#instagram problems

The last rant I posted about Instagram was due to their new update (you know... the absolutely revolting one). Thankfully, I can now report that I am officially out of the test group! Yay! It was really difficult to use IG with that last update, and I've found myself using it a lot more since they took me out of the test group. I don't know for sure if that means that update was canned or not... or if the full release is just delayed. For them to cancel the new update, that would involve actually listening to their users, which we know IG has not done once since they were bought out by Meta. I left quite a few comments about the new update on that one reel that Mosseri posted about the update, much like many other people. It was almost comforting to see that other people had the same thoughts about it as I did, and I wasn't just being picky.

Anyways, this rant is not about that update! It's about the everything else that IG is doing!

Firstly, the algorithm has been so broken lately, and I feel it has just gotten worse and worse in the past couple weeks. My engagement has been so horribly low, even though I've been following some growth strategies. I was looking at some numbers from my post analytics, and my views genuinely haven't been this low since I had my account on private a few years ago. It's really disheartening when you put a lot of work into your IG posts and not even all of your followers end up seeing them.

The post that made me really aware of this recently was my Eddie Munson cosplay post. I really felt that it would do well, but it is in the lower range of posts I've made in the past few years. I thought it would perform really well because: 1. It's super relevant. Everyone is talking about Stranger Things right now! I posted it a couple days before Vol. 2 came out, knowing it was a super hot topic to post about. 2. I worked really hard on the pictures! I edited the backdrop to look more professional than some of my other posts. 3. They were really nice pics! I really loved them!

So you can understand why I was confused when this post only got half of the engagement that many of my posts did in 2020! Looking through the analytics, my post only reached 155 accounts, when I have nearly 400 followers. I know that's not horrible, but it's much worse than it has been lately. Out of those 155 accounts reached, only 21 of them were non-followers.

Comparing this to my most liked photo, my "princess of the castle" pictures from March 2021, it is really sad. That image reached 481 accounts. Keep in mind that I also had fewer followers back then. Now you see what I mean when my reach is super low now? That post had 298 views from non-followers... in comparison to Eddie's 21. That really shows you how little they share your work anymore. Of course, this image I'm comparing it to is some of my best work, and probably the portraits I'm most proud of, but those numbers really shouldn't have dropped that much, especially when I have gained more followers since then.

The new algorithm is so hard for me to get a grasp on. I know they are really prioritizing reels over photos, but at the same time I know people have also been complaining that their reel views are down. So what gives? It seems that IG is only prioritizing a super select number of posts (all reels), and just showing them to everyone. It's becoming increasingly more difficult for small accounts to grow and get noticed, which is super discouraging. It's also annoying from a IG viewer standpoint, because I feel my viewing experience is becoming less and less curated. Rather, IG is just pushing whatever random reels they want on me, whether or not I engage with that type of content. I mean... the sheer number of slime videos they keep showing me. I. DO. NOT. WANT. THEM.

That was longer than I planned to rant about the algorithm... oh well. I still have other problems with IG I want to talk about! Many, actually, but I'll limit myself for brevity's sake.

Instagram no longer gives me access to the "Add Yours" story feature which is really upsetting. They are such a good way to participate in a fun trend and reach some new accounts, and they just don't let me do it anymore. I noticed this yesterday when I tried to participate in one that said "Cosplayers jump in", which would have been a perfect opportunity to share some cosplay pics on stories. When I tried to click on the add yours button, it would just jump to the next story, as if the button wasn't even there. I tried to use add yours from a few different peoples' stories, and it wouldn't let me click any of them. I then went into my stories to try to make my own and the option is no longer there.

This is particularly frustrating because when I google how to fix this issue, all I find is articles telling me that it might not be available in my country, or that my app is outdated. I know neither of these things are true because I've used them before! I've both created my own and used other peoples' "add yours" before (with no hassle, might I add). There doesn't seem to be any fix or explanation to this. First the algorithm stops you from growing your account, then they stop you from participating in alternative methods of account growth. Suspicious.

Also, I know that it is not just my phone being weird because I have access to the create an "add yours" option when I sign in on a different account! I had to make an IG story for my employer's account today with an "add yours", and I did it on my phone just fine. But then when I switch back over to my account the option disappears. Grumble grumble. I have submitted a support request about this, but odds are they won't see it.

Another issue I've been having with Instagram is about one specific hashtag. I'm the founder of the UVIC Cosplay Club, and we have our own hashtag for our members to use to share pictures from our events and meetups! It is #uviccosplayclub! It is a really nice way to look through our club's activities, and it is great to show people who are thinking about joining the club, so they can see what it's all about. That is, it was nice until the hashtag broke a while ago. Now when I click on it, I can only see 7 posts. There should be way more than that. None of mine show up in the hashtag, and one of my friends only has one of their pictures on it, even though they've tagged about 5 pictures with our tag. This is super frustrating, because we need it to show other students what we do in our club since we don't have a website at the moment. I tried looking both on mobile and desktop, and it looks the same on both. I've also tried looking at it while signed in on different accounts, but nothing. Again, I submitted a support request about this, but I really doubt it'll go anywhere.