The way I originally joined Instagram, personally, was quite by accident. Since I have a gmail account under my maiden name, I get a lot of “doppelganger” email for other users named Erica Schultz (who apparently can’t remember or type their own email addresses correctly, or else other people can’t). In June of 2015, I got an email from Instagram addressed to the username “aleishaphippen4p” with a link to reset my password. I ignored it at the time. But in July of 2016, I got another reset link for the same username at my email address, and I thought, why not?

Note that these types of emails are frequently phishing attacks, but I checked the original message and all its headers and URLs, and everything seemed legitimately linked back to Instagram.com. So I reset the password associated with my email. Then, since Instagram lets you do this, I simply changed the username to @eschultz72. Easy-peasy.

So I guess, thanks, Aleisha, whoever you are.

I used it very sporadically. (If you want more pictures of food, sunsets, performative Judaism, and my toddler-now-preschooler, that’s the place to follow me.) But fast forward a couple years and I’m now working for the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana as communications director, including social media responsibilities. So this fall when they said “we need to get on Instagram!” I had to get up to speed! Check them out at @jewishnwindiana.

While I was at it, I decided that my Judaica line also needed a dedicated Instagram. I had set up a Facebook page for Schultz Yakovetz Judaica in April of 2016 (admittedly as a Gen-Xer I’m much more native on FB than on Instagram). But it struck me that I could use Facebook to showcase new designs (and link to product listings) and still take advantage of Instagram to present more real-life product shots and behind-the-scenes takes. Which brings me to today and the newly minted @schultzyakovetz. You know what to do. :-D