Some years ago I created an Instagram account to supplement my lifestyle blog. It was meant to be a place to share photos and tidbits from my blog posts alongside attracting new readers.
However, I quickly became focused on hashtags and the number of likes and followers. Overall, I spent more time consuming other peoples stuff than creating my own. I never truly considered how my time spent on Instagram was translating to blog readers.
The truth is, there was little benefit. Sure, I got some additional blog views from from Instagram but that didn’t compare to what I was already getting. The time spent scrolling, liking and commenting was fun but it had no relevance to the reason I joined the app.
In hindsight, I’d have been better off reassessing how I showed up on the platform or just not bothering at all.
The point of all this is to remember that more often than not, Instagram is a means to an end, not the end itself. The point of Instagram is to direct people to the actual work. Followers, likes, views and comments are nice to have but of little value if they don’t translate to something else. When I had a lifestyle blog it was always just a hobby (that came with occasional perks) but that was my work, the thing I wanted to lead people to.
For many others, the end is a podcast, an event, an eCommerce website, a YouTube video, a closed online community or a newsletter. Those are the things worth the time and effort. There’s no point having a great Instagram account if your website is difficult to navigate, you haven’t posted on YouTube in months or your event gets consistent negative feedback.
Despite all this, the way content is currently created means that for many every platform is a potential end. Instead of it working like a flow diagram where the user/viewer/customer is directed from one thing to the desired end, it’s now more of a spider diagram where you start in the middle and every direction leads to an end.
This can be seen if you follow a person on multiple platforms, you can easily end up seeing the same thing in different formats. For example, the makeup look and link to the products can be found on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The platform you’re using doesn’t matter as much because you’ll still end up at the same end point.
To conclude, on Instagram or any platform I think it’s important to ask yourself, what’s the point?Why are you using it and what do you get from it? If you don’t know why you’re using it and you’re not getting much from it, maybe you’re better off deleting your account and spending time elsewhere.
The Daily Gemm 