The social media landscape is changing and if you are focussing all your time and energy in Instagram you are definitely putting your business at risk and will almost certainly burn out.
Failure is in it’s design
Instagram is already digging its own grave by putting an impossibly hungry algorithm at the wheel that needs constant feeding with content that is hard to keep up with – yes I’m talking Reels. At the core, Instagram favours recency and video.
I’ve been managing multiple client Instagram’s for almost a decade now and we used to be able to get away with 2-3 posts per week for some accounts. The past 18 months has seen the most aggressive decline in engagement we’ve seen to date and that is because with the new algortithm changes, you really need to be posting original, video-based content DAILY to see any decent growth. You tell me anyone that can keep up with that AND run their business. Instagram is acting like a casino… you are just not designed to win.
Content on Instagram doesn’t have ‘LEGS’
Unlike other platforms like YouTube, anything older than four weeks will no longer be pushed out to new audiences on Instagram. Yep, that’s Reels too. Ugh. Posts you get maybe a week, stories only 24 hours. So all that effort for a four week period… you are in a content churning machine and its exhausting.
Even its Algorithm is not working anymore.
You know what I’m talking about.
You watch ONE cat video… and all of a sudden your delivered thousands of “Cats doing funny things videos” – its a ride you can’t get off. And that’s if you can even get through the lip-syncing face-face-face-face videos. Businesses, creators and audiences are ALL getting frustrated. It’s a mess. They know it’s a mess. The writing is on the wall.
Getting locked out, hacked or ‘breaking the rules’
You can be doing all the right things and BOOM. Your account is stolen, disabled or you’re impossibly locked out. That’s cool – you just send a message or an email to their help centre right?
Ha ha.
Funny.
So even if you do feed that impossibly always hungry monster – it might all be for nothing – and you’ll have to start over.
So what do you do??
Firstly, you need to diversify your platform strategy.
Don’t put all your hopes and dreams in that one Instagram bucket. Because that bitch is leaky. Figure out a couple of other platforms that your ‘best audience’ will be in.
TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, BeReal.
Secondly, Create KEY content that can be repurposed and reheated on those platforms
- Create a blog post (website and e-newsletters);
- That key points and highlights can be fleshed out to create quote tiles and tweets (Instagram and Twitter)
- That can be scripted to create a long-form landscape video (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn)
- That can be broken down into portrait style micro videos (TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Reels, YouTube shorts)
- Screenshots and/or images from your video shoot can be repurposed for Instagram carousels, tweets and Facebook albums.
With that ONE foundational piece of content you can flesh out literally close to a hundred content branches.
Thirdly, Create an email (EDM) list.
It’s the only real estate you own. Should you be locked out, shut down or hacked will be the only way to continue to communicate to your audience and keep your business running. With all the clients I have worked with, without a shadow of a doubt, a well-managed and nurtured subscriber list will always reap the greatest rewards.
It’s not all doom and gloom. Instagram is still a fantastic platform to make sales and nurture an engaged ‘ready to purchase’ audience. I’m definitely not saying abandon Instagram altogether… it should be part of your TOP 3 for sure, but I have already started reworking client strategies to push them ‘outside’ the Facebook + Instagram loop and to create content that we can repurpose and chop up to be more efficient and ensure they are ‘protected’ as much as you possibly can in this space.
What’s your biggest frustration in Instagram right now?
What are your top 3 social media platforms?
Do you have an e-newsletter list?
Hit me up in the comments below.