Instagram is Dead. All Hail TikTok!
Hello,
If you start seeing the same conversations happening in different places, then you have an opportunity to create content around it. This is where this week’s Thursday Brew has come from. Over the past month or so I’ve seen countless questions about why Instagram reach is down and whether energy would be best redirected to TikTok.
For my insta clients, I’ve not seen a drop in reach. I flagged what I thought was an engagement drop with one client only for them to tell me to not be so daft as the data they could see was telling a different story. And besides, sales from organic reach was up and that’s the important thing.
So why are some people seeing a drop in Instagram traction and should we all be building a TikTok strategy?
Instagram is Dead. All Hail TikTok!
Are you still ploughing your social media efforts into Instagram or have you seen the news that organic reach is dead and we should all be getting our TikTok game on?
The general consensus of the online marketing world is that you absolutely need to be using TikTok. The reach is incredible. Videos are what people want right now. And I could go on but I won’t bore you.
I’m at a special age where I can remember when everyone needed to get onto Friendster. Except you needed to know someone on Friendster to send you a special invite. Making you special as well. Sound familiar?
Then we all rushed off to Myspace for our eye-burning HTML profiles before being won over by Facebook. Okay, so Myspace and Friendster are withering in the dustbin of the internet. But the digital landscape has changed in the last 20 years.
We are not dropping our Instagram habits for TikTok but our habits are changing.
We’re still checking our Facebook like a nervous tic, we’re still scrolling and double-tapping Instagram. Some of us are even on Twitter having a heated debate. And while it might seem like the whole world is signed up to TikTok now -1 billion and counting - not everyone is active on there and not everyone is on there.
Does this mean you should drop your Instagram time over to TikTok? You probably want to ask some big questions first.
Look at who is saying this - what are they selling?
Firstly, let’s take a look at the people online declaring Instagram to be dead. They are probably marketing people. In setting a statement out like this, they are positioning themselves as digital experts.
You, the reader, need to know what they know so you can make some decisions in your digital marketing strategy. They’ve probably done some testing, looked at stats and decided that it’s easier to get reach on TikTok than it is on Instagram. They are probably right here and I’ll go into why in a moment.
But they are also selling you something. It might be their expertise so you hire them as a marketing manager or social media manager. They know the platform, they’ve done the work and they’ve got the strategies.
They also might be selling you training on how to use and get the best out of the platform.
Keep this in mind when reading their advice because generic internet advice on anything may not actually apply to you or your business.
Yes, TikTok is getting great reach for some and yes, you can make sales from it but that doesn’t mean you have to or that it’s right for your business.
Early adopters
The marketing people who are shouting that Instagram is dead want you to see them as early adopters. “Early adopter” is a marketing term that means someone who does something first before it becomes mainstream.
Everyone in marketing wants to be seen as an early adopter. So they can predict trends and be bad-ass at what they do. There’s also another benefit of getting on something before everyone else does and that’s establishing yourself on the platform before it gets too hard to be seen.
This is what happened last year with Clubhouse. Everyone wanted the special invite, they wanted to be the first to know and establish themselves on the next big thing so they could build the biggest audience. Be the expert.
Except, when it comes to TikTok, the early adopters were the teenagers using it back in 2018. You see, if you really want to know what platform is going to be the next big thing, start talking to and listening to teenagers and what they are using.
So when you start seeing the same advice repeated online, remember that this is probably someone trying to establish themselves as an expert in their field. It might not be the right advice for your business.
Which leads me nicely onto…
What are they selling?
You should be asking yourself what you are being sold when you’re reading these posts about “you need to have TikTok.” We don’t often do this, we see the same advice being parroted everywhere and then take it on ourselves without questioning if it’s right for us.
It doesn’t need to be TikTok, it could be following the “blog every single week” advice. Or getting up at 5am to be a good leader advice.
Everyone giving out ‘free’ advice has an agenda behind it. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. It only becomes bad when you blindly follow it and wonder why it’s not sustainable or working for your business like it works for theirs.
I’ve definitely done this many times before. At best it’s been a waste of my time, at worst it’s been a waste of investment.
That said, the best investments have been in the people who understand me and my business. And I reckon if you stop and think about it, the same has been true for you.
So before you sack of Instagram for TikTok on the basis of everyone saying you should - ask yourself what’s in it for them and you?
What the platforms are selling
We also need to look at what the platforms are selling. These are big businesses and they don’t exist out of the goodness of their hearts to entertain us.
These platforms make their money from selling ad space to small business owners and selling data that they gather from users. In fact, I’d argue that what they sell is our data first and ad space second. Much like McDonald’s isn’t a burger business, it’s a real estate business.
TikTok is powerful because it doesn’t take long to find out your interests. You don’t even need to watch full videos for it to know where to send you next. The Wall Street Journal did an extensive investigation of this last year which is worth watching.
So for businesses, you get the right videos out there and it can become highly targeted very fast. This is a selling point of the platform to get more people on there, to sell their data and ad space.
For this argument, it makes no sense for Instagram to kill organic reach. If everyone jumps ship to another platform that’s fulfilling this marketing need, they will lose out. Perhaps if you are noticing a drop in organic reach, something else is going on?
Hamster wheel of reach
So is Instagram dead? Is it impossible to get organic reach on there anymore because they want you to pay for ads?
The short answer is no.
You can still get organic reach and engagement on instagram. But the rules have changed. You can’t simply whack out some posts with carefully curated hashtags and expect everyone to swoon over your profile.
In fact, I’d argue that the best reach has always been when you open up conversations with followers. This is true for any platform, at any stage of growth.
Let’s look at Reels. These were brought in to compete with TikTok. You stick up a Reel and your reach will sky rocket. But to what end? Are those people coming to check you out? Are they your fans? Probably not. They just liked that funny video you posted.
The argument is that you get the reach to train the algorithm so they see your sales posts. But what if instead, you spent time building relationships with the right people on the platform? A smaller but more engaged following is far better than going for a large following, a large reach but no one buying.
Earlier this week I read an interview with someone whose Reel went viral. They gained thousands of new followers overnight but felt like they couldn’t keep up with responding to messages and comments. Plus, after a few weeks, it made no difference to sales of her services.
This is not to say going viral won’t make a difference to your sales, it’s simply an illustration that there is more than one way to approach digital marketing. And that we might need to focus our efforts on what matters to us.
How good is your content?
For one of the posts I saw about Instagram being dead this week, I went over and took a look at their profile. I could see right away why they weren’t getting the reach they wanted.
It was nothing to do with the algorithm or buying ad space and everything to do with what they were putting out. And I think this is the most important thing to consider - is your content good enough?
You might not be getting reach because your copy needs a tweak or your images need editing. It’s hard to see this when it’s only you trying your best. Even then, if you’re only pushing content out and not getting involved, then you’re broadcasting at people, not building that connection with them.
Finally, where are your people?
There is an argument that it doesn’t matter where you put your focus for social media because there are enough people on every platform for you to find your target audience. And you can even find your people without using any social media at all.
If you enjoy using Instagram, then you will find traction on Instagram. If you like the ease of TikTok then do that. But don’t jump platforms simply because someone online declared them to be a waste of time.
And remember that reach only has a value if it results in growth. Growth of brand awareness and growth of sales.
How I can help
Having trouble with your organic reach on Instagram (or any other platform)? I can review your platform and give you a lovely list of things to do and strategies to use to help increase reach with the right people.
Book a Content Clinic with me right here.
Right, I’m off to prep all the July content for my clients. Enjoy the rest of your week and I’ll see you next Thursday!
Fiona