This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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I feel defeated by the Instagram algorithm. That's what we're gonna talk about today. If you are struggling with Instagram's fickle algorithm, the emotional toll of low engagement, you know, you post something and then nobody sees it, even though you have followers, just because of the Instagram way. I hear this a lot. And I hear this about other platforms as well, but it does seem particularly, I was gonna say, what is the adjective?
Particularly frustrating, difficult, annoying, probably all of those things when it comes to Instagram. So first of all, welcome back to Side Hustle School listeners, so glad you're out there. This question is gonna come to us from Lily in Seattle. She has a recipe blog. She's finding it increasingly challenging to maintain engagement on her posts.
And just in case there's anybody out there who doesn't use Instagram or other social platforms and isn't sure what this is about, basically all these platforms, you know, in recent years, instead of adopting a strictly time-based approach, where, you know, if you follow people, you follow 50 people, let's say, you're gonna see every post in order of chronology, right? But now instead, they have the all-knowing, all-powerful at least algorithm that determines what you should see as a user. And sometimes it's possible as a user to go and customize those settings to change that, but the great majority of users don't. So even if you do as a user, if you're trying as a creator to post things and hopefully have your audience, your followers see them, you're kind of struggling because you were at the mercy of this algorithm. And so we're gonna talk about that a little bit.
Are there some hacks, some tips? There are some, we'll talk about it. But it's also about the emotional burden of putting in so much work for seemingly little reward. So we're gonna talk about the practical and the emotional well-being detailed question coming up. Quick little word from our sponsor first.
And then let's see if we can do something about this 'cause a lot of people are bothered by it and they should be. So let's see what we can do. [Music]
Hey, Chris, it's Lily from Seattle. I read a recipe blog and I've been struggling with Instagram's ever-changing algorithm. I feel like my content is getting buried.
Any tips on how I can adapt? It's frustrating to spend hours on posts only for them to get minimal engagement. Oh, and thanks for all that you do. I've been listening for a long time and I really enjoy the show. [Music]
Lily, first things first, the frustration you're feeling is entirely understandable.
I feel it too. I've been using Instagram more over the past few months after taking a good bit of time off. I had a book coming out in August and I was like, oh, I need you to do a better job here. And this is a fun platform or at least it has been in some ways. And I definitely have a lot of people that are using Instagram.
My username is 193 countries. In case there's anybody out there who's not following me, come and say hi. So yeah, but then I also started experiencing like, oh, this is frustrating. Some of my posts get seen by a lot of people, relatively speaking, and some of them get seen by very few people, relatively speaking. And obviously this decision is being made not by me, but by Mark Zuckerberg.
I just imagine Mark Zuckerberg sitting in the Facebook/meta office and seeing my posts come up and being like, hmm, do we wanna show these to people or not? I'm sure that's probably not his only job or maybe he doesn't handle it directly. He's probably got a vice president of Facebook looking at it. Anyway, so what do you do? First of all, it's about understanding what Instagram values and that is keeping users engaged on the platform.
So it's a bit of a dance of adaptability and experimentation. But if you really think about engagement, the algorithm values, not just likes, but deeper engagement metrics like comments, shares, and saves. So like when somebody saves your posts, that matters. That tells the algorithm, oh, somebody likes this. Let's do more like this.
If you craft content that invites users to engage on those levels, that's where the real game changer is. So, you know, end your captions with questions or calls to action that provoke users to comment or save the post for later. That's why you see a lot of creators doing that because it works. Video content also these days gets better reach and engagement than static posts. So make some short looking clips, recipe walkthroughs, Q and A sessions about culinary methods.
Instagram is pushing for more video content, especially with reels, which it definitely favors a lot. I've actually been seeing some success with reels. I wish I had done it sooner, but it definitely works. Carousel posts. So you wanna show a series of images.
Perhaps it could be steps in a recipe in this case. Since users have to swipe through, those posts tend to have higher engagement, which again signals to Instagram, this is good content. Going live, like using Instagram Live can bring real time engagement. And it also appears prominently in a followers feed, you know, while you are live. So that can be a great way to reach people who have not interacted with your posts recently.
And it kind of resets the algorithmic relationship with them. So, you know, all these things, like hopefully there's a few tips or hacks there that are gonna help you focus on engagement, focus on not just likes, but comments, anything that encourages people to save the post or swipe through. I mean, those are some things you can do. That said, you also need to think about the emotional stress that comes with this kind of thing. And like the rise and fall of like, oh, my post did well, I feel great.
Oh, my post didn't do well in terms of reaching people. I feel terrible, I'm an awful person. You know, that sort of roller coaster, I mean, a lot of people are on that now, that emotional connection or dependence, let's say, the emotional dependence on how a social media platform treats your posts, and that's not healthy. That's not, that's just not, like you are better than that. Like you are a wonderful person, regardless of what Mark Zuckerberg thinks of you, Mark Zuckerberg and his VP team, you know, of people that are looking at every one of your posts.
So I just think it's important to have some balance, like focus on outcomes, like set a schedule, I'm gonna post once a day, and then, you know, I'm gonna try to do some of these things to increase my engagement, but I'm also gonna let go of it. I'm gonna let go of the outcome because I can't control it. That's what I encourage you to do as much as possible. I know it's difficult, but I think it's important to keep that goal in mind. Lily, I appreciate you bringing up this concern.
I know a lot of people have it, and listeners, just take care of yourselves out there. Take care of yourself. Let's hang out in real life, not just on social media, but social school, too. Of course, there's a website, sidehustleschool.com. This has been episode 2485, 2485.
I hope you'll continue to listen. It's always free. I'll be here for you every day. My name's Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
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