How to Succeed On Instagram
And other social headlines that surfaced over the 2020 holidays
[Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash]
Here’s Exactly What It Takes to Succeed On Instagram
For years, Instagram encouraged creators to bring their authentic selves to the platform. That was before TikTok threatened to steal the spotlight. Now the Instagram partnerships team has laid out a specific roadmap for its creators to follow that focuses on using all the app features but Reels most of all.
(If you follow me on Twitter you might have read all about this already...)
Rachel Reichenback of Rainy Lune was the first to speak out about this — in general creators seem to be keeping quiet because no one wants to piss off Instagram, especially if their success hinges on access to the community they’ve grown on the platform.
Based on Rachel’s article (which she says has been read by over 140K people in the last week) and other creators I’ve talked to recently, the recommendation that several of them received over the past couple of months to get the full benefit of Instagram is to produce the following content on a weekly basis:
8-10 Stories per week (consider Stories as a funnel for the rest of your content, the more followers engage with your Stories through polls, stickers, questions, etc. the more likely your content will get surfaced in their feed)
4-7 Reels per week (30-second Reels should be created natively in the app and not recycled from TikTok)
3 Feed posts per week (preferably carousels which increases the time followers spend interacting with your content)
1-3 IGTV videos per week (at least 2 minutes each)
1 Live session per week (an hour is ideal)
*Ecommerce brands are also being encouraged to launch IG storefronts for shoppable posts.
Reactions to this laundry list of content have been mixed. For some creators, there’s relief at finally having a roadmap for success even if it is overwhelming. “As a creator, you should want to post — creating is what makes you better.”
One creator described Instagram as a jealous partner, one who demands all your attention so you don’t have time for anyone else (cough, TikTok, cough).
And some people have gotten angry at Rachel for sharing Instagram’s list of demands, even though she clearly didn’t endorse the list. In her own words:
“Please do not feel pressured like “oh god now i gotta come up with 7 reels a week just to get views on all my other posts otherwise i am subjected to instagram corporal punishment :(“ because seriously, the amount they want from people is inhumane. Take care of your own mental health and sanity first.”
There’s more to come on Instagram’s content recommendations and I’ll update this as needed. But for now, creators need to figure out how Instagram’s demands fit within their content plans and whether there’s an acceptable return on investment to devoting so much time and energy to just one platform.
Other Content That May Have Trended Because We Were All Cooped Up and Spending Way Too Much Time Online:
Hilaria Baldwin’s (Maybe) Fake Accent got called out in a now deleted Twitter thread. The anonymous Twitter user pointed out that Alec Baldwin’s wife, Hilaria Baldwin, may have faked her Spanish heritage and her accent. People rightfully pointed out this “harmful immigrant cosplay” ignores the real struggles of people who are penalized for their accents. Amy Schumer also got into it with a now deleted Instagram post. And the whole affair got exhaustively dissected because screenshots live forever.
Presenting the UK’s Top YouTuber: A fitness guru known as The Body Coach was crowned UK’s top trending YouTuber of 2020. This is worth pointing out because according to the Daily Mail, a whopping 72% of British people used Joe Wicks’s videos during lockdown. If this is the first you’ve heard of him, here’s some background on how he built his mainstream brand over the past 10 years.
Streaming Remakes FTW: 2020 will go down as the year classic movies got creatively re-imagined through apps such as Zoom, TikTok and Clubhouse, including Ratatouille the TikTok Musical, a TikTok trend that’s being reimagined as a one-night-only Jan. 1st virtual benefit performance; Black creators delivered an audio-only performance of the Lion King on Clubhouse; and we got virtual table reads for everything from Elf and The Goonies to Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
“Post a Picture of” trended on Instagram as influencers took requests from their community. The specificity of the requests had some wondering if creators were actually submitting the requests themselves and Billie Eilish might have lost 100K followers for posting artsy breast drawings (which seems extremely random).
COVID has birthed a new kind of TikTok music star with over 70 artists signed by labels after going viral on the platform. Variety put together a look at some of the stars who might soon qualify for Grammys best new artist who will literally be overnight sensations you’ve never heard of.
