Instagram Collaboration and Curation

This is a look at the collaboration and curation of media, through the social media platform Instagram. Merriam Webster defines collaboration as “work[ing] jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor.” Instagram has a setting called Instagram Collabs which involves two or more creators being co-authors on a post.  The initial post creator has the option of inviting another account to collaborate on the post which involves them sharing it with both accounts’ followers, allowing them to see any interactions with the post including likes, comments etc. Some of the benefits of doing collaborative posts include expanding the audience of all users involved through reaching more accounts, increasing interactions with posts that may trigger the algorithm to suggest it to a wider audience, and potentially help sell products if that is the point of the post deals with advertising products.

Merriam Webster defines curation as “ the act or process of selecting and organizing ( something, such as articles or images) for distribution or publication” and goes on further to define content curation as “ the process of sifting through and selecting online content to add to a website.” There are various ways that curation can take place on the Instagram platform- it depends on the account owner’s preferences. There are many curation tips that proficient Instagram content curators share. A large visual tip would be to create a feed with pictures and videos that balance each other through color schemes, placement etc.   Accounts should be consistent in posting new content and adjust as needed to the algorithm in addition to linking outside websites ( ex. linktree). Several benefits of Instagram curation include increasing audience engagement and helping to facilitate more collaboration with other creators amongst other things.