How to succeed on Instagram - Part 4

An short update for April 2024!

Wow it's hard to stay on top of all the changes at Meta HQ these days! Thinking around all this social media stuff changes nearly as often as I change my socks! So lemme try and keep you all caught up with the why's and wherefores over on Instagram!

My usual caveat applies, you do not need to read any of this, you don't need to apply anything from this series if you don't want. It's entirely possible and extremely healthy to just use social media to share your work and not get hung up on growth. But for those that do care, read on.

This is the current thinking on a number of topics, this has been researched by people more diligent than me from hours of video and tons of posts. Am just telling you the word on the street!

Hashtags - there's so much debate about the usefulness of hashtags. Personally I have barely used them in years. A few people are saying that hashtags are back in and you should be posted 20-30 each post! There is zero data to suggest this is true. The top performing reels, for example, have a very high % of ZERO hashtag usage. It's still better to include an engaging description that contains the keywords for your post. So for an example a description like "hey, hope you enjoy my post! nothing I like better than shooting an amazing fitness model on a beach at sunset" - keywords such as model, beach, sunset are doing the work for you. Also please remember that some hashtags are still banned, like lingerie for example or latex - if you click those tags you'll see they are often limited, so using limited/banned hashtags can have a negative effect on your post. Likewise reusing the same hashtags over and over is seen as spammy behaviour and once again will be actively limiting your post.

There is no data to suggest there is any benefit to tags but if you insist then no more than 5, no banned tags and please vary them from post to post.

Length of posts (for reels/video content) - TikTok has been pushing longer form content of 1 minute plus recently, and people posting longer engaging videos have seen some great success. This is not translating over to reels. Research is still showing effectiveness drops off after 20 seconds. Check your reel insight data, you can see average watch time. Mine typically is 10-15 seconds then people get bored and switch off. It's still true by the way that posting a short repetitive video of 3-4 seconds with a long caption or info for people to read is still paying dividends in terms of pushing your views up! In time longer form stuff will hit IG but for now <20 seconds is still king.

Should you start a new account? - There was a lot of talk over the past 6 months for people that are permanently shadow banned that they should just ditch their account and start again. Recently IG have changed things up and accounts like mine which are permanently limited have started to see better growth again. It's still true that the best way to overcome SB hell is to keep using IG normally, post normally, engage with people, like and comment on posts etc. The sense of community I've spoken about in this series is still holding true. So of course you can start a new account if you wish but keep at the strategies in this series and you may not have to. Any new account is limited for a period of time so starting a new one may not have the immediate effect you think it will, put the effort into your existing account instead.

How many times should you post a week? - Ok so this is the one that keeps on changing! A few months ago the advice was post a few times a day every day! The algorithm is now shifting and giving your account space to breathe is now the new hot thing. So 3-4 times a week for a post, still mix it up, so reel, image, reel, carousel etc still works but you don't need to be doing it every day. Accounts are seeing more success recently by posting less! It's still important to post stories every day if you can however, that's not changed. Just remember to clear them down before midnight so every day starts fresh.

I've been giving my account some time off recently here and there and it's true, my engagement on the post after a break sees faster growth than if I'm hitting it every day! Regardless taking a break every day or so is a good thing for your mental health, its far too easy to get stuck in a rut, so give your head and your account some space to just "be".

So that's the thinking that's been changing recently. Please do feel free to ask questions in the comments or reach out to me on Instagram If you need any advice.

I'll do another update as and when anything major changes!