Did A 2 Year Hiatus From Instagram Impact My Career?
So last week I finally hit the post button on instagram, after 2 long years, and guess what happened?
Did it pop off and go viral? Did everyone rejoice in the streets? Did that day get etched into the tomes of history? Nope, nada, nay.
I’ve been back on stories for a while and I’m getting better at posting consistently on my masterclass insta, so it’s not been like ‘suspiciously’ silent from me…
But I’d built up returning to Insta so much in my mind that it made me genuinely anxious, however after posting I’m realising if you post - your followers will obviously enjoy seeing something from you, but if you don’t …most people just don’t give a shit.
And I mean that in the BEST possible way, post or don’t, everyone’s lives continue as normal, nothing happens. People are happy to see your content but if you don’t post, their attention just goes elsewhere.
And I think that’s quite freeing.
For years I felt the pressure to constantly post on instagram otherwise I’d get forgotten about or lose any momentum, but truth be told, life goes on…
So my first point in this blog post is, if you wanna stop posting for a bit, stop! And start analysing what reason you actually post on instagram for, followers? client leads? exposure? sales? Just understand that more.
Now if just the thought of an Insta break makes you feel your income shrivel up, it might be because of my next point…
I’ve said this many times before and this is actually the reason my Business Masterclass was created, instagram shouldn’t be your sole source and focus, you need to diversify. So if Instagram is doing your head in, give it a break and focus on other areas where work can still come in, ‘what other areas?!’ you may be asking, we’ll get into that a bit more later…
So! What actually happened to my career during my hiatus?
In 2022 it was my first full year as a full time artist, I worked with big luxury brands, my Instagram popped off a bit, gained 10k followers in a week, then I just stopped posting. In 2023 I didn’t post anything except a couple stories towards the end of the year, so it really was radio silence.
When I last posted on the feed I was at 29.7k followers in December 2022, now in Feb 2025 I’m at 27.3k, so I’ve lost over 2000 followers during that time. I still had a steady trickle of people finding and following my account but the ones jumping ship outweighed the ones climbing onboard.
I’ll admit when I log onto my profile and see the lil number drop down I do have that tinge of FUUUUCK, but it’s to be expected, if all your doing is posting stories there’s only ever the chance of content annoying existing followers with no chance of gaining any new ones.
But during my hiatus, my past content gained more engagement, they’ve been sitting there idle for 2 years, anytime someone went on my account it was always the same posts gaining that initial engagement, so pinned posts were getting more notice and occasionally a past reel or post would do the rounds again and I’d get a lil influx of new followers.
During this time I still had people approaching me after finding my Insta or DMing me for work, so I don’t think many people take notice of the dates people last posted ….or just don’t care, because theoretically they’re messaging an inactive account.
But during this time I started posting more on other channels, like Tik Tok, LinkedIn and occasionally YouTube as well as dabbling more in newsletters, keeping my website updated, so I’d never recommend completely dropping off everywhere, I just want everyone to remember insta isn’t the be all and end all.
During 2023 my year of radio silence, I didn’t even do any courses, I thankfully still had consistent work coming in, I worked with Hugo Boss, Tiffany’s, Celine, Mulberry, Victoria Beard, Mint Velvet and others, these clients were a mix of returning and new.
Then in 2024, I still didn’t post but I worked with Gucci, Burberry, Rabanne, Chopard and approached by brands such as Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld and more.
So despite the inactive Insta I was still managing to get approached by new clients. This was all due to a mix of all the other work I’d been doing alongside Insta, so SEO work on my website, my agent getting enquiries and putting me forward, posting on other platforms and social medias, networking and word of mouth from past clients.
Last year made me realise that the work I’ve been putting in for the past decade doesn’t just go up in smoke as soon as I stop posting. I always had this feeling that I had to constantly feed the insta beast otherwise everything would dry up. So I’m thankful to have gotten to a stage where I have consistent work and opportunities coming in that aren’t reliant on me pressing post.
HOWEVER, I did notice one thing…
Most of the opportunities seem to be based on what work I’d done ‘pre-hiatus’.
Getting booked based on past work is completely normal for everyone, that’s just a portfolio, you’re going to get booked for the work you’ve proven you can do. However in my own time I’ve been working on newer pieces, diversifying my portfolio, trialing editorial pieces etc, most of the enquiries I get are still centred around live event illustration.
And a large contribution to that is most people will check your website and your Instagram, so those 2 platforms are most peoples first impression of you and what is recently posted there is gonna be the immediate understanding people have of you.
So all my personal branding, my last posts, my job title on there and how I appear in searches is as a live event artist.
So essentially even though I’ve been working on other illustrations and work, I’ve only been ‘changing the products in the shop’ but not ‘updating the window display’, there was new work, people just didn’t necessarily know to look for it.
So I’m being viewed as the artist I was when posting 2 years ago and that’s a long time, my work direction is different now, and my aspirations are different.
So it’s changed my way of thinking about Instagram!
I’ve always genuinely enjoyed sharing my work, I’ve been sharing my work online since I was 11 and that’s why I initially joined instagram in the first place, but lately all I’ve been doing is posting stuff on stories. I feel story posts don’t give your work the same respect, like a post is there and taking up space for people to find and see, whereas a story is disappearing, it’s not ‘standing its ground’.
Instagram posts can act as instant context, adverts, or authority building for your work, which I’ve not been utilising…
So I’m excited to start posting again on instagram!
I’m definitely gonna get angry at the engagement, and resent meta and Al Gore’s rhythm and all those things, I’ve not come out of this insta hiatus completely oblivious to the sheer pain insta inflicts, imma always be pissed if a post does shit.
But before the hiatus because my posts were doing well I felt such a pressure for each one to do better than the last, and to grow, grow grow…
Instead I’m trying to change my mindset on posts, not for each one to be its own movie premiere but more that each post is a scene that eventually makes an entire movie that is my body of work.
Offfft I do love a metaphor.
The thing we all have to remember Instagram is a business, and it’s their platform, you shouldn’t ever be 100% reliant on something that isn’t yours.
Instagram’s one and only focus is to keep people on the app for longer, and if that video of a cat sniffing someones fart keeps people’s attention longer than your sketch …then kitty gonna win.
Instagram is an incredibly useful tool to use, but it’s only a piece of our careers and marketing as artists, it absolutely isn’t everything.
Watch me say all this then run off for another 2 years when a post flops… 🌝
So, did a 2 year Insta hiatus hurt my career? Not really, as Instagram’s only one ‘spoke in the wheel’ I carried on going. If I hadn’t taken a break could my career be on a completely different level right now? who knows!
But this year I’m heading into my 12th year of being a freelance fashion illustrator and my 4th year being full time, and I’m still constantly learning and refining what I do.
I’m happy to finally be in a place where my career doesn’t go away if I take some time off posting, and I’m looking forward to carving out the next steps of my career…
And if you want to shape your own career then I’ve got something that will help…
So stay tuned for Friday!
Ohhhh sneaky sneaky.
If you’d like other helpful resources:
My Blog - Plenty of posts about how I got my agent, my first client, business tips and more!
My Courses - Blog posts are helpful but if you need specific details and depth I have a range of courses covering Business, Portfolio, Illustration and Live Events!
My Youtube - A collection of taster lessons from courses and fashion illustration tips!
My insta, DM if you have any questions:
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