By Stephanie Dolce
Instagram has changed their algorithm and not for the better.
Take heart: Here are a few tips on how to outsmart it.
Step Up Your Game On Photo Quality
If you’re already creating eye-popping content, you’re ahead of the curve. Bold colors. Outside-of-the -box thinking. Breathtaking landscapes. This is what gets people to stop in their tracks and hit “Like.”
Publish Stories Consistently
Stories will consistently keep your profile popping up. This spells good news for engagement as your followers are constantly being encouraged to check out your content. Story updates put you quite literally front and center on their feed as a result.
Run A Contest Or Giveaway
You’ll notice that contest and giveaway posts are among their most popular kind of engagement. Also, consider a “less is more” strategy for your contests so there’s ample time to build buzz between them.
Use Hashtags Strategically
As you read in one my recent articles on my website, the rules for hashtags have changed! If you haven’t changed with it, you’ll get left behind. Research shows that nine is the “magic number,” of hashtags to use to get engagement. For the sake of not looking like a spammer, I’d suggest using only top-performing tags instead of needlessly bloating your captions.
Shadow banning IS a real thing! Don’t listen to folks who write blogs for schedulers – I have seen some misinformation going around. Shadow banning is simply behavior that Instagram deems to be spam-like, which means your content is not seen in people’s feeds. There is a list of words that are “banned” from Instagram. If you want to know if you are using a banned hashtag, contact me. But, I will give you two Instagram is cracking down on. They are: #Likeforlike and #likeback – these are used by folks who try to build their followers by “promising” folks they will follow you back only to unfollow you after you follow them. This is NOT the way to build your business or following!
For more insight on this subject, tune into The Sassy Show on Rockland World Radio and watch live on my Facebook page every Friday at 3pm EST.