Um, Instagram blows. Well, at least for me, but I’m a questionable source of info at best. My reach has been demolished so that sucks, hence this particular post and my “definitely not worthy to be called research” research. I guess you can count me as biased as well, so I am not the voice of reason here. But, it turns out I’m not the only person with this problem. I did some maths on a shockingly small batch of data and this is what I got.
· A post will only reach about 10% of your followers.
· Out of the total number of likes the photo gets only around 10% of those won’t be following you. So good luck reaching new people, bucko.
· Hashtags. Do. Not. Matter. It seems like the reach from them across the board is minimal. I thought it was just me but it wasn’t. Still use them because it’s better than nothing, but like, it’s down to you if it’s worth it.
· Tagging people in posts seems to boost likes somehow?
· This all goes out the window if you sponsor a post, suddenly Instagram loves you, but only if you throw beaucoup bucks their way.
· Obviously, there’s the occasional anomaly post, but that’s it and I haven’t had one of them in a while *sigh*.
· Possibly a bias towards people who are trying to sell a product? Data was lean but I think it makes sense on a business level for Instagram doing that.
· Going over 10k followers seems to screw you. You’re a microinfluencer now. Deal with that burden.
· Bots are a serious issue, especially people using them to “enhance” there posts. There’s a Dorset based photographer who’s socialblade metrics seem to rise and fall by about 5k followers every couple of days.
· It seems best that if you want to support an instragram page, get up on it and like the crap out of everything. That’s obvious, but duh. Really go throw through their timeline, I was trying to do that earlier to see more from the people I like.
· Stories seem to really boost traffic. So get in on that as well.
· There’s a weird thing about an account called @publiclandshateyou. It’s a massive page that calls out people for mistreating nature but you can’t search for it in the search bar. The user seems to think Instagram is censoring them. I’m inclined to agree, for all the good they’re doing insta ain’t gonna be making money through those sponsor clicks if they’re being taken down!
· If you intend to be an Instagram influencer, it seems being attractive to people and bubbly helps. Completely across the board basically. that’s why I hide my fugly mug. Because I don’t want to be an influencer, that’s the reason. Not the chronic social anxiety. Please take me seriously.
Clearly this was unscientific as it comes, but I don’t think anything is too out there. I’m also curious as to whether your account type has an effect on reach. Like, if you’re a business or a creator, surely Instagram would expect you to pay – does the same thing happen to a bog-standard personal account? Maybe I’ll try and find out. Maybe not.
Anyway, peace!
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