I hear these strategies all over social media and I need to tell you, this is absolutely
bad advice!
In today’s video, I’ll show you popular Instagram tips you need to stop following.
Ready?
Let’s do this!
Hi my lovely people, it’s Natalia and welcome back to my channel where I share super-actionable
ideas on content creation for entrepreneurs and creatives!
We always talk about how you can improve your content and grow on Instagram organically
here on this channel.
But today, we’re doing something a little bit different.
There’s so much advice out there that’s super popular but also completely wrong, that
it needs to be addressed.
Videos like this often end up like a bit of a rant, but I want to give you actual reasons
why those tactics can actually be harmful to your account.
And listen, I may rant a little bit here and there, because I’m so passionate about this,
but hopefully it’s going to help you recognize bad advice when you next see it!
Without further ado, let’s do this!
Tactic #1 Reposting Reposting other creators’ posts may be a
“hack” to grow on Instagram but it’s definitely a wrong wrong strategy.
Let’s quickly look at the Instagram community guidelines.
The very first point they make is that you should only share photos and videos you've
taken or have the right to share and not to post anything you've copied or collected from
the Internet.
This is where this supposedly magic trick is falling into pieces quickly.
When reposting is done without a written permission from the original creator, it’s basically
stealing.
And I feel like it’s an important point to make here, but even if you credit someone
but still have no express consent, it’s still theft and still against the community
guidelines.
That creator may be gracious or even thank you for sharing, but the truth is, they could
just as well file an infringement form against you and they’d be in the right here!
I’m sure I don’t have to explain to you that it’s really bad for your account and
can get you banned if you’re a repeat offender.
Many people don’t realize it and mindlessly repost content, thinking they’re providing
value and actually supporting the creator but they are not.
You may disagree with me here, but to me clearly it’s piggybacking on someone else’s hard
work.
If you’ve ever spent time creating even one piece of content, you know very well how
much work and thought goes into it.
You know what’s a much better way to support a creator?
Share their post to your stories!
Of course I’m talking about using the share functionality, not reposting to stories.
When you share it like this, it benefits the creator, but you can also add your two cents
to their post and talk about it from your perspective.
Having curated stories like this can really help create value in the community without
taking away from the original creator.
Certainly a win-win!
Now if all I’ve said is still not enough to convince you that reposting is a bad tactic,
maybe this will.
We have a new update from Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, who has recently announced
that the algorithm will reward original content.
We don’t know yet what that’s going to look like specifically but we can be sure
that original creators will be favored over reposters or theme pages.
Hopefully this new algorithm update will seriously affect the performance of stolen content so
that it’s no longer worth it.
I also want people to know that having your content reposted without your permission is
not ok and there’s actually a super easy way to report it.
If you’d like to know more about this, I can definitely create a video like that for
you so let me know in the comments if you’d like me to record one!
In response to this update, I’ve already seen some people advise to change this reposted
content in some way to not have it penalized by the algorithm.
That’s so wrong, still against the community guidelines, and still theft.
It can be zoomed in, have new text on it, it can be cut with transitions, but it all
doesn’t matter when it’s reposted without permission.
So stay faaar far away from reposting content without permission and maybe consider creating
original content yourself.
If you really don’t feel like it’s for you, then you need to realize changes are
coming and reposting content even completely ethically and with permission, is still not
going to do as well as original content.
That’s just the reality of it!
Tactic #2: Tagging people in photos with no relevance
If you’ve been on IG for a while, you may know that tagging a bunch of big accounts
was a tactic back in a day.
And let me just say this, 5 years ago, it used to sort of help you grow.
I used to do it myself, it was a huge tactic in the travel community, especially tagging
big theme pages.
If you don’t know what theme pages are, these are basically those big accounts that
feature other creators work on them - by the way, they often repost without the creator’s
consent, to my previous point.
The main idea was that if you got a repost from a big account like that, there would
be a percentage of their followers that would actually then check your account out if they
liked the original photo.
Apart from that, every time you tagged a page, it would appear in their tagged feed meaning
people browsing it would see your post too.
Today, this “Instagram tip” is outdated at best and annoying & shady at worst.
First of all, it’s not really a valid way to get followers.
Sure, some people may still check you out but it’s not the same as it used to be.
Besides, nowadays creators have much more control over who tags them in posts.
You can simply enable a manual tag approval feature which means every time someone tags
you, it doesn’t go straight to your tagged feed, but instead lands in the pending tags
tab where you can approve it from there.
And let me tell you, from my perspective, I don’t allow the majority of the tags for
that exact reason - people tag me in most random, completely irrelevant posts and I
honestly have no clue why I’m even there so what’s the point of me accepting it.
My rule is, if I don’t know how I would even comment on a post I’m tagged in, there’s
absolutely no reason it should go to the tagged feed.
This also means that when people do tag me because they’ve used one of my tutorials,
they are trying out some of my tactics, or they’re just sharing the love, it’s super
easy to find it there and frankly, I love to get tagged in posts like that and I honestly
look at what’s there frequently just because it keeps me going.
As a fairly small Instagram creator, it definitely makes my heart full.
That’s why remember to always tag relevant accounts in your posts because let’s face
it, there are better ways to grow than tagging random people.
Tactic #3: Follow & unfollow game
Andddd speaking of growing, this is the tactic that for many reasons drives me nuts.
One because it’s annoying and in my opinion, slightly disrespectful, two because it’s
still very much advertised as this holy grail of Instagram growth when it’s clearly not,
at least not in the right way.
Let’s unpack it here.
For those of you who don’t know what follow unfollow is, it’s basically when you follow
other people only to get them to follow you back, and then unfollow them after a bit of
time.
When it’s not very sophisticated, you just randomly follow a bunch of people daily and
wait for some of them to follow you back.
