artists. I recommend Adobe Portfolio because of its easy-to-use set up and its professional features. As an artist, I use Adobe applications all the time and Adobe portfolio makes it an easy transition.
Instagram is my primary tool for social interaction with other artists. It is an application used to post images, network and gain a following online. The application was created in 2010 for free for iPhones exclusively. Shortly after it was integrated on both Apple and android devices and began to skyrocket as a major site. Throughout InstaGram’s growth they’ve added new features like “Instagram TV” for extended video posts up to thirty minutes; “stories” to immediately keep your followers updated; and most recently, “reels” which are videos that can be edited, uploaded and turned into skits. These features are just scratching the surface of instagrams social abilities. My personal favorite aspect is tagging whether it be in posts, comments or in a “story”. I feel that this is the most useful way to get interaction with your page and/or reach out to a page. This can be monitored through Instagram’s analytics ability. With this, you can track the traffic that is coming from your page to see what works best for your growth. I would recommend this application to photographers mostly because there are so many features that cater to getting your work “out there”. In conclusion, both Instagram and Adobe Portfolio are resources I use to help legitimize and grow my brand into what I want it to be. I advise others to try these out for themselves to see how easy it is to get connected. Artists around the world are eager to upload and share their art and with these tools, you can do just about anything .
