Oh Instagram, the last few years have seen you turn into an incredibly powerful beast! Those years have also seen many, many changes within the game…

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I still remember the day I first downloaded Instagram. I was 22 years old and stoked to post a photo of my YSL Arty ring that I was so incredibly proud of – hideous Valencia filter and all. Those were the days. The days where nobody actually new why you would download Instagram when you already had Facebook, only a select few friends actually downloaded Instagram, in-built filters were revolutionary (and, in our minds, the quick answer to beautifying all of our images) and getting 50 likes on a photo seemed like it would be the biggest feat in the world. Yes, those were the days!

Alas, Instagram is nowhere near as innocent as it used to be.

This loss of innocence isn’t necessarily all bad. The growth of Instagram has single-handedly created a whole new industry of social media marketing (or at least propelled it so far from where it initially was with just Facebook), it has helped businesses to flourish, and it has exposed millions of people to things they otherwise could have been oblivious to. It is hard to imagine where the marketing world would be without the powerhouse that is Instagram. Such a huge portion of what I do requires the use of Instagram, so it is hard to imagine where I would be without it!

With all of the positive changes, comes some pretty crappy ones too. Once upon a time, we were all able to scroll through photos in the order that they were posted. Not anymore. Oh, and remember that time there was no spamming because Instagram wasn’t a ‘game’ yet? I do! Though the worst change of them all has to be when the algorithm that decides your account visibility changes… again. See you later engagement, it was nice knowing you.

Has your engagement dropped? Don’t panic, it isn’t you, it is me it is Instagram.

The sneaky, behind the scenes changes that Instagram implements affect everyone. Don’t believe me? Just ask your Instagramming buddies and, I can guarantee you, everyone is seeing some sort of change in their engagement. There are speculations galore as to the cause, but the one I find most likely to be true is that this new business feature that everyone was so excited about, might not actually be so great after all. Remember, Instagram is now owned by Facebook and just take one look at how businesses are forced to get engagement on Facebook. Yep, we could be seeing exactly the same thing happening on Instagram!

Unfortunately, there really isn’t all that much you can do to change the behind the scenes action at Instagram.

Whatever changes they make, we have to cop. I suck, don’t I. That wasn’t news you really wanted to here. That isn’t the be all and end all though. If you can afford to, try making sure your account isn’t set to a business account. While this feature has umpteen pros to it (I do miss the stats and the ability to add links in my Insta stories), it could also be helping Instagram target people to pay for exposure. Just like with Facebook pages, you can only boost posts when you have an Instagram business account. Coincidence much? I tend to think not. I switched my account back of a business account a few months back, and while things aren’t the way they used to be, I can see a visible improvement to when my account was on a business account.

The other way that you can deal with decreasing engagement on Instagram (and my favourite way) is to just keep doing what you love doing! The less relevance that the numbers have to you, the happier you will be. Being 100% behind your voice and aesthetic on Instagram no matter what, will further consolidate your feed. Your point of view is what people follow you for – don’t let it waver.

How many of you have seen a noticable change in your engagement? Has anyone else tried switching back to a normal business account?

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4 Comments

  • Maria | Short Girl Long Jacket7 years ago

    I’ve noticed this too. I realized that I was affected by the shadow ban but since switching up my hashtags more I’m good. I switched back to a personal account a few weeks ago but I’m still seeing less engagement than I had at the beginning of the year. It sucks but what can you do? I’d rather put the energy into my blog.

    Reply
    • Little Miss Mon Bon7 years ago

      Oh girl, that shadow ban is an absolute pain in the butt! I was hit by that at the same time as there was a crack down on spam accounts. So that saw my engagement drop to nearly nothing. Now that I am out of the red with the shadow ban, engagement is better, but not where it used to be (definitely something that Instagram has done behind the scenes). I found taking my account off a business account helped with engagement, but obviously didn’t fix it entirely. At least we aren’t going to be slugged $$ for our engagement, which I 1000% believe Instagram is doing. Like I said, you can only boost posts as a business account, so they have to be hindering your reach in order to make you pay more for their advertising.

      Anywho, I am 150 million percent with you on focussing energy on the blog! Our blogs are OUR space full of our portfolio of work, not just a short snippet. I entirely believe that blog posts are more valuable to brands than one quick Instagram post 😉

      Thanks for always stopping by Maria!

      Reply
  • Mica7 years ago

    I really like all of the pink in these outfits – with the jumpsuit, flowers and that beautiful coat! 🙂

    I’m definitely at that point you said now of just not caring with instagram any more – I’ll post when I can and try to visit all my friends (as you now I don’t see their posts in the feed!) and not use it as much as I used it. It’s crazy to me that they would make the app less enjoyable to use as most people I talk to are using it less as a result, but like you said they are probably going to start charging for some features.

    Reply
    • Little Miss Mon Bon7 years ago

      Oh thanks hun! I was having a moment with pink hehehe 😉

      And I agree 100%! It is sad that they are making it a not so nice place to be, but that is ok, we just won’t use it so much hehehe 😉

      Reply

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