Hey friends,

I want to talk about the ever-so-elusive ~ Instagram algorithm ~ today, because I've heard from a lot of people that are panicking.

At the end of this newsletter you'll find 5 tips for getting your engagement back up, if you don't feel like reading all of my many, many thoughts. 🤪

A lot of big changes have come to Instagram recently, and while these may not affect the actual algorithm, they can affect user’s behaviour on Instagram, which can trickle down to affecting your normal numbers, causing everyone to panic about “the algorithm.”

New features being tested:

• Instagram is testing a full-screen home feed. All content appears in 9:16 (like Reels would), including photos which have a gradient behind them.
  
  In this update, all captions show up like captions in the Reels feed, which make them harder to read. This means the first few words of your caption are more important than ever, if you want people to click to open to read your caption.

Instagram is testing a new feature that only shows your first 3 stories: you have to click a small button to watch all of them. As an avid Stories user, I hope this test fails! But it could explain why stories views are decreasing if you are someone like me who posts a lot of stories each day.

Generally, I reallllllllllllly hate when people complain about the algorithm.

It’s an easy scapegoat for a bad content strategy.

But a few days ago, I started experiencing a dramatic decrease in reach. It was so dramatic that I knew this couldn’t possibly just be “bad content” - something was up.

Normally, my sponsored collab post reels between @taylor.loren and @reelstips get about 100k views - this is very consistent across all my ads and brand partners.

But on Thursday, I posted this reel and at the end of the day it only had 3k views - when normally I get 100k!!!

Thankfully, the nice thing about reels is that they grow over time and it’s now up to about 20k views - but still. A long way off from my normal numbers that are super consistent.

My story views were also sitting around 975 views, when normally they are 2000+, which was worrisome because that’s where I post most of my content.

When your business and paycheque relies on Instagram, it can feel super defeating when you’re experiencing lower-than-average numbers. Imagine you worked really hard on the content for a new product launch, only to have it “flop.”

And now as a creator who relies on brand partnerships for my income, having a sponsored post flop can literally impact my income. A lot of times, brands will want to test partnerships with you first, and if I was doing a test that flopped, well, I wouldn’t be working with that brand again.

It’s really easy to spiral when your engagement or reach is dropping: you tend to panic and go to extremes. It’s honestly similar to the panic that everyone is experiencing right now with the stock market, your mind can quickly go to worst-case scenarios: what if I lose all my income from Instagram? That’s it, I should just go all in on TikTok to diversify my social following. Is my boss going to fire me because our content isn’t performing? I should look for a new job, etc. etc.

What we’re really doing in these circumstances is entering a scarcity mindset, fearing the worst and thinking there is not enough of a resource (in this case: engagement) to go around. Scarcity can be real or perceived (eg. feeling like you don’t have enough because you’re focused on the one piece of content that flopped).

I’m going to quote one of my favourite IG accounts to follow @bridgiecasey here to explain how our brain operates on scarcity:

So the lesson here is: don’t panic and make rash decisions because of a short-term dip in the “market” of engagement. Yes, Instagram is testing a lot of changes right now. It’s reasonable to assume that these tests will impact numbers of all kinds, that is why it’s a test.

Recognize that you are not alone in this: a ton of accounts are experiencing the same thing right now. Communicate the change in IG landscape to your boss or client (but don’t use it as an excuse: share the strategies you are going to implement to try and combat it).

Just like you still want to stick to regular contributions during a stock market crash for long-term gain, you still want to stick to posting regularly and connecting with your Instagram community during periods of low reach.

Shift out of a scarcity mindset into an abundance mindset: there is enough engagement and reach to go around. Maybe these new changes are a new opportunity for you to reach new customers you wouldn’t have before, by switching up your content strategy (helllooo, Reels).

But instead of just complaining about the algorithm, I want to offer some tips for what to do to get your engagement back up:

1. Take a break from posting for 24-48 hours. For stories views, this works pretty much every time.

2. Post something from a topic you know will get a lot of engagement. We all have those categories that perform well, I’m doing it right now by talking about ~the algorithm~ and I’m going to post a carousel post with some tips from this newsletter later today on my feed (pls engage lol).

3. Post a reel that uses trending audio. Try to make it light-hearted and funny, just pure top-of-funnel content that is easy to engage with. Channel your inner meme mentality - using my own audience as an example, it would be something like this. If you don’t know what’s trending, check out @reelstips for some ideas!

4. Post a tweet post. I don’t understand this phenomenon, but they consistently perform well across all accounts, all the time. Find a tweet that fits into your niche/audience, ask for permission to post it, and credit the creator in the caption.

5. Stay focused on the people who ARE interacting with your content, instead of focusing on the people who AREN’T. Reply back to comments, and spend more time in your DMs interacting with people.

These aren’t panic moves or get-engagement-quick hacks. They are just some good content strategy tips that have worked for me in the past.

Remember: stay calm, you don’t need to overhaul your entire strategy because of a short-term dip.

But if the dip continues, use this as an opportunity to re-evaluate your content strategy. Are there major things missing? Are you still using the same strategy from 1-2 years ago? Do you even have a content strategy?

It’s so easy to just pin every single problem on the algorithm, which is generally why I hate when people complain about it.

My engagement dip was a little bit of a wake-up call for me: I realized that I really need to be investing more of my time in creating consistent, valuable, high-engaging content for my IG feed. I do a lot in stories, but less so on the feed, and I could definitely be doing more reels, so it’s time for me to buckle down and really practice what I preach!

And with Instagram testing a new full-screen feed, it’s clear that Reels is the priority for Instagram. If you haven’t started making Reels yet, or you’re not creating them consistently, you’re going to fall behind with where Instagram is headed!

I loved this blog post that details what happened when a creator pivoted to a Reels-only approach to Instagram - you don’t have to go that extreme (remember: don’t panic), but it’s good evidence that Reels really does work.

“‘I was spending so much time planning and curating my static photo content only to get zero engagement,” she explains. “It was so discouraging.’

For Olivia, the solution was obvious. ‘I thought, I can either complain and sit in this stuck feeling or I can move with where Instagram is headed.’”

I hope this helps you feel a little less alone - remember, it's not just you! 💖 Also, mercury is still in retrograde, so you can easily blame all of your tech problems on that. 😉

xo,
Taylor