If there’s more thought behind it, you do a bit of research meaning you try to reach
more targeted people.
This usually involves going to big accounts in your niche, seeing who liked or commented
on their recent posts and following them.
Now, this is soooo completely backwards, I can’t even express how much I despise this
tactic.
First of all, giving people attention only to get attention and then blatantly unfollowing
them when your little goal is reached is a lousy way to treat people in general.
There I said it, sorry not sorry.
You’re basically playing tricks on people.
It’s just not a great way to build a tight community that’s engaged and feels appreciated
and may I just add, this is a much better goal than chasing vanity metrics in any case.
Secondly, when you get those followers, they essentially did not come to you because they
value what you put out there.
They became followers to return a favor, in a way.
And yes, some of them may appreciate the content over time, but for most of them, seeing your
content in their feed is not going to mean much.
They will have very little clue as to who you are because they only followed your because
you followed them and even if they checked you out, they didn’t have a strong internal
reason to follow you in the first place.
People like this are less likely to engage which in the long run actually harms your
account!
When they don’t engage, your engagement rate drops, the algorithm notices you may
not be the right account to show to similar people and eventually your reach drops too.
I’m not even going to mention how much time goes into playing the follow unfollow game
- time that you could be spending on learning about your audience and improving your content.
And if you overdo it and follow too many people per day or unfollow too many, you can be flagged
by Instagram for suspicious activities and banned from following or unfollowing for a
day or two.
I hope you know that it’s really not good for your account and if you get a strike like
that a few times, you can get temporarily or permanently banned.
Just a word of warning.
Tactic #4: DMing to get engagement
Another tactic to boost your visibility is sending posts to random people asking them
to like, share or comment.
Same goes for commenting on other peoples posts saying oh, I love this post, it’s
so good, I’d appreciate if you checked my account out.
This is not how engagement works!
Just like with the previous points, sliding into someone’s DMs to ask for them to interact
with their posts will only get people to do them a favor of sorts.
They may show their support in that moment but if that engagement didn’t come naturally
to them, chances are without another DM, they’re not going to keep it up.
The Instagram algorithm recognizes engagement and shows your content to people who interact
with you more more regularly.
If this interaction doesn’t happen more, it’s going to mean that the content may
not be as good because hey, they didn’t engage again so it must not be, right?
I always relate the social media world to how the real world operates because it should
be based on the same principles.
Just as you wouldn’t come up to random people in a shop asking to like and comment on your
post, you shouldn’t do that on IG.
By all means, slide into your best friend’s DM if you feel like it and say you’ve just
posted, because they care about you and will gladly support you.
I’m sure they would’ve done it without you even asking.
But don’t think that asking that girl that took maths with you one year in high school
is going to get you anywhere.
Tactic #5: DMing to get business
Staying on the subject of DMs, here’s one of my biggest pet peeves on IG.
Cold DMs that seem very friendly, offering to genuinely connect as a fellow creator,
only to start pitching you something in the next few sentences.
This is not a way to grow on IG, let alone do business.
Cold-calling may have a place and time, but this ain’t it.
Side note, I’ve always hated doing cold outreach with my whole heart, even when I
worked in sales and it was a big part of my duties.
Maybe that’s why I gravitate towards building a community and creating value much more because
that’s how you get warm leads.
Anyways, you may not agree with me on this, but approaching people in this covert way
pretending to want to make a connection is again a lousy way to treat people.
Even if we’re talking about strictly business connections, imagine if you met someone at
a networking event and they introduce themselves, tell you how interested they are in you and
then literally try to sell you something on the spot.
Not a person I’d like to do business with or refer others to use their products or services.
That may just be my opinion so tell me if you’re feeling otherwise and if you’ve
ever received a DM like that!
Tactic #6: Hijacking traffic with comments
There’s another tactic I feel kind of iffy about and that’s commenting on other people’s
comments under another creator’s post.
I hope you get me here.
For me, this is treading a very thin line, because it’s amazing when it’s contributing
to the conversation in a genuine way, but if it’s a way to divert eyes onto yourself
then it’s so shady.
This is another tactic I’ve heard many times and some of these experts were even shameless
enough to say “Steal some traffic for yourself”.
Thin thin line.
That’s the dark side of giving engagement that I frankly disagree with on Instagram,
and again, I’m sure there’s going to be people that don’t agree with me here.
Personally for me, someone who always prioritizes real connections over traffic and traction,
it just doesn’t sit right with me.
I’ve seen really fantastic conversations under big creators posts started by a few
different people from the same niche and they always led to some great insights.
But when someone tries to hijack traffic this way, it’s always so transparent and obvious
both to the person whose comment they’re replying to and other people who are just
looking.
Why I think it’s bad?
Because it’s sliiiightly shady and can really reflect poorly on how your brand is perceived.
Again, this one is a very thin line because some people will not care or not even notice,
but for some, it may put them off your brand completely.
I’ve had many conversations about his sort of thing and Opinions are divided, but I’m
going to stand my ground here.
If you deploy comments to hijack someone else’s traffic, it’s just tacky.
If you use that same power to create meaningful conversations, you’re contributing to the
community which can bring you better results in the long run.
Let me know what you think about it, I’m verrry very curious to learn your opinion
here!
Now if you’ve ever used any of those tactics to grow, I want you to know that there are
much better ways to do it.
I’ve recently shared a video about gaining followers organically using up-to-date tactics
so definitely watch it now.
I’m confident that if you apply those tips consistently, you’re going to get real results!
I’m so happy you’ve stayed with me till the very end so thank you very much!
Its definitely hard to expose those popular but very shady tactics so give this video
a thumbs up if you’ve enjoyed it.
I’ll know it’s worth creating videos like this!
Have a fabulous day and I’ll see you next time.