Social platforms used to be strictly about social community, however, that has changed and social media landscape is now more business-centric. Brands and creators alike are tapping into their audience as a viable sales channel. With that change comes different ideas, opportunities and misconceptions. Myths that stem from not keeping up with to the Instagram platform, or trying to apply past strategies to these new formats. We take a look at five mistruths that could be stopping you from reaching your full potential on Instagram.
Instagram favors certain functions over others No: Instagram, like other companies, may promote newly released functions, however, when using these functions, this doesn’t mean the overall performance (e.g. engagement) of your Instagram efforts will automatically be improved. That said, there is benefit and reason to test and publish different types of content. Remember, your audience has different preferences when it comes to consuming content. Some people prefer videos or Instagram Stories, while others may just want to look at photos. With that in mind, to reach all your followers, and gain new ones, you should publish a variety of content on Instagram.
Likes are the most valuable currency on Instagram No: It is true, back in the day ‘likes’ were a popular measurement, there are more relevant metrics to gauge success. More effective metrics to measure engagement and content success are comments under posts, link clicks in bio, replies to instagram stories, content views and profile views, and saved posts.
Instagram Stories are not worth the investment since they disappear after 24 hours No: Truth is, stories are more likely to be viewed by audiences than posts in the feed. In fact, Instagram Stories are more likely to have higher conversion, Instagram Stories give a sense of ‘being up to date’ meaning audiences can be more engaged. While Instagram Stories do disappear after 24 hours, Highlights is a place where audiences can see past stories
Changing hashtags on an existing post means more views No: Hashtags are based on time (aka when you post your content, not when you add the hashtags). So, even if you post your content on Monday, and add hashtags on Tuesday, you’re probably not that likely to see exponentially greater results. The best time to add hashtags to a post is right once it goes live or immediately after as hashtag feeds are not only based on popularity but also when you post.
Adding your hashtags to the comments, instead of your caption, you will be shadow banned No: Hashtags do impact the algorithm and help determine who will see your post, but feel free to add hashtags wherever you like.