Yes, I think Instagram has lost it’s Mojo! For me, Instagram has always been my social media crack…pretty pictures, wanderlust inspiration and I find you connect more with the person behind the app but recently I have just found Instagram frustrating and I’ve started to fall out of love with it so I thought I would share my reasons…
Reason 1 / Algorithm Changes
Seriously since the big changes all I’m seeing is porridge with trendy berries, chunky socks and rumpled bedsheets at dinner time and pizza for breakfast…it’s all pretty crap and why do people share rumpled sheets, it’s just all a tad gross! And the worst of it is, I no longer get to see everyones photos…instagram chooses what I want to see and it’s just got ridiculous…little miss or mr popular with 7,000 likes pops up in my feed however close family and friends photos don’t pop up at all…I suppose I could turn on notifications…or instagram could just change their bloody algorithm.
^^What I think of the folks at instagram after the Algorithm change!
Reason 2 / Follow & Unfollow Business
I wrote a big post on the Follow / Unfollow business a while ago as I wanted to see if it really did help to grow a community and if it was worth it overall…yes it boosted my numbers and I found that I got a lot more interaction with the new algorithm changes however once I stopped using it my numbers have plummeted! I get followed a lot on Thursday through to Sunday and then unfollowed from Monday to Wednesday….I love checking out the accounts following me and roll my eyes when I see their numbers as I know what will happen in 3-5 days. My socialblade account is interesting reading from the past few weeks…take a look (I did have a clear out of accounts that were almost mirror images of each other as well so you can see that in my unfollowed column – the third column is my new followers or unfollowers)!
I can see why people are doing this…it’s not just building numbers now, it’s actually helping to get your photo in front of more eyes which is what people want especially if you are working with a brand. Instagram you seriously screwed things up with that algorithm change!
Reason 3 / Instagram copy cats
Ahhh…great photographers have sucummbed to what they think their followers actually want and are no longer posting the great photography that made me fall in love with them in the first place….I get it…I truly do. But I do have to ask the question…if one big instagrammer decided to jump off a tall building, would you fucking do the same?!?! No…be yourself…we all have different strengths and weaknesses…what works for one and has made them extremely successful on the platform is great but do we all need to follow that success story…nope…create your own! You can read my instagram cliche post here which details a few of the more cringeworthy copy cat moments.
Reason 5 / What has happened to the great photography
I saw one of my favourite instagrammers recently say that he was falling out of love with instagram for a variety of reasons but mainly as he’s no longer seeing the interaction due to the changes plus great photography isn’t winning anymore and was thinking of taking a break…strangely, I’ve visited places that he’s featured on his instagram profile as his photography IS THAT GOOD. He’s got a big following however I have to agree with him…there is a lot of piss poor photos on instagram and I’m shocked at the number of likes they’re getting especially when truly fabulous photographers don’t seem to be getting recognised…Instagram is now too tit and arse Kardashian like for me!
I love a good scroll through the likers of these photos to see the quality of them…it makes me laugh…it really does…food for thought there folks…scroll through.
Reason 6 / Accounts aren’t what they seem
I sit here and cringe…I see some rather big accounts and I know how they got big…I’ve watched them follow and unfollow for over a year when they thought nobody could spot their bots working…I know who they are and I think you would be shocked and I do wonder if the people that have gained part of their following via these accounts actually know…ahhh instagram is a dirty dirty world.
All in all, I just think Instagram has lost it’s Mojo completely….they need to do something about this whole bot business as it’s just got out of hand completely.
A few months ago, I started up a second instagram account which is locked and that I share a number of photos, mainly of my double chins with my close family and friends. It’s my little instagram safety net…where I can see photos of the people that are the most important to me rather than letting instagram choose which ones that I should see.
I hate Facebook and unfortunately I can see Instagram going down this ugly route…it’s why I decided to get involved with instagram…it wasn’t Facebook…something that I think they’ve forgotten!
So if you have a bored 12 year old at home on the next set of school holidays…can you please get them to make a new app similar to instagram where you can’t use bots and all photos are in chronological order.
Anyway that is my little instagram ranty moment…off for some more feta!
xx
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