Douglas FloresInstagram has dominated the market for several years, and its influence has been tremendous.
While it never had as many users as Facebook, the photo-sharing app Instagram was so successful that Facebook bought it for $1 billion in 2012.
After launching in 2010, it quickly attracted a user base of one million within two months. By June of 2018, it has surpassed the monumental milestone of 1 billion monthly active users.
The emergence of influencers may be directly attributed to the popularity of this video and image-sharing social media network, which ranks as the fourth most downloaded mobile app of the decade.
In large part because of the aforementioned influencers, it was cutting edge advertising. That’s why so many businesses have made Instagram their primary advertising platform.
While these numbers may look fantastic on the surface, Instagram has actually been losing popularity as of 2019.
It’s possible that the rise of TikTok and general weariness with influencer marketing and advertising are to blame for the platform’s declining popularity.
Key Distinction Between Exposure and Participation
Reach and engagement will be topics of discussion throughout today. To draw any firm conclusions on Instagram’s popularity in 2021 and beyond, it is vital to comprehend and examine them.
But first, we’d want to explain the distinction between audience size and participation, as many readers may be confused.
There is a huge discrepancy between exposure and participation.
To grasp the distinction requires little mental effort.
The word “Reach” comes from the concept of how many people see your Instagram post.
Here, then, is every single one of the people who have ever seen your videos. While seeking to expand one’s fan base, this is an area to focus on.
The importance of organic reach will be discussed in further depth below.
To simplify things, let’s assume that each time a user interacts with you or your content in any way—through like, sharing, commenting, or sharing—we’re talking about engagement.
It’s obvious that reach and engagement are two different things, and that increasing the former does not always boost the latter.
That’s why it’s important to focus on developing both simultaneously.
Insta-fame
Having learned the distinction between reach and engagement, you should also be familiar with the concept of organic reach.
Paid marketing and other methods of expanding visibility do not lead to an increase in organic reach. It’s made in a completely “natural” way. This indicates that your material wasn’t discovered through targeted advertising.
For what reason is organic reach decreasing?
Instagram is destroying organic exposure, which is no secret. Instagram is experiencing the same problems that plagued Facebook.
Facebook’s organic reach has declined steadily from 16% in 2012 to 2.27% in 2015.
Why? Because Facebook and Instagram don’t want you to grow and engage your audience naturally.
As an alternative, they will ask for money from you in exchange for this service.
To grow an audience and fan base on their platforms, you must pay for advertising with them, which means THEY ARE KILLING ORGANIC REACH.
Are Instagram likes up for sale?
This question has a straightforward answer: certainly, you can.
So don’t believe this is a magic bullet for the algorithm modifications that have left you with a low reach and few likes.
You won’t gain in the slightest from the various sites that offer you the chance to purchase followers, likes, and anything else that will effect your reach and engagement.
We are not implying that any of these resources are not trustworthy. You’ll get your money’s worth from the vast majority of them, but that’s not the objective. You already know that the like count means nothing to you since Instagram has made it invisible.
The fact that users will soon have the opportunity to view the amount of likes received is irrelevant to you, though.
Everyone has entertained the concept of trying to amass tens of thousands of followers overnight at some point.
There’s no simple option out here, though.
If you do this, your credibility will be at risk, your performance indicators will lose their validity, and you won’t be any closer to achieving your goals of increased reach and participation.
Worst worse, it’s possible that your account will be removed entirely. Instagram is always updating its policies in an effort to detect and delete inauthentic accounts and their associated phoney likes, followers, and comments.
Trying to cut corners might cause you to lose all you’ve worked for.