Well the newest ‘update’ to Instagram has been announced and the majority of the community is in uproar. It seems women are once again being targeted to some degree once again by the change. More hashtags than ever are being penalised linked to the female form/aesthetic and now the addition of their active reduction in online reach for imagery/posts deemed not to be violating their guidelines but vaguely inappropriate. Now what the big wigs see as ‘inappropriate’ is as ever as clear as mud but now again burlesque will surely take a hit.
Social media has long been the life force of many a burlesque career, be it Instagram, fan sites or Facebook so penalising us in anyway can be hard hitting even for those of us with only a few followers. My own account (@KhandieKhisses) has seen not only mild drop in followers when Insta started it’s big clear up, I have noticed a drop in engagement/interaction on posts.
Before we all get crazy, remember that this platform is generally free (aside from promotions etc). Not only that, Insta is very much engineered to lull us into feeling like we ‘own’ our account as we have invested in it and so they use that against us. No mass exodus of followers will be jumping ship…anyone still use those ‘newer’ versions of it to the extent we do Insta? Hell even my window cleaner has his own business instagram account. EVERYONE is on it…almost.
So when the Dons of Instagram kinda change it up on us, we grumble, get shitty but ulitmately they KNOW we will play ball. So how do we at least try to beat it?
Well here are some pointers:
- Use your account as it was intended: social network. Actively engage with people. Comment more as your feed will show up more on people who respond to you as the algorthim recognises they wish to see more of you based on this.
- Up your imagery. Insta loves good quality images. Less of the weird filters from rivals like Snapchat, and more good quality images. Less fuzzy and more sleek. Basically ease off perhaps on those bunny ears?
- Work your stories. Insta introduced stories for a reason, so use them. The more you use the higher I have seen my engagement. If you cant find something decent to post on your feed, then wack something stylish or not on your stories to keep your account looking ‘active’…which feeds into point 1.
- Video is king…ish. Video is rapidly expanding in Instagram thanks no doubt to the new IGTV so use it. Again point 1… use the features. The more you use them the more likely the algorthim sees your account working.
- Caption That Crap. You got the best image now think that caption up a storm. Post something engaging. Perhaps get people to tag an account of interest or someone to follow. The more engagement..the more…well you get it now.
- Hashtag that hashtag. Now this is the doozy. Instagram love to ban or reduce some hashtags visability and it changes a lot. There are lots of lists online of the every changing hashtags however it is worthwhile to keep checking on your own used and delete them. Dont leave them. Obvious ‘rude’ ones are bad news to use but some may surprise you: single, snapchat, fishnets, bikinibody for example.
- Content aware. So the new rules on ‘inappropriate’ content mean lingerie pics maybe a thing of the past…or at least reduced visability. I hate it as the only answer right now is PG your feed. 🙁 Notice how men topless isnt banned but women in a bra are going to be.
One great tip however is never assume that you own your account, it might be your content but its their hosting and platform. They can and will delete. I would suggest investing time in 2 social networks, if not three. Easy ones being Twitter, Facebook and Instagram especially as they all can be fed from the same account. But then its also a good idea to have a website where you can be in charge of what is posted and how. Just ensure you have the right legal notices up?!
I will no doubt update this as more news comes out. For now read some lovely indepth stuff here on the latest update:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/10/instagram-borderline/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZmFjZWJvb2suY29tLw&guce_referrer_cs=tquDIZpGE9WyoTtDuVV94Q
