Is it time to leave Instagram?

I’m going to drop some thoughts that may be controversial. You ready?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I’m considering breaking up with Instagram. #thehorror

Let me walk you through our relationship.

When I first started my business, Instagram was the platform to be on - in general, but also for my target audience. All the experts encouraged IG, and there was an explosion of growth in IG schedulers. So from the looks of things, it seemed to be a smart marketing choice.

Around January, it still seemed good. Hashtag strategy was newer, and showing results for a lot of people. Covid hit, but that didn’t seem to be an issue…

…and then around April, I saw a HUGE hit in my analytics. My reach started tanking. Hashtags did nothing. I wasn’t the only one. It seemed like a ton of people were talking about the same issues. I’d heard the algorithm was updated, so I tried to wait it out. Only, it continued to get worse.

Over the past few months, I’ve tried all the things. New hashtags and hashtag strategies. Stories every day. Cleaning out the bots and dudes looking for a hookup from my followers - I went from 700 followers to 465. Results: no change. Reach is still ~40%, hashtags are hit or miss, mostly miss.

Six weeks ago, I started revising my #socialstrategy. I still post on IG, but started moving more focus to my FB Group and my email list. Two reasons for this: I wanted more actual community and I wanted more “ownership” and implied control that I get from each of these.

During this time, I’ve also been noticing how many of my biz friends are tired of IG. It’s a high pressure model, imo. You’re exposed to almost constant #impostersyndrome and #comparisonitis. And yet, the reward isn’t really there.

All of this to say, I’m seriously considering a more drastic strategy change to how I’m using social to market.

If you’d asked me back in May, if I though Facebook was a good bet for Q4, I would’ve said no. I suspect people (in the US) are going to get even more sick of social media the closer we get to the election. However, looking at the growth of Facebook Groups, I think there’s a good chance that entrepreneurs may get more selective about how they use FB vs cutting it altogether.

What do you think? Are you still feeling the ‘gram? Or are you thinking about taking a break?