“Don’t show nipples!!!”
“Post and then immediately close Instagram for an hour for the best results”
“Post right before user activity peaks”
“Don’t post anything too political or you might get reported”
“Use long captions”
“Use short captions”
“Put hashtags in the first comment”
“Boost at least one post a week”
“Follow/unfollow 50-100 accounts daily for more followers”

It feels like I’ve heard and seen it all at this point! With all the rules and regulations of Instagram’s Algorithm, its hard to get good organic results without some hard work put into your posts.

Here is what Instagram recommends for accounts to post weekly:

  • 3 in feed posts per week (this includes static, carousels, reels, and IGTV)
  • 8-10 stories per week (averaging 2 per day)
  • 4-7 reels per week
  • 1-3 IGTV per week

Then of course you have to engage, manually post reels and stories since these types of content can’t be scheduled, and take the time to create all of that content, all while managing your business and handling the millions of other things you most assuredly have going on.

So is it worth it to put the time and effort into your Instagram account?

In my opinion: yes, it’s worth it.

As of now I’ve gotten very few clients from organic Facebook marketing. Everyone else has found me through referrals, networking, or on Instagram.

With all of its challenges, rules, and suspicious “shadow banning,” Instagram has some really good features that can give you great results if you take the time.

The newest shopping feature is amazing for product-based businesses, where users can tap a picture to purchase a product, or browse products in the new “Shop” page (much like the Discovery/Explore page). And Reels are becoming the new TikTok (in-app of course) with reels getting substantially more reach than any other kind of organic post that users currently have.

Links in bios are still extremely useful tools to get users into a funnel, or at least check out more about your business, and many businesses are thriving when it comes to getting new clients and making new connections on the platform. Instagram generally has four times the engagement that Facebook has, and you can expect to get more post likes on average with an Instagram post when compared to a Facebook post. Also, 40% of Facebook users actually don’t like engaging with companies, and prefer to connect with friends and family, while Instagram users branch out and discover more of a variety of accounts. Around 68% of Instagram users regularly interact with brands.

As of right now I don’t think Instagram has reached the point of Facebook just yet. In the US Facebook has the lowest engagement rates and almost half of its users have taken a break in the past couple of years. Instagram is still being actively used by 25 million businesses and is thriving when it comes to engagement and results.

My suggestion would be, if Instagram is getting overwhelming for you, it might be time to get some help creating content and managing your page. Absolutely no one should be expected to do it all alone when it comes to having a thriving and consistent Instagram business page!

If you would like some help in this area, contact me today and let’s talk strategy!