Instagram is certainly the talk of the town at the moment. Every day i see more and more people on the creation side i.e bloggers, influencers even businesses complain about the changing instagram algorithms. And rightly so because some algorithm which you have no clue about decides whether your post should be shown to your followers. Sounds absurd right!! Also offending and a hazard to creativity. How can technology decide the worth of creative content? Its for humans. Not even bothered with the other people how do you not show it to people who have chosen to follow me? They follow because they like my work. Sadly Instagram has a mind of its own and ever since the chronological Instagram feed was changed its become a forever case of struggle with Instagram algorithms.
But first what is this Instagram frenzy? Its turned into a high net worth industry where serious money is being made, great! but if we see its just an app and it was all great and still is if kept to the level of an app. An app for bloggers like me to find audience to share my work with, an app for business to find its customers, an app for people to keep in touch with their friends and family, an app to find inspiration, an app to know whats up in/with the field/people of our liking. All good there, the problems started and what is now being termed as an Instagram bubble, when people started thinking of it as life. Some people started living their lives on instagram some started living for instagram and most believe that life on instagram is true life.
For bloggers it turned from a medium to find audience to share their work and drive traffic to their sites into a medium where they could have power and influence and subsequently monetize that influence. Earlier the content was created for brands and blogs and also shared on social media, instagram being one of them now the content is being created just for Instagram and more and more for it.
Now with all that said here is why we need to grip it and keep our affections for instagarm to the level of a useful app and not even a step further.
- It is an app, its technology, realize. What if a bug comes and it completely crashes. Its no secret that all accounts on instagram get bugged. Cant like, can’t follow, posts not showing on hashtags, etc etc are all bugs and all accounts specially the business accounts go through them. We loose our sleep and mind on those now imagine if the account is completely gone!!!
- Instagram is a business and for every business profit is as much an objective as is creating value. Instagram is no different. So it comes up with changes the so called Instagram algorithms that it thinks will make people spend more time on it aka keep them hooked onto it which translates to more money for Instagram. Now this is the reality that we all need to accept. Instagram is although for us it is also for itself.
- Instagram world is not the real world, it might be close but it is not exactly what goes on in real life. Important for everyone including us on the content side who create for Instagram but still belittle ourselves with comparisons with what we see on other peoples feed. The feed is curated well crafted even i don’t post pictures that don’t go with my feed so hell no.
- For bloggers there are better mediums to drive traffic to their site like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, stumble upon, medium and above all the search engines like google, etc.
- Its not a good idea to base your business on a product that is not yours. So if blogging is your business realize that only earning from Instagram is a huge risk. Instagram is gone you are gone. If you are an Instagram influencer branch out.
Also i feel its important that all of us realize our own power, its all in us we are the drivers of Instagram. Today if we close our account it was nothing was it ever anything? Yes it does help us with the promotions for our blogs and businesses hence is part of the game keep it at that don't make it the game. Realize its only an app not reality let alone life and should thus not be taken as one.
Has the Instagram bubble touched you? Hope this post is helpful, thank you for stopping by, see you with my next.
Suggested posts - The pressures of being a content creator
Love
Chichi
I so agree with you ... especially point 3 and 5 ;)
ReplyDeletehttps://4highheelsfans.wordpress.com/2018/02/04/first-anniversarheel/
Such a great post!
ReplyDeletehttps:/chicglamstyle.com
It's my favourite app for sure but I don't take low likes to heart anymore. In fact if it was the old algorithm I'd be more upset! lol
ReplyDeleteTotally agree and some people get way too hung up on it, the obsession is totally OTT!
ReplyDeletelove this, all I'm hearing about on Twitter is the algorithm. Just create quality content. And you're right, it hardly dries any traffic to my blog from it - Twitter and Pinterest are much better traffic-wise
ReplyDeleteLife for many bloggers and influencers does seem to have got so serious in the last couple of years. I've been doing this for nearly a decade now and I have come to a comfortable place where I work at the pace I want to but it I don't let changes in algorithms and such get to me. Mich x
ReplyDeleteI think it's a good idea to keep in mind with all social media channels that they can change at any time. It's the same with Facebook! It has changed so, so much over the past four years!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I'm not that good at using Instagram, but then I am always late to a platform. I definitely agree with there being butter ways to drive traffic to your blog.
