I think it goes without saying that Instagram has affected a lot of us lately.
I keep seeing such a drop in the number of likes I receive on even my most high-quality photos!
Why does this drop in likes keep happening and what can we all try to do to fix it?
I’ve done some research and talked with other Instagram gurus to discover the top 6 reasons why you’re getting fewer likes on Instagram in 2019.
Keep reading as I outline the top 6 reasons why you’re getting fewer likes on Instagram and the steps you can take right now to combat this issue for the sake of your brand and business.
1. You Aren’t Utilizing the Right Hashtags
If you have a smaller Instagram following, then you need to scout out the right hashtags to make your posts appear on the hashtag page. For example: stop overusing simple hashtags like “#blogger” because that phrase has been plastered across millions of pictures already!
I have personally become stricter with my hashtags. After all, there are over 1 billion active users on Instagram right now. You don’t necessarily need to reach out to a huge crowd — in fact, honing in on creating your own small “crowd” can be beneficial to growing your Instagram and spreading the word about your brand.
The ones I use have less than 100K tags because I want to give more accounts the ability to see my work instead of having the photo get lost next to millions of other photos. More accounts are likely to see my photos if I use less popular hashtags. I also tend to stick to niche specific hashtags (such as #floridablogger | #tampablogger | #affordablefashionblogger) to increase exposure to more likes as soon as I hit publish on a new Instagram photo.
Get creative with the hashtags you include in your caption, too.
I try to search for hashtags that help describe my photo to get even more traction. Explore tags that will relate back to your photo and your niche as a blogger.
I am part of the rewardStyle blogger community so one of my favorite hashtags to include in my caption is “#rewardstylebloggers” because it has been used roughly 60K times.
Another tip — for each hashtag that you include in your caption, as soon as you post your picture to your feed, go to the hashtag and start engaging with photos that ALSO have the hashtag. This method has helped me earn a few more likes. Never leave your picture sitting pretty on your feed without making sure all of your hashtags are ready to help you find more authentic followers! The potential to see growth in the number of likes you receive on one single picture increases if you follow the right action steps I listed above.
2. You Aren’t Developing Relationships with Your Followers
To combat the Instagram algorithm, you need to start interacting with your followers even more than ever before. Long gone are the days when you could pick up your phone to check over Instagram for an hour to leave a few likes here and there and believe that would be enough to keep your followers around. Are you looking to improve the quality of your page? Well, then developing “close” relationships with your followers is a no-brainer.
Instagram prioritizes relationships. The app is now designed to show you accounts you interact with the most on a consistent basis.
There is a science behind the algorithm that prioritizes the relationships you hold with the people you follow which in turn impacts the relationships you have with your followers! Not getting the same number of likes you once did? That might be correlated to how often you comment and like on the accounts you follow.
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Instagram is trained to show you the accounts you spend the most time engaging with. If you interact with one specific user, for example, by frequently commenting on his or her posts then Instagram will take notice on this “close” relationship between you two. The close relationship will mean your new posts will appear more frequently on the other person’s feed and vice versa.
Developing a relationship with each unique follower can also feel daunting. Who has time to interact with thousands of people!? To make your life a little easier, it’s a good idea, to begin with responding to each comment that comes in as soon as you post a brand new Instagram photo. Reply back with a GENUINE comment to the user that spent a few extra minutes carefully crafting a nice comment on your pic, too. These back and forth comments with signal the start of a close relationship for the Instagram algorithm. The algorithm will recognize that you two are constantly engaging with each other’s accounts.
3. Your Captions Are Less Than Engaging
Don’t take it too personally if I just called you out because your captions suck — you can always change this! Did I always have perfect captions at the beginning of my Instagram influencer career? Heck, no! I still suck at writing the best, most engaging captions these days, too.
Captions have a special power to spark interest to your followers to give a sh*t about your photo. Captions are one of the most important ingredients to mastering the Instagram recipe to make people follow you in the first place!
THE BEST TYPES OF CAPTIONS FOR INSTAGRAM
GET REAL/SHOW YOUR FULL LIFE
Share some personal stories that happened to you recently. Did you pass a difficult final exam? Are you planning on moving to a new city?
Getting real with people MATTERS for Instagram. Not only do you appear like a real human being with real emotions and life changes, but this allows your followers to open up BACK to you!
Your real follower can immediately relate if he or she also just finished a difficult exam or plans on moving across the country. People are interested in your life, believe it or not. In addition to following you for pretty photos and sponsored content, your followers develop a connection to you. DON’T neglect this!
Your audience will respond to your caption if you get real and expose another side to your life that doesn’t always include picture-perfect curated images of you posing with flowers in front of a Volkswagen.
