Unless your are a casual user, you might have noticed that things went completely crazy on Instagram these past few months.
People's reach went down the toilet, and it became impossible to grow on that platform. Big or small, content creators all reported a massive dip in impressions, reach, and engagement that started in May 2024 and reached ridiculous proportions by July. Many of us who also have an account on Threads were all complaining about it. A bit of reflection on it all, and I think that while there is definitely something wrong and broken with Instagram, it's not all a bad thing. It's a wake up call for many to not rely on social media alone for marketing and become a bit more creative about how we connect with our audience.
So what works and what doesn't with Instagram in 2024?
All hail the mighty algorithm!
Instagram changes its algorithm all the time and sometimes so much that it causes the kind of craziness we see happening right now. People all try to crack it, and beat it? If you ask me though, it's a lost battle and if your sole goal is to beat the algorithm, you are going to fail, and burn yourself out in the process. I attended a webinar at the beginning of the year where we learned that AI pretty much controls the Instagram algorithm and even the people at Insta aren't entirely sure how the monster they created really works. The only thing that people know is that the algorithm will randomly push content that they think will perform well. And as of 2024, contrary to what people still believe, it doesn't need to be a reel anymore. That was very 2022 and by early 23 they had corrected their stance on reels. If I remember well, even the Kardashians were fed up and that ended up motivating the Instagram team to try to fix it. But instead of trying to figure what to post and when, only to have to rethink your whole strategy 6 months later, focus on the audience you already have.
Seeing posts in chronological order again
People keep begging for it to happen, but guess what? That option DOES exist. It's just that Instagram isn't really eager for people to know about it because they have less to gain from it. How do you set your feed into chronological order your may ask? It's deceptively easy really. Simply tap on the Instagram logo in the top left corner on your app and it will bring down a menu where you can opt to see "following" and "Favourites". You need to select "Following" and it will take you to a feed where all the posts of ALL the people you follow will appear in chronological order. The reason Instagram isn't very open about telling people about it is simple : There is NO ADS on that feed. It's just the content, all the content of the people you chose to follow in one place, just like it was in the good old days. If you want to increase your reach among your followers, you'll have to tell them this option exist, I guarantee you that more than 90% of them have no idea it exist
stop relying on the regular feed as much
Here is what will happen after about a week of you making a point of liking all the posts on your "Following" feed :
The regular feed will start showing you content from people you follow you might have missed, up to a week old
Once you run out of old content from people you follow it will show you highlights from hashtags you follow or have used recently
Once you went through the weekly hashtag content highlights it will start showing you suggested posts from accounts you don't follow
The key is to keep checking what's new on Instagram using the "Following" tab and then spend a few minutes here and there scrolling through the suggested content on the main feed. The instant I started doing that and regularly was met with the "You are all caught up" on the main feed, my posts' reach started improving and I started seeing more engagement. Heck I even gained a few new followers in the past week.
In the end, remember, Instagram is only interested in keeping people scrolling, and if you do that, they seem to reward you by showing your content to more people because they know you'll be back for more scrolling.
hashtags or no hashtags...
The jury is still out as to wether hashtags are still useful in 2024. I did run a little experiment and found out that they aren't as useful as they once were to grow your audience, but they aren't entirely dead either. Especially if you make sure to be all caught up with your feed to the point of IG showing you hashtag feed content. That said, keep it to 3-4 hashtags maximum, and from my experience keep using the same ones all the time. It was once upon a time raising red flags but these days using new tags all the time will ensure your content will never be seen. The tags you use the more often are the tags that will highlight your content the most.
social media fatigue is real
People are over solicited 24/7 with content and hooks to buy, buy, buy. We all have had ENOUGH. What once felt authentic is now a drag, for consumer and content creator alike. So my advice is to not stretch yourself too thin trying to have a presence everywhere, focus on one or two social media handle and then grow your email list or blog audience. I'm a firm believer blogs will be making a comeback. Right now my focus is on Instagram for image content and Threads for fun discussions and random tid bits.
Gone are the days a huge follower count mattered
In fact, scratch that, it NEVER mattered! The high follower count was something that was only relevant to brands wishing to partner with influencers. For small businesses it was never that important because a large audience doesn't necessarily means all of them will buy your products. It's better to cultivate a smaller audience that will stay loyal and engage with your content. When I started selling on Society6 back in 2017 I made my first sale after a little under 2 months on the platform and I think I barely had 400 followers. What I had was a blog that was doing well, and a lot of friends offline and online ready to spread the word about what I do. And guess what? This is all you need to get started. Sure, keeping a presence on a social media platform is important, but don't make it your whole life. If it reaches a point at which you put more energy into taming the algorithm and chasing likes and impressions than you are creating art, you are doing something wrong.
People are done with phoney posts
I said it for a a number of years on Quora : DON'T turn your Instagram feed into a Redbubble / Society6 product catalogue, people never found that kind of content fun or inspiring, and they like it even less in 2024. In our era of mass consumerism, Instagram has become the place where content creators keep on pushing products after products on people. So stand out and post unique content without making people feel like you are pushing something onto them all the time. The rarest commodity on social media is authenticity. People want to be able to relate to what other post.
Death to the curated grid!
Remember back in 2015 or so when having an editorial grid that looked perfect with all your posts being matchy-matchy and having the same aesthetic? That's gone...thank god for that! There used to be a time when if your account was all about your art it had to display nothing but your art and the odd picture of you enjoying a Sunday brunch was going to be terribly out of place and "ruin it". Nowadays posting a few more personal content will add to your authenticity factor and nobody will care what your grid looks like unless it's really all over the place and they can't figure out what you are really about. So post that occasional pictures of your nails or selfie with your pet, that makes you more human and more relatable.
All in all, treat Instagram as just one of many of the marketing strategies you should have in your arsenal and not put all your energy into making it work. What the algorithm wants today is going to be completely different in 6 months, and then what? Save your energy for better things.
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