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More than a few of us have noticed that reach for our posts on the Instagram feed has been dropping over the last few months. So what is happening? What can we do about it? And what does Instagram have to say about it?

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This is Clickstarter, the Australian Digital Marketing podcast. I\\u2019m Dante St James.

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With so many people, businesses and ads on Instagram now, there\\u2019s more competition than ever for space on the feed. And as we all getting better and more clever at posting content that people love, we are noticing that individual reach for each of our posts is getting harder and harder to maintain. So what can we do to claw back some of that reach?

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1.\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0Understand what Instagram looks at when it sends content to people\\u2019s feeds

2.\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0Aim for conversation and interaction rather than just reach

3.\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0Understand that your old strategy is getting a bit stale

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The first thing that Instagram is looking for is information about the post that is in the post itself. Some of this is the basic data such as:

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-\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0Who posted it

-\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0When they posted it

-\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0What information can be picked up from the creative

-\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0What information can be picked up from the caption

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This means that who you are is important. This because who you are as the poster or business is tied to information such as how popular you are, how on-trend you seem to be at the moment and what level of interaction your profile seems to be attracting.

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When you posted is important because it coincides with when your followers are online and looking at their Instagram feed. While it\\u2019s not vital for you to be posting at a specific time, you will clearly reach more people if you happen to post something new as more of your followers are on the app. Even though Instagram does concede that not all your followers will see what you post, they also explain this by saying that your followers also follow potentially hundreds or thousands of others, so when they are on the app, they\\u2019re not seeing their entire feed. They\\u2019re just seeing a part of it which is what Instagram has estimated is the most likely content that you\\u2019re going to like.

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Naturally, your creative and caption contain clear information to base their estimations on. If your creative is full of logos and text then it will provide tonnes of information about what your content is about, however, it will also judge this as being rather low-quality content as Instagram was never made for text \\u2013 it\\u2019s made for photos and videos. If you must include text and logos in your graphics, keep it to the must-have stuff. No one is looking for logos and text-laden ads in Insta, so respect your audience before posting yet another spammy piece of content that few people are going to see.

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It may sound illogical, but if you want reach, then reach shouldn\\u2019t be your goal. Instead, aim for conversation and interaction with your followers. When someone comments, that is a signal to Instagram of something interesting to someone. If you respond, then that\\u2019s another signal. If others join into the comments thread, this keeps throwing it back into their feeds, and the more interaction that happens, the more signals that keep going back along with the thousands of other signals that come from those followers who are interacting with you. And that includes enough data to conclude that there are other like-minded followers who may also enjoy your content, and so they get sent it. The cycle continues as more people who see the content decide to interact with it and you. By aiming for some conversation with one follower at a time, you\\u2019re causing reach to increase.\\xa0

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So, seeking to have authentic conversations through both comments and direct messages means that you are a more engaging profile, which signals Instagram to send more of your stuff out so that others may be engaged with you. If your reach is crashing on you, it\\u2019s likely because there\\u2019s not much engagement going on and your followers are more interested in less boring profiles. Ouch, I know.

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This brings me to the last point.

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If reach, engagement and perhaps, even conversions are slowing down for you on Instagram, it could be because your approach just isn\\u2019t working anymore. And that is probably not because of Instagram. It\\u2019s probably because your followers are a bit bored of you and have moved to profiles that are more entertaining. Ouch again. This isn\\u2019t the end of the world though. It\\u2019s just the end of your current strategy. If your Motivational Mondays and Throwback Thursdays just aren\\u2019t working anymore, it\\u2019s probably time to drop those and try something new. But don\\u2019t just throw a few new tactics in the mix. Have a long hard think about why your followers have moved on. Look at your most successful competitors and look at what they are doing. Look at their comments and interactions, not their likes. If they\\u2019re getting tonnes of comments and threads of conversation going under their posts, then they have focused on what has been working for them lately. If your target audience is similar to theirs, then you have your new strategy in what their patterns seem to be.

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It\\u2019s all too easy, and therefore lazy, to blame algorithms and platforms for your lack of reach. Think about it. If plenty of others are getting amazing reach right now, then it\\u2019s probably not Instagram, it\\u2019s you.

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To learn more about digital marketing the Australian way, jump into the Learn section at clickstarter.com.au and start on the road to helping your Australian small business to get known, get found and stay known.