Hello, hello guys.
Welcome back to my channel and thank you so much for tuning in.
My name is Ortal Levitan, aka the Workout Unicorn on all social media platforms.
In today's video, I'm going to cover the decrease that you've noticed in in-app engagement in
2019.
That means likes and comments and visibility and impressions and all of that, and also
a couple ways that you can combat it.
Obviously, we all want to beat this.
So before we get started, if you could do me a huge favor, give this video a thumbs
up and hit that subscribe button.
It really, really helps me out with YouTube's algorithm so that I can keep creating content
for you guys.
Okay, so, let's dive in, guys.
I'm sure you have all noticed a decrease since the beginning of 2019 in likes, engagement,
comments, visibility, that means impressions, reach, et cetera.
Basically, tons of people have been freaking out and they're like, "Oh my gosh.
Am I shadow banned?"
You're probably not.
In case you're wondering, I did create another video talking all about this, so check out
my videos.
Chances are you're not shadow banned.
This is something totally normal.
This has happened to everybody in the app, large and small accounts alike, so you are
not alone.
This doesn't mean that you're necessarily doing something wrong, but in the past, if
you used certain hashtags or whatever strategy you have for Instagram would generate X amount
of likes and now you can basically cut that by half or even more, and tons of people are
freaking out.
They're wondering what the heck should they do.
So, first of all, like I said, this is entirely normal.
Everybody's experiencing it.
This is not something you need to freak out about.
Now, being an influencer, being someone that has their entire business on this app and
on social media, and that's how you guys generate most of your money, I could understand why
this could be a point of frustration.
Obviously, brands, when they work with you, they look at your likes, they look at your
engagement, and you want to make sure that it's as high as possible, because obviously,
you can ask for more money, you can get better collaborations that way, and so on and so
forth.
Some people have even been claiming that they're losing followers, that certain followers has
unfollowed them, which thankfully, I have not experienced that, but that could also
be the case, or that there's a decrease in the number of people that normally follow
them, so if they would gain 10 new followers a day, now they're gaining one, something
like that.
So again, all of this is totally normal.
But, what can we do to actually beat it?
You can use the other features in Instagram.
In the Instagram Google course, I actually go over how to build a successful Instagram
strategy, and so that involves a bunch of different things.
But, in addition to using hashtags correctly, knowing how to post the right captions, when
to post, and obviously finding your ideal follower on Instagram and attracting them
to your page, there's another part of this formula, which basically means you have to
know how to use all the other features on Instagram's app.
Yes, Instagram is pictures and captions, but it goes beyond that.
It has Instastories and Instalives and IGTV.
Instastories itself is a great, great tool to get more visibility.
In the Instagram Google course, I cover this more in-depth, but basically, for Instastories,
you need to know how to upload the right stories.
So make your audience engaged with your page.
Make sure that your stories are not just a boring, promotional feed of what you ate every
single day, because nobody cares.
Nobody cares what you ate unless your page is a food blog or you're a foodie or something
like that.
But if you're into the fitness industry, nobody really cares about what you ate.
People want to see your workouts.
People want to see what you did throughout the day, like you live at the gym?
Probably not.
So what do you do in addition to the gym?
Talk to that.
Make sure that they see your face on Instastories.
These are all elements that can really, really help combat the decrease of in-app activity,
which is essentially the likes and comments, and can help get more people to your page,
which would otherwise not have found your page, or to get your audience more engaged
with your existing content.
So that's Instastories.
IGTV.
IGTV is basically a great, great tool that nobody seems to be using.
I can understand why, but I really like IGTV.
It's a great place where you can talk to your audience and do something that we call mini
education.
If your page has any education or any knowledge that you can share with others, IGTV is a
great place to do that.
If you're a foodie, this could be a place where you share recipes.
If you're in the fitness industry, you share workouts.
You can share what you eat in a day.
Essentially, think of it like YouTube but inside Instagram.
Using this feature of Instagram is really important, because it's going to get more
people from within the app from just watching your IGTV, hopping back onto your page, seeing
what other content you can share with them that they might be interested in, captions,
stories, et cetera.
Instalive is also another great way.
The way I look at Instalive is essentially if your stories are too long, hop and a live.
If you're talking about something on your stories and it's more than three to five frames,
hop on live and do a live with your audience.
This is another feature where people can see you unedited, raw, and they feel more connected
to you because you can't edit lives.
You're talking, there's the mannerism, you make mistakes, you start laughing in the middle.
These are all things that people see in live, where in IGTV or in Instastories, you can
kind of edit that out.
The live gives them a more of a personal connection with you where they're like, "Oh, so this
is what this person's actually like?"
Basically, what you want to make sure to do is even though you're noticing a decrease
in likes and engagement, there are ways to kind of combat that and get your likes and
engagement back up to what they were before 2019.
Use the other features in the app and make sure that you're targeting your ideal audience
at all times.
And so whatever you create, whenever you go on lives or Insastories or IGTV, make sure
you're speaking to your ideal audience member and that you're connecting with them, so that
when they see this, even if they are not currently following you're or they haven't even ever
heard of you, but they happen to pop across your live on the explore feed or your IGTV
on the explore feed, they're like, "Oh my goodness.
This person knows what they're talking about and they're exactly in the field that I'm
interested in.
Let me hop over to their page and see what else I can learn from that," and then they're
more likely to follow you.
And then once they follow you, they start watching your stories, they start engaging
with your content, which then gets your in-app engagement up.
Now this is also really beneficial for your ranking in the algorithm.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out my other video, the Instagram Algorithm
Explained.
You'll understand why when people engage with your content, it makes a huge, huge difference
for how many other new accounts see you and where you're ranked in the algorithm, whether
your posts are popped up to the very top of the feed or whether they just kind of disappear
and fall [inaudible 00:06:27].
So I hope this video makes sense, and I hope it helped calm you guys down a little bit,
because I know it's never fun to see a decrease in engagement and in likes, but it's totally
normal.
Yes, there are ways to beat it like we just talked about, but I really wouldn't freak
out about it too much, guys.
Everybody's experiencing it, and brands are just going to have to start getting used to
the lower engagement percentage.
If you guys have any questions, make sure to drop it in the comments below or shoot
me a message at workout_unicorn.
I always answer my DMs.
If there's any topic that you would like me to cover, again, send me a message.
I love creating content for you guys.
Thank you so much again for tuning in, and I will see you all next week.