How to make Instagram’s new algorithm irrelevant

Instagram IS changing. No amount of signatures or petitions is going to change that. We may be able to help shape HOW it changes by providing feedback, but that’s not what we are here to talk about today.

Before we get into how to make these changes work for you, let’s take a minute to talk about what all this fuss is about with Instagram changing its algorithm, as far as we understand it…

Old Instagram

New Instagram

Why are things changing?

On Instagram’s post about the upcoming changes, they said the following:
“…People miss on average 70 percent of their feeds. As Instagram has grown, it’s become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means you often don’t see the posts you might care about the most.”

I know I miss a TON of good stuff I’d love to see on Instagram!

But that’s not the only reason things are changing. We saw something similar happen to Facebook Business Pages a few years ago and it took away a TON of free reach with your posts on Facebook. While this new algorithm on Instagram doesn’t look nearly as restrictive as what we saw then, it is the first step towards that. Today, if you want any consistent results with Facebook, you have to pay to promote posts via Facebook Ads. And I’m sure we’ll see something similar come to Instagram pretty soon as well.

Here’s the thing, we all have been loving Instagram for our businesses for so many reasons! We’ve been building our brands, creating relationships, cultivating communities AND booking clients. The SAME thing was happening on Facebook years ago. And we all got fired up when things changed. In fact, we fought the change for as long as we could. Then, while some gave up on Facebook as a business tool, others of us decided to give Facebook Ads a try, and we’ve never looked back!

How to make the algorithm changes irrelevant

It’s super simple. Use Instagram Ads. There has never been a better time to get started either! Here are a few reasons why:

1. Instagram Ads is relatively inexpensive since not many people are using it yet. On average, it costs us $7.50 to get in front of 1,000 people.
2. Since not many people are using it yet, the sooner you get in, the better results you can expect.
3. If you create an ad that encourages engagement, it can help your organic reach a lot!
4. You don’t have to wait for your following to grow organically for your posts to be seen and Instagram Ads WILL help grow your following (and if you use even more strategically, your list)!
5. If you use Instagram Ads, you don’t have to stress about the algorithm changing again. We’ve seen (and our clients have seen) some of the best results EVER in paid advertising by using Instagram ads!
6. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, we have a good idea how this story ends. Organic reach for businesses will eventually be limited, so we can either be early adopters and take advantage of the opportunity, or we can wait and hope for the best. I’m not a big fan of leaving the success of our business up to chance though ????

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’m all for using Instagram organically (the free way) for your business. We do it all the time! We just can’t solely rely on it because it will not stay this way forever.