I usually get on Instagram for a break in the day. See some of the latest pics from friends and other people I follow. Yesterday was a bit different. There were ton’s of people posting “Turn on notifications.” in their streams. Granted I didn’t see any big brands, kudos to you for not panicking!
First, If you post this, very few people are actually going to do this. Remember when Facebook did the same thing and everyone said to Turn on Notifications for pages? How many of us actually did this? I will admit I tried it a page I liked to see how it would go and every 5 minutes I was getting notifications for posts. This page was very post heavy.
On my Instagram I have notifications turned off. You may ask why? I have a client that has a substantial following and when we post a picture it’s like notification after notification after notification. So don’t ask your followers to turn on notifications on your posts. I know it sucks, especially if you’re a small brand wanting to be seen. Instagram was one of the last true unfiltered feeds in social media.
How do you combat this? First pick great pictures to use for your Instagram when possible. I hear many out there who say you’re not a photographer or know your way around a camera. I have found people can take amazing pictures and don’t realize it. It takes a bit of cropping and maybe a filter. And you will have something awesome.
Use hashtags for your pictures. I constantly forget this on the go. I know I”m a bad social media person. But find a good hashtag for your picture and tag it. Others will find it. But don’t overload it with 10+ hashtags. Pick 2-3 really good ones not one like this: #luck #blessed #nofilter #amazing #bestpictureever #sunday #brunch #friends #family #atlanta #food #stupendous #awesome #waffle #bestdressed. If you couldn’t tell this was a brunch post. instead do #brunch #family #waffle. Because you know food is what Instagram is all about right?
So just keep doing what you are doing and don’t panic. After a week or so we will see how Facebook is going to use the curated feed and we can react accordingly.
