From 20 to 2000+
Focusing on Quality over Quantity, the page found it to be extremely difficult to reach this milestone while avoiding the Instagram Antics used by many bloggers
Don’t pick up a dictionary as you won’t be able to find the meaning of the word “Ferra Nova”. Truth is, this word doesn’t exist and is something that Usama came up with for the group of friends who forged bonds of friendship after entering LUMS. I, on the other hand, needed approximately one whole year to be finally added to the WhatsApp group chat of this group and that moment remains a fond memory.
Scrolling through Instagram stories as well as Snapchat stories, the photography skills of some peers and friends were truly mind-blowing, some of them so beautiful that the mind would keep on drooling about them for hours to come. After getting fairly comfortable with the lads at Ferra Nova, I got the opportunity to take a look at some of the pictures taken by Usama, Monum, and Moiz, who insisted that their photographs are good but not good enough to be appreciated by the general masses as I am one of those lads who insist talented people that they need to showcase their skills to everyone.
This mere thought, coming from my friends, kept pinching me as I believed amateur photographers needed recognition for what they are doing, and in times where everyone is more than willing to jump in with criticism, you need someone to pat you on the back for who you are and what you have done. You can praise someone on dozens of occasions and not get positive feedback, but try mentioning something that may be criticizing someone and you will be humbled with the most brutal counter-attack you may have never imagined.
One day, out of the blue, an idea struck me that we need to have an Instagram page where amateur photographers can freely express themselves, showcasing their photography skills along with their personalized captions to showcase their identity, perspective, tales as well as emotions depicted in a simple colorized picture, inhabited by the precious pixels creating magic. Personally, my idea seemed like an instant hit in my head but upon discussing it with my friends, the response wasn’t that motivating. They acted as the devil’s advocate, pointing out hundreds of flaws which all ended with “Social Media validation is not necessary for life”. Their ideas and criticism were spot-on but rather than shunning the thought, the ideal solution was to look for ways to negate the flaws being pointed out.
Therefore, finally on 1st December 2019, after the approval of the Ferra Nova, the Instagram page called FERRA NOVA came into existence backed by the 15 members of Ferra Nova and a couple of friends from my school with a moto “Ferra Nova is a platform for amateur photographers to showcase their photography skills”. The strange event that led to this impulsive decision was the fact that my friends overlooked my birthday on 1st December and as a result, in sheer anger, I did this (well, most of my good life decisions have been impulsive).
So, how was it?
Initially, it was horrible! We had no content, no followers, no idea how to promote it as well as the fact that there were some administrative issues. But what are friends for? They help you in times of need and show you that there’s a glimmer of hope even in the most catastrophic circumstances. Anas and Monum had to constantly bear my persistence as I would convince them to take pictures wherever they went even if it was Abrar’s concert at LUMS or a regular dinner at BUTT Karahi. The two lads would capture the moment, spends hours editing them, and only send if they were satisfied with the content they have created. From school, Mahrukh was generous enough to send a whole collection of almost 24 pictures, with her permission to post them whenever I needed them. By the time we had our 20th post, we were following 22 people and were followed back by 22 people.
A time arrived when I thought that it’s a failure and it’s better to shut it before investing in a project destined for failure.
Then, out of nowhere, Shahzaib Ansar arrived like a guardian angel who recommended adding hashtags for increasing the reach of the posts while posting stories on the page to attract followers. That simple trick brought steady success as every LUMS campus picture attracted people who not only started following us but also expressed their generosity with additional likes for every post.
It was a long journey and the maximum we had hoped was for having 100 posts with an audacious target of 500 followers, but this, today, feels like an easy task. In my daily journal, on the day I made the page, I had deemed 2000 followers to be such a daunting task that I suggested me shaving my head if we reach this milestone.