THOUGHT PROVOKING
Yet another awesome way to provide your followers with something to care about is to include a thought-provoking caption to your photo. Do you have a heavy topic you need to discuss on your platform? Go for it. Are you concerned about the environment? Take a deep breath and carefully plan out a way to show why your followers need to take a stand to care about the state of the environment, too.
People are going to reach out and give you their opinions when you start your caption with a thought-provoking statement. Be bold and be YOU. What is the point of having a “social” media account if you can’t use it to voice your opinions and beliefs?
CALL TO ACTION
Have a new blog post you are dying to share with your followers? Take a second to include a bit about what your followers can read in the blog post in your caption!
Use your photo to encourage your followers to read the blog post by swiping up in your IG stories or by clicking the link in your bio. These are two standard ways to involve a “call to action” type of caption for a photo. You are giving your followers directions to invite people to take an extra step to discover more by swiping up or clicking on a link.
Another approach to a “call to action” caption is to get people involved. Pose a question in your caption like “Do you like to sleep in or do you wake up early?” to start the conversation in the comments section. Ask people questions so they have the opportunity to share their thoughts with you and ultimately give you a boost in likes.
4. You Don’t Post When Your Audience is Looking
Paying attention to your Instagram analytics can help your photo likes SOAR. Check out your insights if you have a business or creator account. The insights tab will break down exactly when a majority of your followers spend time on the app.
The analytics behind Instagram will make sure your posting time includes when your audience is most active on the app. For example, my best posting time is anywhere from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM. I also know what days are best for me (Wednesdays and Thursdays) so I make sure to plan out my best content on those two days for optimal photo performance! I’ve seen an increase in likes by paying attention to the interaction patterns of my followers provided to me by Instagram.
Insights are important to determine WHEN and HOW OFTEN you need to post content to your feed. It would be such a shame to post a high-quality photo (or even a sponsored pic!) to your feed and get less than thrilling results.
Breaking down the exact hours and days that your followers spend time on the app is vital to maximizing reach and engagement.
Trust me, that can feel like such a wasted moment. I’ve had plenty of real-life moments like that when I need to decide if taking down the photo and posting it at a later time would help me out. Take a look over your current insights to come up with a posting schedule to improve your chances of seeing an increase in post likes.
5. You Are Not Thinking About Gaining Long-Term + Loyal Followers
Creating a loyal audience needs to be your top priority as an influencer. Just the other day I read an article about a female influencer who has over 2 million Instagram followers to her name.
She wanted to explore her entrepreneurial side and set up a merchandising business to sell t-shirts. Do you want to know the sad news?
From her millions of Insta followers, she could only sell 36 t-shirts. Her failed t-shirt brand launch proves that no matter how many followers you have if you don’t have a connection to your followers then you have nothing genuine.
Arii has 2.6 million followers but she lacks a genuine connection with the people who stick around. Her attempt at starting a t-shirt line failed because she lacked real engagement with her followers. She also didn’t think long-term with her initial brand launch idea.
Building an audience is ONLY ONE part of the steps that Arii successfully accomplished to grow her social platform, yet she completely disregards interacting with her followers beyond any surface level communication. Yes, she has TONS of likes on her pictures, but if you want to diversify your business (like she planned on doing with her t-shirt line) then you need to consider who your main audience is, too.
6. You Don’t Use Instagram Stories Enough (or at all)
The coolest new feature (in my opinion) available on Instagram is Instagram Stories. Instagram basically hijacked Snapchat and allows users to post boomerangs, pictures, funny gifs, longwinded rants, and feed updates to IG stories in seconds.
Q: What if I am camera shy?
If you are camera shy, you may need to take time warming up to the idea of sharing your day to day life on IG stories. For my account, I like to share my errands throughout the day and any interesting things that may have happened to me with my followers. I treat IG stories like I would call up a close friend and talk about my day with her. Yes, I still delete a bunch of outtakes until I like how I sound and look on an Instagram Story — I am human! —however, I also just let a lot of my personality show for IG stories because I want my audience to get to know the real me!
A: Pretend you are talking on the phone to a friend instead of a camera!
IG stories are also another opportunity to get personal and authentic with your followers.
Put your face in front of the camera = people will relate to you. You don’t have to be “perfect” to gain a loyal tribe of followers!
Sharing in real-time can also benefit your connection with your followers as you explain what your schedule looks like for an afternoon of blog work. I also love to utilize the power of IG stories to show exclusive content that only IG story viewers can have access to. I share behind the scenes video content showing how I capture content for a sponsored post or even share special deals for Target bags that I am crushing on for the month.
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