You post something. It does well. You post something similar. It flops. You spend the next forty minutes staring at your phone trying to work out what changed. Instagram’s own chief has finally explained what to look at instead.

What Did Instagram’s Boss Say About Engagement Rates?

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, shared new guidance this week on how to use the platform’s content performance insights, covering which data points are relevant to different types of engagement.

The short version: reach is the wrong metric to obsess over. If you want to understand why a post got more or less reach, focus on engagement rates instead.

Engagement rate is the proportion of people who saw your post and did something with it. Liked it. Commented. Saved it. Sent it to someone. That ratio is what tells you whether your content is landing.

Why Instagram Builds Reach From Engagement, Not the Other Way Around

Higher engagement signals to the platform’s ranking systems that content is more relevant, which can increase distribution. Engagement includes likes, comments, saves, shares, and watch time.

This is the mechanism. More engagement tells the algorithm that more people might want to see it. The post gets pushed further. Reach increases as a result of engagement driving it – reach is the outcome, not the input.

Mosseri also drew a distinction between connected and unconnected reach. Connected reach is followers who see a post. Unconnected reach is non-followers. The engagement signals that matter vary depending on which group you are trying to influence – like rates matter more for your followers, and send rates matter more for those who do not follow you.

So if your goal is to deepen the relationship with people who already follow you, likes are a meaningful signal. If your goal is to grow beyond your existing audience, shares and sends are what move the needle. Those are two different objectives, and measuring the wrong one explains a lot of frustrating months.

What Instagram Engagement Data Means for Small Business Accounts

Most small business accounts track whether their reach is up or down week on week. That number shifts constantly and is affected by factors outside your control – time of day, what else is in the feed, whether Instagram is testing a new format. It is not a reliable feedback signal.

Engagement rate is. Stronger engagement from followers increases the likelihood of content being shown more widely within follower feeds. A post with 300 views and 40 saves is performing better than a post with 2,000 views and 12 saves. One is telling Instagram something. The other is not.

Instagram’s feed ranking is based on interaction patterns, meaning users may not always see posts from accounts they follow if they do not engage regularly with them. This has a direct implication for consistency: if someone follows you but never interacts, your posts will gradually stop appearing in their feed. Size of following is a vanity figure. Depth of engagement drives distribution.

The second practical point is about saves. Saves are a private action – no one sees them except you. They carry no vanity value. They are also one of the strongest signals available, because a save means someone found your content useful enough to return to. Content that answers a specific question, solves a problem, or gives someone something to reference later is more valuable to the algorithm than content that gets a smile before the scroll continues.

Should You Change How You Measure Instagram Performance?

Stop looking at reach first. Pull up your last ten posts and check the engagement rate on each one – total engagements divided by total reach, expressed as a percentage. Most platforms show this in insights automatically. Look at which posts have the highest rates, identify what they have in common, and build from there.

Then look at saves separately. Posts with a high save rate show you the content type to repeat. Nothing saved in three months is a content brief.

Mosseri posts regularly on his personal Instagram as a way of staying connected with creators and giving transparency into how the platform ranks content. The advice has been available for a while. Most accounts just have not applied it yet.

The accounts still reporting total reach as their primary Instagram KPI are measuring the wrong thing. Reach is where you end up. Engagement is what gets you there.

A customer finds your competitor on Instagram. They were not looking for your competitor. They were not looking for anything in particular. That is how social search works. 

So what is social search, exactly? 

Social search is not a new channel. It is a behaviour that has been happening on your phone for years, and the platforms have only just started calling it something.

Someone types “festival makeup” into Instagram instead of Google. Someone asks TikTok what hotel to stay at in Lisbon. Someone finds a candle brand through a Reel they were not looking for and buys it within 24 hours. That is social search. It is discovery that happens inside apps people opened for something else entirely.

According to a Kantar study Meta commissioned in March 2026, 92% of people now use social platforms for product information. 58% find it more enjoyable than traditional search for discovery. 63% say they buy faster when social plays a role in the decision. Meta did not commission that study to be modest about the findings, but the numbers align with what client accounts show on the ground. People are not going to Google first the way they used to. The journey starts somewhere else now.

Google searches per US user are down nearly 20% year on year. Sit with that number for a moment before the next section.

Why Meta published this now

Two reasons, and neither of them is altruistic.

The first is money. If search budgets start moving away from Google and toward social platforms, Meta’s advertising revenue goes up. A 16-page report making the case for social discovery is one of the more elegant pieces of self-promotion in recent memory. It is dressed as industry insight. It is actually a pitch deck.