Captions
We encourage everyone to send their original captions as asking someone else to describe the canvas you painted doesn’t seem a good idea, right? While we do help out people who struggle with captions, the fact remains that there are people who stand out and become the center of everyone’s attention with their unique captions-a true reflection of who they are. Adnan Abbas, for instance, writes such mind-boggling long captions that you may not read them initially but once you start going through the content he wrote, you will admire the young lad from Karachi whose caption instills a desire to provoke your brain cells to begin pondering over his thought. If you’re in love with Urdu literature, the photos sent by Sara are truly mesmerizing with their captions (drawn from literature) acting as the perfect complimenting tool to grasp the interest of the viewers. Usually, her captions attract people to showcase their love for literature in the comments section, which becomes a joy for someone like me who loves literature but isn’t blessed with a significant grip on it.
Turning point
Although we were progressing, even if our pace wasn’t the ideal one, there was one particular post after which we announced our arrival to the Instagram World. Imagine you’re a senior and you’re looking for a place to post your heartfelt goodbye to the place you considered as your ‘home’ for 4 consecutive years. FERRA NOVA steps up, willing to post your long essay alongside the most beautiful picture you captured of the campus. That particular post, contributed by my former EO-SAAD RASHID, changed our fate as now, people apart from our friends began sliding into our DM with contributions for our page (really grateful for that post).
Attempt to gain followers
Frustrated with the lack of growth, the idea of collaborating for more followers seemed very tempting. So one day the page was added on a group called “Makeup ladies”, where makeup artists were added and they boosted one another’s post. The only plus point of using an anonymous account is that you could go to pages exclusive for a gender btw. THEY TOOK THIS WAY TOO SERIOUSLY! CALLED OUT FOR NOT COMMENTING OR SAVING? WHAT THE HECK? FIGHTS OVER NOT FOLLOWING BACK! Even though within 30 mins, the page gained 32 followers, this was not what the page stood for? I mean, even when we first created it, it was a secret page with only a limited number of people invited. Growth while letting go of our ideology? Not happening anytime soon.
Recognition
For almost a year, the page considered people sharing our posts on their Instagram accounts as the ultimate yardstick for success as it was proving to be super tedious to get people to appreciate our content. However, as we slowly, yet steadily, grew in size and stature, things started to change for the good, with two scenarios bringing immense pride for what we do.
thecurrentpk: So what if I tell you that a page with 110k followers just posted a picture that belonged to our page? Yeah, it did happen and this was immense as not only was it the first time anyone did this for us but also having this was one of my dreams (but I had dreamt for dawn_dot_come though). Need to thank Ayesha Haq for providing this opportunity, as I did not even know that such pages look for pictures to share.
Talent at LUMS: My parents always dreamt of my picture getting shared by LUMS with some sort of praise. Well, I know they meant academically, but still, we did get featured, with the post giving recognition to our FERRA NOVA page! I wanted a group photo of everyone from Ferra Nova to be shown but the people from that group thought that I need to be shown instead as I invested blood and sweat for it. So, this was the day, I decided to start showing myself on the page as a result. Special thanks to Iqra Anwar, the internet friend I made because of Ferra Nova, who told me about this platform and asked to send my submission
Some backlash
While the page portraits what’s good and merry in modern times, there are some issues associated with managing the page. Firstly, facing your friends! You usually have planned your content for days to come and suddenly receive a picture from a friend who is persisting that you post it on the same day. Despite your best efforts to calm them down and try reasoning, your reasoning sparks an unprovoked rant where you are blamed for being petty, insensitive as well as arrogant. Then you have 2 options to consider. 1) Poison your friendship for a picture you would hardly remember after a week. 2) Sacrifice your rule and accept their request.
Secondly, since the page doesn’t have a known handler, people somehow believe it’s a girl acting as the admin and consequently, the DM is full of creepy men sending pickup lines or trying their best to strike a conversation. I never imagined the torture the situation presents and despite the best efforts to tell someone to shut up, they take your “NO” as “Naraz ho”. Being a boy I feel so traumatized by this experience, I don’t even want to imagine what other girls have to come across on daily basis. Thirdly, since it is an amateur photography page, we find it hard to convince people that sending pictures where people are the main focus isn’t what we want.