ReplyDeleteI am quite obsessed with Instagram and I do hate that I don't always see my favourite people's posts, I have to manually go into their profiles x
ReplyDeleteI love instagram, although I have come to terms with the algorythm now. I just go on my favourites profiles to see what they've posted x
ReplyDeleteI am so fed up with instagram if i am honest. I loved being able to like my friends posts but now all I see is sponsored content and the same posts I liked last week
ReplyDeleteI love instagram but have become so bored of the algorithm moans - I use it mostly for discovering new people and if my engagement and reach has dropped, who cares? My blog stats are still rising so it hasn't done me a terrible injustice.
ReplyDeleteC x
I couldn’t agree more, I’m not into technology, but it’s getting out of control nowadays, people care more about the like then the meaning. Such a great and heartfelt blog post. You said what many are too scared to say 🙏🏼
ReplyDeleteI haven't had Instagram for all that long, and I'm happy to say the obsession hasn't affected me, yet. I know so many people are becoming so unhappy and frustrated with it lately though. But like you said - it's just an app, meaningless technology really and what would happen if it just crashed?! I always feel that way about the internet as a whole. We are all so obsessed with social media and the internet, how would we cope if one day it was just gone?!
ReplyDeleteI love using Instagram, but I try to keep in mind that the photos are usually edited. I think I prefer the Stories to the main grids now
ReplyDeleteWe totally agree that the Instagram world isn’t the the real world. It’s an online glossy magazine filled with ads and aspirations x We’re trying to ignore the instagram algorithm and just use it to record me growing up x
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with these points you have made! I personally love being able to share snippets of my life with photos, but Instagram algorithm has made it impossible for smaller bloggers and creators to grow.
ReplyDeleteCandice | beautycandyloves.co.za
Totally enjoyed reading the post and hearing it from your point of view. You are right about most of the things, on how instagram is changing and how we need to get a grip of things and move with time and not be disheartened.
ReplyDeleteI really do love using instagram as I like it as a platform to document memories rather than using it for blog traffic. Like you say there are better drives for traffic like twitter and pinterest. It is hard to grow and I do miss the chrolongical order but I'm sure we'll soon adapt and forget, it's like when facebook changes we moan but still use it!
ReplyDeleteI do like using IG as a blogger, and it has been a great platform for me, yet not my only one. Since the algorithmn changes, I literally have gone from getting up to 100 new followers a week, to no followers for the last month. This is just weird and disconcerting!
ReplyDeleteFor some people, Instagram is life because it’s a huge part of their income. I’m a full time blogger and about 40% of my income comes from Instagram. So the change of algorithm again is pretty frustrating for us with a mortgage to pay.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I understand why people are frustrated I find the complaining wholely unproductive. Have you noticed how no one can publish a low scoring rating on the app store for instagram anymore? If only people put their frustration into motivation to create revenue streams elsewhere. I agree with you, instgram can get bugged or go down. Anything can happen - look at vine!
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice read, and I couldn't agree more. It's kind of hard to accept at first, but then I realized that we're using this for free platform (mostly), and they need to earn money. And yes, IG world is definitely NOT the real world.
ReplyDeleteJessica | notjessfashion.com
I couldn't have said it anymore. They have defiantly changed so much throughout the years.. so disappointing. Thanks for sharing this with us, girl.
ReplyDeletexo Sheree
PoshClassyMom.com
I feel like I don't get anything from Instagram anymore. I do still enjoy posting photos to look back on . though
ReplyDeleteIf truth be told, if Instagram crashed I am okay with that and this comment is not to hate. It's that I find little value in it. My worth and your worth shouldn't be based off of how many likes you get and this is probably coming from people that may just like your photo to get a like back. I do understand the value of team work and I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine but Instagram doesn't go beyond that. When I open my Instagram feed all I see are stuff thrown at me. Buy this for cheap or buy this for that. I get it everyone loves a good deal. But what happened to being connected the way the intention of this app was created for? What happened to that? And to see this when I haven't even used the app for more than four months is utterly disappointing.
ReplyDeleteMaureen | www.littlemisscasual.com
Instagram Tags is where they list the most famous Instagram labels. They refresh their labels day by day and individuals can utilize them for nothing.recommend to buy instagram followers
ReplyDeleteHow can anyone miss on this blog, Totally be-enchanted by this blog.
ReplyDeleteprofollower