Utilizing The Algorithm
The IG algorithm: why it's working with you and not against you if utilized properly.
Influencers have always been fighting against the Instagram algorithm but maybe this time, it's finally working in our favor.
The latest algorithm has cut engagement in half, making it harder for others to see your content and in turn, making it more difficult to gain followers and likes. Sounds like trouble. In reality, that's not the case. Instagram is done with the numbers game and influencers big or small feel the same way.
Posting on Instagram is no longer about the amount of followers or likes you have and instead only pushes your content if it's high-quality. That doesn't mean if your photos are taken with an iPhone versus a DSLR; it means if your content has substance or meaning. Instagram is going back to the basics, focusing on storytelling instead of fillers.
Realistically, are you going to like a photo of a girl dancing in the meadows in a gorgeous gown versus a flatlay? What has more depth, and what is more relative to you? Personally, I could care less about bag spills.
The reason Instagram is doing this, is to cut out selfie bloggers and especially spam bots. Engagement pods don't work anymore. Nor is commenting 3 words or more. Whoever is still doing that, is already behind in the game.
In fact, hashtags hardly work anymore too. Instagram has come up with a concept called shadow-banning, in which they unknowingly keep your content from showing up if you abuse the same hashtags too much, making spambots a thing of the past.
Uploading videos via IG stories and IG itself has proven to be more useful too, especially for SEO purposes. It's about being real and showing that you're not just a robot. Influencers now have to break the fourth-wall in order to keep their audience in tact. It's too easy just posting pictures of your outfit and throwing a motivational quote you stole from someone else into your caption.
In fact, it's now proven that micro-influencers are more preferred over those with a larger following because they show that they have more sales with an authentically grown audience. Although they seem to have "less eyes", they have a more engaged audience that feels a more personal connection than with that of an influencer with 100k.
Now I feel like there's more motivation in utilizing Instagram. It's pushing us creatives to actually be creative. No one has a reason to buy likes and followers and essentially buying their clients too with those skewed numbers. To those who feel as if Instagram is making things harder on them, they're not.
Finally, there is a push for change in the redundancy of the blogger realm. I'm tired of everyone dressing like Aimee Song or Chriselle Lim and calling themselves a blogger. I'm tired of everyone still being minimalist or monochrome. I'm especially tired of seeing shoes on beds. Everyone looks the same and everyone sounds the same. I haven't seen a new, experimental style or a new voice. Everyone's too scared to explore.
Don't be everyone.