Lastly, the page was close to being closed 6 months ago when I was overwhelmed and life was turning out to be too miserable for me to handle. At that stage, I was blessed enough to have a person hear me out, offering renewed hope and telling me such instances shouldn't bring me down. I pray that whenever you come across issues beyond your scope to handle, may you have someone who tells you the world isn't ending kiddo!
Competition
A new addition to our page was the commencement of several photography contests, intending to showcase the diverse talent within Pakistan accompanied by bringing some competitiveness to our page. While both competitions being conducted were amazing, the flower one was thoroughly enjoyed with the freshness of nature, radiating happiness and positive vibes to a point one cannot describe. A big round of applause for the friends who volunteered to act as judges.
Unexpected Contributors
When the page was first created, there were some assumptions about people and we had a general idea of who would send content. The quality of pictures sent by Jahanzaib, Amna Noor, Saad Rashid, Saad Aleem, Ibrahim Bukhari, Zubair, Maham, Sheikh Hassan, Ashir, Aamna Asghar, etc was truly out of this world and it only proved our motto to be accurate as we never knew they were such wonderful photographers. We always believed that people are fantastic at taking pictures and are restrained by the opportunities to showcase themselves. Even my juniors from my former school turned out to be fabulous photographers as they beautifully captured nature’s simplicity and elegance.
Internet Friends
As strange as it may sound, the page has paved way for several friendships with people I did not even know existed! The world is full of beautiful, kind, and empathetic people, we just need to be patient and wait for the right ones to arrive. Despite never meeting most of them, the love for mutual things brings people together, making the world a better place. Over time, several internet friends from Ferra Nova came closer, entitling themselves to access my personal account, taking them to the loop of trusted folk.
Sometimes it gets funny too. A few days ago, while thanking some of our loyal followers, I offered a person free tips on the best spots to shoot photos at LUMS, with the condition that the person secures an admission at LUMS. Little I had known, that the person was a freshman at LUMS, completing the first year while sitting at home. I was always under the impression that the person was from maybe A level, and was low-key happy to know this fact.
Likes
While having a decent number of followers is an achievement, followers without having likes are similar to having a hole in a pot of water. Even though some of our followers do not believe they are good with the camera, their actions contribute to our fair share of success as they are habitual to like almost every single one of our posts. Safa doesn’t use Instagram but once in a while you will open the page and get notified that you got 10–20 more likes. Upon further investigation, you will realize that it was Safa who liked every single post that she missed out on. Haleema is humble enough to award us extra likes by liking the posts from not only her original account, but also her art account. Such people deserve at least a cookie for their kind acts.
It’s “OUR PAGE”, not “Faaiz’s Page”
While many would claim that there are only one handler and manager of this account, the reality is that this page is “OUR PAGE”, not mine, not of FERRA NOVA FAM. It exists as a result of the contributions of the followers and would cease to exist if people weren’t generous enough to support our cause. All we did was provide you a platform, YOU DID THE REST! HOPING TO REACH 10000 FOLLOWERS SOON!
Recent Mishap
A few days ago, our page was locked by Instagram on the grounds that there was a hacking attempt. Frankly speaking, there’s still a lot of grey area as to what happened, but the one day without control of the account was daunting. Not only I feared people (who knew me and had an image) getting explicit or pathetic messages by the hacker but also feared disturbing posts being posted. A couple of weeks ago, I came across Virgin Radio Lebanon’s page being hacked and the hackers made an absolute mess of the whole page. With this in mind, I was prepared for the worst. Moreover, the mere thought of losing something I worked 18 months on, making it the center of most of my activates, with 402 posts, was not something I was prepared for. I ranted, I prayed, came across friends who offered immense support, and by some miracle, after a wait of 38 hours, the page was finally open for us again!
Conclusion
Since we already have surpassed all of the targets we once had regarding our page, the sky is the limit now! Next target 10,000 followers? Who knows this might turn out to be possible too someday? If there is something wrong with the way the page is being run, please do feel free to point it out, as that is what we look for. Positive Criticism is the way forward!
Keep liking our posts, sharing and saving them, as we need your support for going forward! An odd shout out won’t be too bad either 👊
