slow traction after a year on Instagram

hi, i'm Jean. My instagram account is filled with independent imagery filmed off an old DELL laptop. It's almost a year of constantly posting imagery posts (most have been archived now after learning double posting is not the effective strategy in my case) and stories everyday. Both of Pinterest & IG are tied in together. After a year of sharing, traction hasn't increased & stuck at the 210-220 following mark. I have gotten recognition from models, photographers, music producers, smaller artists & somewhat similar creators. Noticed the other day that most of my audience is male (62%), that may be a major factoring issue. When you see all the iPhone 5 & pretty lighting posts, you notice that it's mostly women in the likes which makes perf sense. what guy would appreciate a dope photo with awful quality besides there being am attractive girl? No clue how to fix the algorithm to push my account to woman with similar content but that's the wish here lol

to also add, my pictures get reposted on Pinterest constantly. Typically the description will have a book/movie characters name or nothing at all. which makes it difficult to retrace back to me. I've seen my pictures on tiktok's, reels, profile pictures on multiple platforms & thumbnails for youtube beatmakers(😭)

basically, my pictures are getting decent traction, it's just not getting traced back to my account which makes up for very low engagement.

would appreciate any feedback!

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Alternative_Echo5101•1 day ago•2

hey jean, the attribution problem is real and honestly frustrating. one thing that might help is having a single clean link that's actually yours to drop in your bio and anywhere you can add a description. i work on craftedbio so i'm biased, but having a personal page with your name in the url makes it easier for people who find your stuff elsewhere to trace it back to you. the content is clearly resonating, it's just the trail back to you that's broken.

PeepSoWP•2 days ago•2

You have two separate problems: discovery and attribution. The reposts show that some images travel, but they lose the path back to you. Put a consistent handle or signature inside the composition rather than at an edge that is easy to crop, use the same name across Instagram and Pinterest, and pin a short post explaining that you are the original creator and how people should credit you. For the highest-performing stolen images, a polite credit request to the reposter can be worth more than trying to chase every copy.

Then build posts that make the source interesting: show the setup on the old Dell, the original image, and the finished edit in a carousel or short reel. Where a model, photographer, musician, or other creator is involved, use a collaboration post so the original and the credit travel together.

I would not try to “fix” the gender ratio directly. Test a small series aimed at the audience you want through subject, story, and collaborator choice, then compare non-follower reach, profile visits, and follows. If reach is healthy but profile-to-follow conversion is weak, the profile needs a clearer promise about what someone will see next.

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