Ah, the great social media blackout of 2021 is over! This time anyway! With Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp all down at once, many of us enjoyed the unexpected forced social media break. Lots of us relaxed while others got a grand bit of work done without any distractions. It’s times like this where I’m glad I still have the blog and YouTube channels going. In this post, I want to chat through some of the reasons why you shouldn’t rely on just Instagram if you’re a content creator.
Let me preface this by saying I really enjoy using Instagram. We’ve had our ups and downs over the years, but I’ve finally found a way of using it that I enjoy, where it’s not just about business and where I’ve set some boundaries for myself that have really worked. But that’s another day’s post!
If you want to know why you shouldn’t rely on just Instagram, and should set up a blog, YouTube channel, please keep reading!
Your content is searchable.
On Instagram, you can spend hours creating posts, captions, photos, videos, and none of them are searchable on Google. So if someone is googling a topic that you’ve done an Instagram post on, it won’t show up. By setting up a blog or a website, you can use the captions that you already have, use the photos that you’ve already taken and the videos you’ve already filmed. These can all be searchable and be valuable for your audience.
Your content will live longer.
I know that sounds a bit weird, but hear me out. Instagram stories last for 24 hours, unless you put them in a highlight. The Instagram algorithm shows grid posts up to 2 days old when someone is scrolling through their feed. Anything older, and the person will have to actively go onto your grid and search out posts. The odds of them doing that is pretty small. One of my most popular blog posts, even now, is from 2014 and my most popular YouTube video is from 2019. As I have an Adsense account, these are making me money without having to do anything. (For full transparency, the amount is small, but it’s building up!)
You won’t have to worry about Instagram acting the bollix.
I was chatting to a few of my fellow content creators on Instagram yesterday, pre blackout. And it’s coming to that time of the year where lots of us have work happening with Christmas and Black Friday campaigns. Last year, I had similar chats with many of my pals and a lot of us found that Instagram seems to limit those who our sponsored content is served to. We had the stats to show it and it wasn’t that people had seen the first one or two stories and then tapped out. They weren’t shown it at all. The numbers before and after sponsored stories were significantly higher than the paid posts.
It can be frustrating, but my opinion is that Instagram wants us to pay for our paid content to be seen. Facebook reduced organic reach significantly a few years ago and Instagram seems to be heading that way. But sure listen. That’s why it’s important to have multiple streams of revenue gals and to not focus on just one platform.
It can save you time.
If you’re an active content creator on Instagram, you might find yourself asked the same questions all the time. A lot of your followers can miss your stories or don’t look for grid posts and as your content isn’t searchable, the only thing they can do to find the answer to a question, is to ask you. So by writing a blog post or even filming a YouTube video on the topic you’re asked about, it saves you time from having to repeat yourself.
Your post can also go into a lot more detail than you might have time for in your DMs on the topic. You can share your blog posts on your stories, in your Instagram bio and get your audience used to the fact that you’re actively writing on topics they want to know about. You can even do a Q&A on Instagram stories and ask people what they want to know more about. No more worrying about content ideas!
You won’t have your eggs in one basket.
Last night was case in point! If you’re someone who relies only on Instagram for income, it being down is never a good thing. While it was short lived, we aren’t in control as to when it will happen again. The same goes for if your Instagram account is hacked. If that’s your only place where you’re producing content, I really do think it’s smart to add something else to the mix.
You don’t have to worry about an algorithm!
Ah, the infamous Instagram algorithm, forever tormenting content creators! In a nutshell, the algorithm shows people content that they think they want to see, based on previous interaction and engagement. It’s why you might miss a lot of people’s posts and stories, especially if you haven’t interacted with them in a while. This is my main reason for why you shouldn’t rely on just Instagram as they’re in control of what’s being seen, not you.
A few times this year, I noticed that Instagram was showing me the stories of people I’d never engaged with before, ever! And I’d have to go searching manually for my friends on there. You can read more about the Instagram algorithm in this post by Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram. He’s a great one to follow on Instagram and regularly does updates on what’s going on.
In conclusion!
People might tell you that nobody reads blog posts anymore, but my analytics show otherwise. Most of my blog traffic comes from organic search traffic, followed by social media. And with that, it’s broken down by Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
If you’re writing content that people want to read, you’re good to go. By adding SEO into the mix, with key phrases in the text that people can find by searching, by naming your photos so that they’ll be found in search, adding searchable key phrases into your YouTube caption, people will find you when searching for the answer to their question.
Think about the amount of times you’ve had to google how to do something, or needed to find out details about a skincare ingredient. When was the last time you had to search on YouTube for how to do something? This is where the magic happens. By creating searchable, valuable content, that will be there long after the 48 hours, it can only benefit you and the audience. At this very second, someone is reading a post of mine from 2013!
There’s definitely more effort needed to blog or create YouTube videos, especially when setting them both up (I’m currently setting up a second website and the struggle is real!), but it’s worth the effort for many reasons. There are tonnes of resources online to explain how to set up a blog and a quick google will help you!
If blogs or YouTube aren’t your thing, you could consider setting up a newsletter where you could send out weekly or fortnightly mails featuring content from your Instagram. There are so many ways we can still use Instagram, but not rely on it solely for what we do. If this post explaining why you shouldn’t rely on just Instagram inspired you to expand what you do, let me know!
I wrote this post on my blogging and YouTube equipment back in 2019. If you’d like an updated version (I’m always investing!) let me know!
