Instagram denies that it’s limiting post reach to your followers
Jan 24, 2019
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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As so often happens on social media these days, especially when it comes to audience reach, various claims have been popping up recently with regard to Instagram. Specifically that it limits the reach of your posts to only around 7% of your followers.
It’s been circulating for a few months, and Instagram finally got sick of these accusations and has responded with a denial of the claims. They say that they’re not hiding anything and that if people scroll down their feeds far enough, your images will appear.
The accusations have been coming for quite a while now, and in multiple languages. Posts are still coming even as recently as a few hours ago.
The one above reads…
Instagram has limited our posts to only 7% of our community.
Sad but true, especially for small businesses. If you see this photo simply click on Like and comment: YES
That way we will go up in the ranking and Instagram will begin to show the content to our friends.Thank you
In response, Instagram took to Twitter and not their own platform to respond…
We’ve noticed an uptick in posts about Instagram limiting the reach of your photos to 7% of your followers, and would love to clear this up.
— Instagram (@instagram) January 22, 2019
What shows up first in your feed is determined by what posts and accounts you engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often you use Instagram, how many people you follow, etc.
— Instagram (@instagram) January 22, 2019
We have not made any recent changes to feed ranking, and we never hide posts from people you're following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.✌️
— Instagram (@instagram) January 22, 2019
So, in short, Instagram is essentially saying that your photos suck, your account sucks, your engagement sucks, and we’re showing your photos, but they’re so far down the list that most people will never see them. But they’re laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of your followers for this, and not their algorithm. In fact, they categorically deny that the algorithm has changed recently.
Your followers simply aren’t engaging with you already, so you’re a low priority on their feed.
How does this make any sense? If they’re never seeing your posts, how can they engage with them in order to raise your profile’s position in your followers’ feeds? The only way they’re going to increase engagement is if they’re specifically going to your profile to look at your posts. Then, maybe, you’ll start showing up higher in their regular feed.
How, exactly, you’re supposed to tell them to engage with your content when they never actually see your content (and won’t see your message asking people to engage with it) is something Instagram doesn’t seem to have actually commented on yet.
How’s your Instagram reach these days? Is it climbing up or falling down?
[via Engadget]
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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11 responses to “Instagram denies that it’s limiting post reach to your followers”
Exactly what I’ve been saying about all that crap of changing the chronological order of posts and adding some stupid recipe to prioritize some photos and let down some others. If my posts is going down the lane how people would be engaged in it already? And if this is not limiting the audience reach by whatever percentage, then what is it called???? ——–> You got it: Stupidity.
*claps hands* bravo Instagram, you’re at it. Keep being stupid.
Mine has decreased.
Solution. Don’t follow so many people on Instagram.
Except, that’s not a solution for those posting content. You have no control over how many people your followers follow. :)
Up, actually.
Or Instagram could just let content flow chronologically…
Mines down as well
Down down down, Hardly worth posting anymore. Seriously considering closing the account.
I’ve closed both of my Instagram accounts. No growth, no exposure. Just wasn’t worth it anymore.
My numbers: I have 1300 followers. I use 30 hashtags on each post. 8 hours after posting my reach is a paltry 90 people. I did better when I had 140 followers and posts were chronological. It’s a total pay to promote platform since Facebook acquired them. Break up Facebook which also owns WhatsAPP and half the world now.
My numbers have been falling. I had 11,000+ followers however that has started to decline after they made the changes they claim they didn’t make. I average about 30-40 likes for each photo. I used to post daily but it was all in vain and I have since quit Instagram. I had another account with about 2k followers and I would average about 10-20 likes on each post. Growth is nonexistent and I have shutdown that account as well. Switched to PhotoBlog instead and I’m much happier now.