Why You Feel Stuck on Instagram

If you have an Instagram account, you may have noticed that the number of interactions on your content and profile may have dropped significantly recently. Most articles and videos about social media talk about that right now. On Reddit, every post about Instagram and social media is something like ‘I have 9k followers, and I used to get 3k likes per picture, but now I only get 200, what happened and how can I get as many likes as I used to?’

It looks like, at the moment, everyone is concerned about that considerable drop of engagement, and chances are, you are too. So let’s try to understand together where that drop is from, and what to do to bring your engagement back to where it used to be (and even higher).

It’s the Algorithm

Yes, sure, like every other month. It’s insane the amount of content about Instagram that talks about the algorithm, for pages, explaining why Instagram is conspiring against your account, making your content invisible unless you pay for ads.

Well, that’s not true. There is no conspiracy.

There is, indeed, an algorithm on Instagram. That algorithm tries to show the right content to the right people. If you think the algorithm is not in your favor, then maybe you’re not showing the right content to the right people. It’s that simple.

The algorithm is just that easy excuse, that common enemy, that reason why you need to pay an expert to make sure that your Instagram account runs smoothly. Most marketing experts and social media consultants use that algorithm excuse to justify their expertise. But again, it’s just an excuse!

The algorithm is made to train itself. Literally, the algorithm changes all the time, and Instagram updates it now and then (usually every 2 to 3 months). Trying to figure it out is just a pure waste of time, as trying to understand something that changes all the time is pure insanity.

We all know the basics here: the more relevant the content, the more it will be shown. Period.

It’s the Instagram Purge

There is no way to know if that’s true or not, but it seems a much more possible explanation to me.

Instagram is getting more and more severe on the abusive use of automation tools. These include mass-following bots, auto-DM software, auto-comment bots, and any other software that fakes organic interactions with other accounts.

Because of that, lots of accounts that were scanning hashtags all day to like content in these tags, and sometimes follow the users, got either suspended or deleted.

What that means is that Instagram deleted or suspended many accounts that were probably engaging with your content before. Or the tool they were using to automate all these interactions got deleted, or maybe they stopped because they thought that using such tools got too risky.

That may also explain why your number of followers is not growing even if you’re getting new followers every single day. Between people that unfollow you and accounts that get deleted, your audience remains the same in terms of the number.

It’s the Competition

That might be more likely. If you combine the previous reason with this one, you might have a better view of why Instagram doesn’t work as well for you anymore.

Instagram is full of opportunities and everyone knows that now. More people are entering your niche and are directly competing with you to gain an engaged audience and to get as many people’s attention as possible.

These new accounts and these new businesses are hungry for followers, while you’re not anymore. If you’re trying to get back to the engagement level that you used to have, that proves that you’re not looking for growth, you’re looking for being back at where you were.

These hungry people will probably come up with innovative forms of content. They might post more engaging videos than you do. They might post more per day than you do.

Consider looking at your competitors. Look at how their audience interacts with their content. Chances are, you got comfortable with your Instagram strategy, and you are doing the same thing over and over again.

Your audience needs value, otherwise, they get bored.

That confirms what we were talking about in the first part: it’s not the algorithm, it’s a matter of content and audience.

You Need New and Better Content

It’s always the last thing people question when it comes to growing on Instagram, while it should be the first thing they try to take action on.

It’s easy to blame the algorithm, it’s easy to blame the competition, but it’s harder to blame yourself and your laziness for creating engaging and innovative content.

The tougher the competition, the more you need to innovate. That’s just a fact. If you keep posting the same thing, people will get bored, and they would much rather follow your competitors than you or your business.

So here is something simple that you should do, look at every single one of your competitors. Then, by looking at their feeds and content, sort them into two categories: the ones that have a higher engagement rate and the ones that have a lower one. The first thing to question is to which category your account belongs? The answer won’t change what you have to do next, but a little bit of self-awareness won’t hurt.

Then, you want to look at the lower engagement rate batch. What are they posting? Would you consider that good content? How much are they posting? From there, try to come up with a strategy that is the opposite of what they’re doing. Write it down.

After that, look at the higher engagement category. What are they posting? What kind of content? How many times a day? What is the tone they use? Are they using videos, pictures, infographics? Try to understand their content strategy. Write it down.

Now you have two lists of things to do. One is doing the opposite of what the bad accounts are doing. The other is what has been proven to work.

Next time you produce content, look at these lists and experiment. Try things from both lists.

This is much better than just sticking with what the good accounts are doing because it forces you to try something different every time. That’s what will make sure you keep innovating. And that’s key if you want to have sustainable growth and overall visibility on Instagram.

Try Working Hard on Your Content for Three Weeks

It may seem like a lot of work and it may be tempting not to give this method a try. After all, it’s just another tip that you’ve read on the internet. How is this one going to work any better?

Well, the only thing that I can assure you is that, if you’re reading this article, it probably means that what you’re doing right now is not working, and by the time you understand how the algorithm works, it will have changed.

I also think that not many resources about Instagram invite you to question the quality of your content. If the quality of your content is the issue, you can try whatever trick you want to get higher reach or higher engagement, it just won’t work. If your content is terrible, optimizing the time at which you’re posting won’t change anything.

Just follow the previous method. Give it a try for three weeks. Give it a serious try. And track the results. You will be surprised by how effective it was.

I would love to hear about your results after these weeks. Don’t hesitate to reach out and tell me how incredibly well my method worked.

Take care.