The second is timing. Google’s slice of US search ad spending is forecast to fall below 50% in 2026, down from 67.1% a decade ago. Advertisers will spend more than $100 billion on non-Google search ads by 2028. Meta wants to be the obvious answer to where that money goes. Publishing the research that frames the argument is step one.

None of that makes the data wrong. It makes the motive transparent. Those are different things.

What the numbers say that Meta is not loudly saying

Buried in the data is a figure that matters more than the rest. Meta’s own campaign analysis, drawn from over 10,000 geo-tested campaigns across more than 200 North American advertisers, shows that 64% of the customers it delivers are new to the brand entirely. And the return on ad spend for those new customer acquisitions runs 2.3 times higher than traditional search.

In plain English: Google reaches people who were already looking for you. Meta reaches people who had no idea you existed. Both matter. They do completely different jobs. The brands treating them as interchangeable are the ones puzzled by their results.

Meta has also introduced a shopping mode inside Meta AI called Muse Spark – US only for now – that responds to conversational queries and surfaces products directly from catalogues. The principle is the same as search, the interface just feels like a chat. 49% of consumers already use AI assistants for product discovery. 70% expect to use them more for shopping in the next six months. That is not an emerging trend. That is where this has already arrived.

What this means if you run a small business

Three things, and they are all more straightforward than the 16-page report would suggest.

Content needs to work as introduction, not confirmation. The formats driving purchase consideration on social are short videos and Reels (61% of consideration actions), creator reviews and demos (43%), and customer reviews and user-generated content (41%). Short video also ranks as the most useful format for moving someone from interest to action. A grid of product shots and quote tiles is not doing this job. It is talking to people who already know you, not the ones who do not.

Your product catalogue has become part of your search strategy whether you treat it that way or not. If the catalogue is out of date, image-poor, or missing variants, Meta AI has less to work with when surfacing products to people searching within the platform. This is not a future consideration. It is happening now.

Customer reviews are social proof and search signal simultaneously. A business with recent, visible, detailed reviews is more discoverable and more trustworthy at the same moment. These are not separate problems with separate solutions.

Should anything change in your marketing budget?

Not everything, and not immediately.

Traditional search handles utility. Someone who types “accountant in Chelmsford” into Google has already decided they want an accountant. Social search handles influence. Someone who comes across your content on Instagram has not decided anything yet – and that is precisely the opportunity.

The businesses winning at this are not the ones who abandoned Google. They are the ones who stopped treating social content as broadcasting and started treating it as discovery infrastructure. Reels that introduce. Reviews that reassure. A catalogue that actually reflects what is available.

The shift is real. The data is clear enough to take seriously even accounting for who commissioned it. The question is not whether social search matters to your business. The question is whether your content is doing the job of being found by people who do not know you exist yet.

If the answer is no, that is a 24 fingers-shaped problem.

Meta has launched a new app. It’s called Instagram Instants. It lets you send disappearing photos that vanish after 24 hours and can only be viewed once. Sound familiar? Yes, Snapchat has been doing this since roughly the dawn of time. BeReal tried. Even Instagram’s own “Shots” feature had a go before it was rebranded and relaunched as – you guessed it – Instants.

And yet, here we are. Writing about it. Because if there is a new platform feature doing the rounds, you need to know whether it is worth your time or just noise. So let’s talk.

What Instagram Instants Actually Does

It is genuinely quite simple. You open the app, you take a photo using the in-app camera (no uploading from your camera roll – that would be too easy and also, apparently, too curated), and you send it to your mutual followers or Close Friends list. They can view it once. It disappears. You keep your copy. Theirs vanishes.

No filters. No editing. No cropping. Text only, if you must add anything at all.

The tagline is “real life, real quick.” Snapchat’s lawyers are presumably thrilled.

It is currently being tested in Italy and Spain, with iOS and Android versions available. No desktop version. No confirmation it will roll out globally. Meta has stated they are “exploring multiple versions of Instants to see what people like” – which is corporate for “we have no idea if this will stick, but BeReal’s decline has left a gap we intend to fill.”

Why Is Instagram Doing This Right Now?

Two reasons, and neither of them is altruistic.

The first is engagement speed. Instagram’s algorithm has been tracking “instant” signals for years – how many people engage within the first 10 minutes, whether someone watches past the first three seconds of a video. Features like Instants are designed to generate that immediate, real-time reaction. It fits perfectly with where the platform is headed.

