Instagram has always been my favourite social media channel, but recently it has announced changes to the way it will work from now on. We will soon start to see the main news feed page in order of popular posts rather than most recent. I have seen a lot of people freaking out about it as it could mean less likes and less exposure, but there are way you can make it work for you in a positive way.
Here are my tips for beating the new Instagram update...
Create a community
I have recently started to spring clean who I follow on Instagram, I realised I was following a lot of big brands and celebrities that I wasn't even that interested in, and with the new update they will probably clog up my feed as they have huge followings.
By choosing carefully who to follow you will see more of the posts you like and are relevant to you, this will create a closer community of bloggers, brands and pages similar to your page and interests, rather than your feed being dominated with larger brands. In turn your pictures will show up on other like minded Instagram feeds and create a common community of bloggers and brands.
Like and Comment
Similar to the community idea, by liking and commenting on posts you love and find relevant, the more the news feed will react to this and suggest more of the same. To start with you might have to actively search for my favourite bloggers so the update gets the message, but eventually by engaging with bloggers and brands that are similar the news feed will adjust and start to look more like it used to before the change.
Make the Most of Hashtags
The new update will mean hashtags become even more important. I use them in most posts I publish as I find them useful for getting my posts seen by those interested. To make them work for you, hashtag relevant content that relates to the post to make it easier for others to find your picture. I try and think what hashtags I would search for eg. #style, #flatlay, #interiors and use them in post that relate to that content. Remember not to over do the hashtags as too many can have the opposite effect, stick to around 8 per post.
I like to search the hashtags I use too. For example #lbloggers helps me find lifestyle bloggers that have similar interests to me, I then like and comment on posts and help spread the love that way, again starting to building a community.
Turn on Notifications
You
may have seen people posting 'Turn Me On' images, urging followers to
press the three dots in the top right hand corner to alert them when a
new post is published. I don't really like this idea as too many
notifications can become annoying, I follow a few bloggers this way but
rarely follow the notifications up. Pointless really. However this can be handy at
the start to remind you to like and comment etc to get the feed back to
normal but in the long run might get a little tedious.
Keep Content Relevant
If you like the clean, pretty Instagram layouts, post images that reflect that as well as liking and commenting on others that share the same love. This will make more appear in your feed and make it easier for others to find your page. Think about what you want your feed to say and what followers want to see. By liking similar themed pages you will attract followers that want to see that.
People are attracted to clean, light photography so consider this if you want others to like and follow you. Light and airy posts are more likely to stand out in feeds when people are scrolling through hashtags or common interests.
So although the new changes to Instagram seem scary and we aren't a hundred percent certain how they will effect us, there are a few things you can do to make it work for you. I hope this little post has been useful and shed a little light on the update.
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Thanks for reading,
Anna
x
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