I have gotten more interaction with pixelfed than with Instagram.

I have more followers in 1 year on pixelfed than 4 years on Instagram.

About 60% of my followers are only fans bots and the other 30% are people I know. The last 10% are organic followers who like my photos. I don’t do short form videos so I don’t have any lasting engagement.

I have advertised my pixelfed I think twice on the fediverse. But not any more than that.

If you want to have the community, I’ve heard that flickr is probably the best. Many people use it and it’s photography focused.

Instagram is taken over by short form videos. If you’re not doing that or making really really good photos in unique areas, then you’ll max out at 2-3 hundred followers.