Scott Lipps On His #InstaStyle

Instagram is full of personalities. Celebs, models, Kevin (Insta’s founder, of course) the Fat Jewish, you name it. For some Instagrammers, there’s a method to their ‘like’-packed madness. Scott Lipps, founder and CEO of One Management (he’s also the drummer for Courtney Love‘s band) is an Instagram aficionado himself. He filled us in over a caffeine boost at his go-to spot, The Smile,  on his #instastyle and why he thinks the platform is critical to the fashion biz. 

How did you get into Instagramming in the first place?
I guess it started with my blog POPLIPPS around five years ago. I started posting pictures with my Blackberry, which actually looked more like drawings than photographs. They were kind of blurry and the resolution wasn’t great! Then I got into photography and came out with a book featuring my photos.

How do you describe your insta-style?
I think everyone is trying to find their niche and what their audience is into. I think people who like fashion, models, food, travel, cool locations and things to do, and hopefully good photos, follow me. I try to find a balance, which is pretty much my life. And lately, it really focused on me being on tour with Courtney Love and Lana Del Rey.

How did your followers react to the tour pics?
It was awesome. But it’s funny, because I think the Lana fans now think I’m with her everyday, and they’re probably tuning in to my Instagram because they want to see pictures of her. I get comments like ‘Where are the Lana pictures?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t live with her, I was just on tour with her!’ I even get Snapchats from her fans sending me messages like ‘Where is she? Tell her I love her!’ Everyone was thanking me though because they thought I was one of the only people posting backstage pictures from the tour, so her fans were really engaged with what I was doing, which was great.

You guys took some selfies.
We did! Quite a few. I figured this is it, so why not?

Is there such thing as too many selfies on Instagram?
Yeah, for some people that’s all they do and I think it’s obnoxious! I only do it very rarely. I think it’s a cool thing to do with notable people. You hardly ever see them on mine, but it’s like anything, if you get obnoxious on social media (posting like 20 times a day) people will unfollow you. There’s a certain etiquette, and I certainly didn’t know about it when I started. I posted like 10 in a row at the beginning!

How many shots does it take to capture one great image?
Let’s put it this way. I got a new phone not long ago, and I’m pretty sure it can hold 20,000 photos. The last time I checked, it was full…now it says I’ve taken 12,000 photos. I used to take 20 to 30 shots per image, but now I’ve gotten better. It’s usually under 20 shots, but definitely not one or two.

Your photos are so colorful and vibrant. What made you do that?
If you look at the biggest photographers in the world, they all use Photoshop and retouching tools. People would say to me, ‘You can’t turn that tree pink,’ but I’m like, ‘Why not?’ I have a million apps on my phone that I go to, like Camera Plus. I like to experiment. It gets boring to post the same thing. I definitely think I have some themes though…I kind of know now what my followers want.

What’s the deal with the ‘Follow Me To’ Pose? 
The artist Murad Osmann came up with it. He actually commented on one of my photos and gave it the thumbs-up emoji. It’s an interesting perspective. I was at a few places, one being San Diego recently with my girlfriend, with this amazing sunset. The scenario was so beautiful, so it would’ve been stupid not to try it. It was one of the better engagement pictures I’ve had over the past couple of years.

What will we never find on your feed?
I don’t make fun of people on Instagram. But I will say that we’re announcing a collaboration in a couple of days with a big comedic source on social media.

You have a division in One Management dedicated to social influencers, right?
Yeah, we do. I always knew it was a space that we wanted to concentrate on, so I started a social media division called One.1K. It’s a real big business tool. I think we’re the first well-known modeling agency to start a division for these model influencers. It’s really an amazing way to market talent, but I don’t know how great it is for people social wise…like instead of engaging in each other and talking, people just spend all day on the phones. This goes for wives and girlfriends too. Sometimes I’m say to my girlfriend, ‘Maybe we should put our phones away, we’re at the top of the World Trade Center looking at the Observatory. Maybe we don’t need our phones or we don’t need to be connected to Wi-Fi at the moment.’ But it doesn’t really work!

Who are Insta-worthy models to follow right now?
Rocky Barnes is building something really special. Hailey Clauson and Poppy Delevingne are great too.

Any great ‘gram tricks for us?
Just try to be interesting and not annoy people! If a photo’s bad, don’t post it just because you feel like you have to. Either make sure the setting is a cool location, or that the photo is actually good. I think a lot of people put a lot of junk out there. It’s supposed to be fun and you don’t want to overanalyze it too much, but people do unfollow people when it becomes uninteresting. So if you don’t really care, you should probably make your account private, and if you do, just try to think about what people actually want to see!

We’ve rounded up some of our favorite pics from Scott’s Instagram @ScottLipps here!