There’s plenty of social platforms nowadays, here is why I decided for Vero over all the others
I clearly remember when, in 2008, I opened my first social network account. No need to say it was Facebook.
At the time, I was working on a project far from home and was in the middle of a huge and hard change in my private life. Usually, these are the perfect conditions to start something new.
I was not yet into photography, but I enjoyed the revolution Zuckerberg started with his platform. I managed to get in touch with people I hadn’t seen in years. When I was a teenager, mobile phones were in their beginning and they cost a lot of money. And even landlines were not so cheap, so my best friends were mainly the ones I could reach by walking from my home to theirs. Then, when I grew up and got my driving license, I kept some of them and we used to make new friendships in a wider area. However, life slowly started making its things and we took different paths, ending up losing contact with each other.
Facebook was the game changer and I enjoyed it for a few years when it was clean and people were not yet corrupted by pointless anger and stupidity.
In 2012 I started my photographic journey and it was normal to start using it to share my pictures. I even opened a page, which never got that much success, I have to admit. And, along with this, I opened also an Instagram account (you can find me here if you want).
Ah, how beautiful it was back then. It was really a hub for the photographers as well as a place where all could share their lives.
It was easy: you shared and your followers viewed what you shared.
Ain’t it supposed to be like that, after all?
For a few years, I was really in love with both platforms, Facebook and Instagram. They completed each other: one was the perfect place to talk with distant people and the other was perfect to show my work.
Then it started with ads. And sponsored posts. And the algorithm became more and more invasive into the dynamics generated by the creators so that it was no longer the user to determine what was going on in the community, but the algorithm itself decided for the community.
As this policy was becoming more and more annoying, I was becoming more and more aware I didn’t like that place with the same intensity as in the past.
I then started to look around for alternatives.
After a short parenthesis on Dayflash (the idea behind the app was very interesting, but unfortunately it didn’t last for long), a friend of mine quitting it suggested having a look at Vero.
The app looked very appealing, with a wonderful design. And that was just the beginning.
Right after my first post, I immediately felt a welcoming, caring and inclusive community. Exactly the opposite of what I became used to with the others.
That was and still is the key point. People are the core of the platform. Software is just a tool.
The persons I found there are mainly Facetagram refugees. Artists, creators and all kinds of users sick of compromising their art to feed an algorithm to have their works seen even by their own followers. Which, in a way, put us all on the same wavelength.
Many other factors contributed to making the decision I would definitely use it as my primary social. Let’s start with the simple ones: images are in high resolution. Not the preview: when you tap on the images, it opens an incredibly high-quality picture. And, hear this, you’re not forced to crop it to a “fixed” ratio. Or to add a stupid frame to preserve the look you gave it when you shot it.
Then, if I say: no ads, no sponsored posts, no suggested posts, how do you see it? I feel it as a refreshing way of sharing art. With no distractions, no interruptions and no endless scrolling to arrive at a meaningful post.
Oh, and no data mining. They are not collecting nor using any of your data for advertising purposes.
This decision to go in the opposite direction of the mainstream social networks is a bold one, and I have to say I admire Ayman Hariri, co-founder and CEO of Vero, for going down this road.
I had the chance and privilege to meet him in person and I discovered a charismatic businessman with a vision that goes beyond merely financial targets. I met a man who wants to make a difference. To give us a tool where people can again put their art and passions at the core.
Of course it’s not perfect, there are also some downsides. The growth is not quick, so if you expect to get thousands of followers in no time, that’s not the case (unless you bring them all over from other places).
Actually, thinking of it, I’m not sure this is a downside…
Like in real life (that’s why it’s called “True Social”) your friendships and relations build and become richer in time. The same happens on this platform.
This, however, and here is a real downside, makes people who want immediate numbers leave pretty soon. And it results in a lot of inactive users.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s an easy solution to this. It doesn’t depend on how good the tool is. It depends on the mindset of people. And that is way harder to change than a piece of software.
All in all, I find the experience on Vero a lot better than what it is currently on other social media, where positive points overcome by far negative ones. There’s plenty of interesting people there and it’s organised in a way that you can always find what you are looking for. For example, there’s an amazing “Discovery” section where you can find incredible artists based on categories of pictures. If, say, you are interested in street photography, you can just tap the Discovery icon, hit the “Street” tab and boom, there you go.
Or, another example, imagine you are in London and you want to find places to visit or a restaurant or a pub. From the home page, you can just go to the “Places” tab, search for London and you get a number of results to check. And tapping on any of them you can see what other members of the community think of it.
And this can be done for a number of other stuff: from books to apps to movies and TV shows.
Oh, by the way, while writing this piece I was listening to this awesome playlist, created by the amazing journalist and music critic Larry Flick on Vero. Because, yes, on Vero you can do much more than just sharing pictures.
I hope to see you join if you want to try something new and exciting.
Take care and talk soon!