This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Are Instagram links killing my reach? Interesting question today from a listener who's posting on Instagram and they're including links in their posts. I'm not sure if it's just in the caption or somewhere else, but basically all of a sudden nobody is seeing their posts. And so why is this? Well, it's basically because Instagram wants people to stay on Instagram and all social networks are like this increasingly. They are waiting their algorithms to reward behavior that
keeps people on the platform as opposed to sending them away. And so if you're like, "Hey, click this link," then they're going away from the platform. So maybe this is an official penalty, maybe it's unofficial, but it's definitely happening for sure. So what can we do about this or what can somebody in this situation, if you're a creator and you want to use a social network to bring people to your website or to your offer in some other form, but there is this built-in like I said, increasingly common limitation. What can you do? It's something a lot of people are
thinking about. I'll give you the best solutions in this episode, action-packed episode detailed question in my response coming right up. Hey Chris, my name is Katie and I'm based in Nashville. Every time I post a new ceramic mug on Instagram, I add my link tree in the captions so buyers can click through to my Shopify store. Lately, Reach has tanked and almost no one even sees my posts.
Friends say Instagram buries posts with external links. I don't want to spam DM me to buy but hiding the link kills sales. So what's the smart way to respect these annoying platform quirks yet still move followers to an actual checkout page? Yeah, so this phenomenon is sometimes called the shadow ban. And it's basically like you're posting on Instagram or other networks. And you're posting,
you've got followers, but for whatever reason, those posts just do not get shown to your followers or really to many other people at all. And so you suddenly find that your engagement is like 10% of what it used to be. And it's because you've either been shadow banned as an account like at the whole account level, or it's just those specific posts, because you're doing something Instagram doesn't like, which is perhaps including links. So a couple things you can do. I mean, it's one of these things. It's just annoying, right? That's the first thing. Let's just say it is annoying. But
nevertheless, what is within your control. So now you can ditch the link tree for one direct URL. Instagram now lets you have multiple links in your bio if needed. And so you don't usually want to include links in the caption itself. Sometimes it's okay, but most of the time it is not. The
thing that people have been doing that is effective, and actually kind of plays into Instagram's algorithm, and what they like to reward anyway, is by using systems of direct messaging. And so you've probably seen this on posts where people are like, hey, comment this word, you know, for the link, and then they comment that word and then using a tool like mini chat, or you can do it manually as well. They get sent a link, you know, that is just for them, they can go and then purchase and such. So this kind of engagement then boosts reach rather than suppresses it. So you actually get rewarded for doing that. You may also be able to like depending on what you're
selling tag products with Instagram shopping. So Instagram is happy for you to shop, you know, to encourage people to shop through the Instagram shop, especially if you have physical products, doesn't work as well, or sometimes at all for digital products, but that is something you will not be penalized for, you will be rewarded for. Another trick people are doing is post the link in the first comment. So you post your photo without a link, you have a caption, and then in your in the first comment, which you can pin if you want, it's like shop here and you include your website, you know, it may work, it may not, it may stop working, these kind of things tend to change every few months. And so that's also why you don't want to build your business entirely on Instagram or anybody else's platform, like use these tools and platforms for what they are a chance for discoverability. But as much as possible, try to get people on your email list or try to connect
with them in other ways. So in general, if you're posting links and noticing that it's destroying your views, engagement and such, that's just how it's going to be. So I would suggest trying it some other way, especially using this comment system, which I thought would have probably gone away, like a year or two ago, or actually, it's been more than that. Now it's been more than two years that this has been working really well for people. And I thought surely this is going to go away. So at some point, it will, but for now, it seems to be working well. So check that out.
Minichat, again, is one of the most common vendors that supports this. I think Instagram also has a built in tool that they're going to continue to promote as well. Okay, good luck there. Let us know how it goes. sidehustleschool.com for resources, free links, a free newsletter of mine as well.
Come check it out. It is, well, as I said, free. Of course, every episode is also free. Download them, stream them on the site or new ones, wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
