Husband* and I were scrolling through his Instagram feed the other night.
(*I feel Husband should remain mysterious. Let’s just call him H. For Husband.)
Just killing time really, while we sipped our Sleepytime tea — before heading up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire.
I know, sad isn’t it. In our defense, the tea was whisky-laced … Actually, that may be even sadder.
Aaaanyway… H follows a guy he used to work with who’s now making a living as a photographer.
Photo Guy’s feed was deeply gorgeous.
Landscapes, cityscapes, lots of charismatic wildlife…
Dramatic reflections in large bodies of water… Star-studded inky skies… Ethereal mist draping everything.
All super perfect.
But the overall effect was, frankly — underwhelming.
Those beautiful images just didn’t affect me — either individually or collectively.
In fact —
(and this sounds really harsh, which I honestly don’t mean it to be)
— taken together, his posts seemed to suck the life out of each other, so scrolling through his whole account sent my eyeballs into a momentary coma. (Sorry Photo Guy!)
None of them stood out.
And no part of any one stood out.
Undoubtedly Photo Guy has a lot of talent, and I’m sure his pix are super popular — particularly in the charity calendar space, I imagine.
But to me, they’re too perfect to make any real impression. Too polished.
No ragged edges, odd compositions, awkward juxtapositions. Nothing to grate on the consciousness. No tiny hangnails to catch and make you wonder why.
Nothing sticky.
Stickiness is icky. By definition, it’s kind of unpleasant — you might wince slightly at its possible origins.
But you can’t ignore it. You have to stop and look again, think again.
If you want people to take notice — of your insta feed, website, email copy…
you’ve got to make it sticky.
Stickiness is imperfection that perfects your content.
A trip hazard that wakes sleepwalking customers and tips them gently into your lap.
Stickiness is the antidote to eyeball coma.
And I imagine Getting Out More is the antidote to sitting around drinking herbal tea and staring at someone else’s phone…
See the difference? Make things sticky.