Pinterest?

[VideoGameCritic]

So I've never been a huge fan of social media, but I regularly post to Twitter and Facebook to give people heads ups about my latest reviews. I figure I can probably reach about 2000 people between them which is pretty good.

Many years ago I started a Pinterest account but never really messed with it much. It seemed like kind of a pain (time consuming) to post to that.

Recently I was talking to a friend who let me know it was still popular. So I went ahead and created pins for my recent Spy Vs Spy reviews.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/347551296244164838

Am I doing it right? Is it worth updating Pinterest at all? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[Stalvern]

Unless people are reading your reviews for the screenshots, probably not. And it's a drop in the bucket next to Twitter and Facebook anyway.

[Retro STrife]

I think you would have much better success on Instagram.

I think it would be well worth making an account there if you are looking for a new way to reach people. Instagram is much more popular than Pinterest - statistically, it has about 4 times as many monthly users as Pinterest. And it's much more likely to meet your target audience.. 81% of Pinterest users are female, and their age and interests don't generally align with gamers. Put those statistics together, and Instagram is at least 10x better for you. On Instagram, you'll find your target audience - along with a ton of fellow retro gaming accounts that you might enjoy following yourself.

In fact, Instagram is much bigger than Twitter too. You have 700-ish followers after almost 10 years on Twitter -- you would have much more on Instagram in that time. Only Facebook is more popular than Instagram in terms of monthly users among social media sites. However - I think people are much more likely to follow their hobbies on Instagram than Facebook, so you might have more success there than Facebook too. For example, I follow at least 20 or 30 gaming accounts on Instagram, whereas I follow ZERO on Facebook. It's super easy to use and, because it focuses on photos, you can easily post a screen shot from each new review and tell people to go to your website to check it out. If you wanted to do more, you can also share pictures of obscurities and interesting things from your collection - to share cool content that doesn't work on the site here. Or post a pic of games you're currently playing, or gaming sessions with friends, or tons of other content ideas.

[VideoGameCritic]

So how does Instagram work? Do you only post photos, or can I put up screenshots linked to me reviews (like I do with FB and Twitter)?

[Retro STrife]

So how does Instagram work? Do you only post photos, or can I put up screenshots linked to me reviews (like I do with FB and Twitter)?

Every post has to have at least one photo with it (they allow 1-10 photos per post). But it can be a photo of anything - so the screenshots can be your photos, or the box art can be your photo, or whatever else. Then you post a caption with it.. like: "Check out my latest 3DO review for a light gun shooter called Drug Wars." The tricky part is, no, I don't think Instragram let's you attach links to a photo, and you can't put clickable links in the caption. Instead, most people put the link to their website in their bio on the front page of their instagram profile. So you would say: "Check out my latest 3DO review for a light gun shooter called Drug Wars. See my bio for the link!" Or something like that. Then the link in your bio brings them to the front page of VGC.com.

I'd recommend making an instagram account and just exploring other retro gaming accounts to get an idea of how it all looks and how they do it. Even if you don't post your own content, I think you'll still enjoy using it to explore other retro gaming accounts. Of the top of my head, a few good ones to check out are Retro Rick, lastgamerofficial, gamesyouloved, and segacollect.

[VideoGameCritic]

So I signed up for an instagram account... but can't figure out how to post.
Do you need a smart phone? Because I don't own one of those...

[Breaker]

Do you need a smart phone? Because I don't own one of those...

I'm so proud to know you... as much as I can from simply frequenting your website.

I have a buddy (40 years old, married, 3 kids) who did not have a cell phone at all until about 2 months ago. Somehow a little bit of him died when he got it.

[Retro STrife]

So I signed up for an instagram account... but can't figure out how to post.
Do you need a smart phone? Because I don't own one of those...

Sorry for the delay in responding -- I spent the weekend recovering from shock after reading this! It took me *years* to upgrade to a smartphone, being mocked for years about not having one, until eventually I needed a phone with email capabilities for work. That was back in 2014, and I was years behind everyone else even then. Now I can't imagine life without it. Forgetting all the other benefits of smartphones- just being able to google everything, anywhere, on the fly is so much more important to life than any fear I had before. You really should consider getting one.

But anyway.. as for Instagram, it is designed with mobile in mind. Uploading pics to Instagram from a phone is super easy. It was never intended to be accessible by PC, although they have gradually added that capability. As for adding pics, that is not very intuitive from a PC. Based on what I've read the site does not allow it, so you have to use a workaround to do it. The method is described here:

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/post-to-ins ... ple-trick/

(Or just google "posting to Instagram from PC".) Despite having to upload pics this way, I still think it would be worth having a VGC Instagram account.

[VideoGameCritic]

You don't need a smart phone if your wife has one...

and the only site worth a damn on the whole internet is videogamecritic.com!

PS: I was able to post to Instragram thanks to your link.

[Voor]

Lol. I haven’t viewed this site on anything other than a smart phone in 5 years