Dirt spills onto Instagram.

It’s been many years in the making, but finally I’ve arrived.  After having an Instagram account for about five years that remained essentially unused, I’ve finally decided to harness it for promotion of my blog, rolling out articles dating from this past March (the start of the pandemic series) up to the present.  The first one is now visible, and I expect to add one or two articles per day throughout the next week.  In due time, it will be as normative as Facebook, if not more so, since most evidence suggests to me that Facebook’s aggregate use and influence is declining.  But here we go:

View this post on Instagram

Most restaurants in DC are carryout-only these days. But a few have found clever ways to promote the required social distancing without breaking the Mayor's Monday decree. What does it mean? Good coffee in an actual ceramic mug!!! Learn all about it at American Dirt. http://dirtamericana.com/2020/03/social-distancing-dc-restaurants/

A post shared by American Dirt (Eric M) (@dirtamericana) on Jul 12, 2020 at 5:22pm PDT

Creating links on Instagram using a computer (rather than the app on a smart phone) is convoluted and counter-intuitive, and the folks at Instagram clearly don’t want hyperlinks.  And, if a post has an error, it is highly inadvisable to  But Facebook promotion has gotten increasingly glitchy, so despite these setbacks with Instagram, it creates good eye-catching photo previews, it georeferences posts automatically, and eventually I hope to start using hashtags to elevate certain keywords.

More importantly, I hope this foray into Instagram serves as a springboard for a more robust exploration of alternative tech sites and an overall diversification of promotional tools, so expect that I will expand into lesser-known venues in the months ahead, which may end up proving the most suitable home for the idiosyncratic subjects that routinely serve as the focal point of American Dirt.  Also expected in the months ahead will be a slight upgrade to the appearance and navigation to this itself (still through WordPress) to spruce up its visuals, improve overall navigability, and make the cross references through various social media more transparent and intuitive.

As has been the case, I will continue to update through Facebook (at least for the time being), and for those who don’t use social media, feel free to write me at dirtamericana@gmail.com to subscribe to my monthly blogroll–my own customized equivalent to RSS.  Great things are afoot!  Thanks as always for tuning in.