Those that work in the marketing and communications industry know how stressful this field can be. The pressure is real when the fate of an entire company can be riding on a few keystrokes and demographics decisions. It is even more disconcerting when your digital marketing strategy has a strong social media component and the social game is constantly changing.
When your likes are going down and your comment rate is plummeting it is easy to believe the myths floating around about how Instagram has changed the user experience and the algorithm and how it means your engagement is going to hell in a handbasket forever. Sure, Facebook and Instagram do make tweaks on a semi-regular basis but that doesn’t mean that the sky is falling, Chicken Little.
Just like our scientific forefathers, the Mythbusters, our social media marketing team came up with a list of the most reinforced Instagram urban legends they could think of to break down for you.
Myth 1: Your Business Isn’t Suited for Instagram
Just cause your business isn’t sexy doesn’t mean it can’t find traction on this visual heavy medium. Think about Visa and Wendy’s. Both financial institutions and fast food restaurants don’t necessarily have the “sexiest” brands – but their Instagram game is strong. With a little bit of creativity and a whole lot of understanding the core principals of your business, your brand can really take flight in visual heavy mediums like Instagram. Tell a story, tell your client’s stories, and tell the story of your staff – there is always a tidbit to tell tucked inside of your company and a visual-centric medium can really help change the way you tell it.
Myth 2: It’s Only Millennials
Plenty of moms have ruined their millennial child’s Insta cred. Trust us, millennials are not the only demographic on this popular platform anymore. Like Facebook before, Instagram has been co-opted by the generations that came before. There are over 500 million people using the site, so it’s safe to say that there is a good chunk of people from every demographic in it – whether you are trying to talk to baby boomer men or teenaged girls, Instagram is a great platform to do that.
Myth 3: You Need to Post Daily
Posting every day? So, you want to bore the crap outta people? There is a ridiculous fallacy floating around that in order to rank higher in the algorithm and increase your engagement your brand should be posting daily. Our social media team tested out that theory and found that it is categorically false. Actually, we have found the exact opposite to be true. The less you post, the higher your engagement tends to be, most likely because the less you post the more valuable and relevant your posts are.
Myth 4: You Should Stop Using Hashtags
What are you, nuts? You want to increase your engagement by not using hashtags? Unless you are one of those Kardashian women, you are going to need to us hashtags. Hashtags can actually help tell a story with fewer words and while they may look spammy to some, they are a normalized part of Instagram usage. If you don’t like the look of them you can add a few rows of space in your caption and put the hashtags after or you can simply comment on the post with your preferred hashtags. It doesn’t really matter how you feel about them, hashtags are what makes you (and your content) discoverable.
Think we’re all talk? Go ahead, test it out for yourselves. There are a million and one myths about how to increase your engagement across social platforms and most of them are easy enough to test on your own. Of course, if you don’t have the time and energy to try these out yourself, come chat with our social media crew and see how they can help increase your engagement organically!