If you follow me on Twitter, you know I've been doing a thread of observations I've made since switching from a personal account to a business account. Most of the thread is based on numbers, a disparity between follower counts, and more technical bits. I'm planning to write a full blog post about that next month (I need one more month of data to really inform my conclusion on it), but I wanted to ask, and perhaps answer, a question about Instagram today:
Is doing all this work even worth it?
I know some have wonderful success on Instagram. And that's great for them! But the vast majority of bloggers and small business owners, from what I can tell, struggle to make Instagram work for them.
It's hard to exactly know how to fix the platform. What causes some people to grow so quickly and others, who are doing the exact same things and sometimes posting more meaningful content, to grow so slowly or not at all? Is it just purely luck?
A huge issue seems to be, of course, the move from chronological order to an algorithm based on your personal likes and whose story you've watched. While in theory that sounds great, in reality what happens is that you end up seeing photos from 5-6 days before on your feed... instead of the stuff that people just posted! That means that when I post a photo, most likely no one who actually follows me is going to see it for at least 24 hours to 2 days; posting anything topical becomes really difficult, to say the least.
There are other issues within the blogger community that make growing difficult. Following and unfollowing is a big issue and can feel like such a downer. That's not the only thing, there are absolutely more, but it can all feel like a huge weight when you're just trying to do the best you can and see results.
It's no wonder, truly, that people go to the extreme lengths of buying followers. It absolutely won't help your brand at all, but it will make you feel a bit better about struggling to grow!
In the past 2 years, I've doubled my followers. From 300 to 600. For some people, that's pretty significant; but in that time, others have started Instagram accounts and climbed to thousands of followers. I definitely do want that kind of success or those numbers (being famous scares me!), but I do wonder just what exactly I'm doing wrong. I've improved my photos. I've upped my hashtag game. I've done everything I can aside from turn into one of those emotionless Instagram accounts that's all about aesthetic. (No offense to Instagram accounts with themes.)
So, knowing that I'm not really alone in feeling this way, I have to wonder: is Instagram even worth putting this much thought and effort into? It's still listed as many people's favorite social media, but when it comes down to numbers, I don't see evidence for it contributing to blog traffic--just potential for sponsorships! That's where it gets difficult, isn't it?
I might decide to let Instagram go and not try--but in the end, that hurts my ability to work with brands. It's brands that want a large Instagram following, really, and it's something that a lot of bloggers just can't provide. What happens to us? What happens to the people who have a large Twitter following, good traffic, and a bumpin' Pinterest profile... but not a great Instagram presence? Do we get left behind because where we thrive isn't where brands want us to thrive?
It's a lot to think about! So I'm turning it over to you: what do you think? Is Instagram worth the hassle? Am I overthinking this?