The second is competition. BeReal is not the force it once was. Snapchat still has 16 million-plus subscribers paying for premium features, which tells Meta there is money and appetite in the disappearing-content space. TikTok is reportedly testing its own quick photo-sharing tool called PhotoSwap. The race is on, and Instagram does not like being third.

There is also a third reason, if we are being completely honest. Instants requires you to agree to terms and conditions that allow Meta to use the data it collects to target you with ads. So: engagement data, behavioural signals, and a fresh advertising funnel. Nice little package.

Should Your Business Be On This?

Hold up. Instants is squarely aimed at everyday users right now – the people who find Instagram too polished and curated and want something more spontaneous. That is not most business accounts.

But.

If you are a creator that thrives on personality over polish – behind-the-scenes content, location drops, candid moments, the kind of thing that makes your followers feel like insiders rather than spectators – there is a case for experimenting here. The 24-hour window and one-view rule create a scarcity that Stories alone cannot quite replicate. Done well, it rewards your most engaged followers with something that feels genuinely exclusive.

The key word is “experimenting.” Nobody should be pivoting their content strategy around a feature that is still being tested in two European countries.

What We’d Recommend

Wait for the wider rollout. Watch what early adopters do with it. And in the meantime, focus on the 24 things that still matter more than any new feature: your strategy, your audience, your consistency, and your content quality.

New platforms and features launch every few months. Most of them either fade out or get absorbed into something else. Instagram itself was once a Snapchat clone. Threads was going to kill Twitter. Remember when everyone was on Clubhouse?

The creators that win are not the ones who sprint to every shiny new thing. They are the ones who know their audience well enough to judge when something is worth their time – and when it is not.

Not sure which platforms and tools actually deserve space in your marketing strategy? That is quite literally what we do.

Instagram has been busy. And when we say busy, we mean the kind of busy where you blink and half a dozen things have changed while you were making a cup of tea.

Some of these updates are useful. Some are shiny and questionable. Let’s get into it.

You Can Finally Reorder Your Carousels

It has only taken the best part of a decade, but Instagram has finally let us reorder images in a carousel after publishing. No more deleting and re-uploading because you put the before photo after the after photo. No more lying awake at 2am knowing slide three was supposed to be slide one.

It is a small thing. It is also enormous.

Scheduling Reels Will Not Hurt You

Adam Mosseri (bigwig at Instagram) has confirmed that scheduling Reels does not tank your reach. It never did, but the myth has been stubbornly persistent. The bonus: if you translate your Reels, scheduling gives Instagram more time to process those translations before your content goes live. Useful if you are reaching audiences across multiple languages.

You can plan ahead without penalty. Sighs of relief all round.

Tap to Pause is Now a Thing

You can now pause a Reel with a single tap instead of holding the screen like you are trying to keep it from escaping. Small change. Big improvement for anyone reviewing fast-moving content or trying to catch text before it disappears.

Google Might Start Serving Your Instagram Profile First

Still in testing, but Google is experimenting with a redesigned knowledge panel that pushes Instagram profiles higher in search results. If someone Googles you, your Instagram profile could be one of the first things they see.

Worth keeping your profile clean and consistent just in case. Let us know if we can lend a hand with that.

Clickable Links in Captions (With a Catch)

Instagram is testing clickable links in post captions for Meta Verified creators (not businesses, just yet). Currently capped at 10 links per month and only visible on mobile. Meta Verified starts at $14.99 a month, so this is not a free lunch.

At 10 links a month, your link in bio tool is not going anywhere. But it is a sign of where things are heading.

The Edits App Is Growing Up

Meta’s video editing app has had a fresh batch of updates: new visual effects, a more visual Ideas tab, and the ability to highlight specific words in captions during playback. The development team is pulling feedback from creators and monitoring social platforms for feature requests, which means this one is moving fast.

If you want more videos for your feed but feel less than savvy with producing videos for social media, let’s chat. Spoiler alert: you don’t need to be Steven Speilberg.

Creator Tools Are Now Open to All Public Accounts

Instagram has opened up scheduling, the insights dashboard, and access to trending audio to all public accounts, not just professional ones. If you manage smaller or newer accounts, this will help.

A few advanced features still sit behind follower thresholds or Professional Mode, but the basics being accessible to everyone is a solid move. Thanks Insta.

Control Over Your Profile Grid

You can now edit post thumbnails directly in your profile grid. This sits alongside Instagram’s recent shift to larger thumbnail images and the broader push toward profile customisation.

For brands, this matters. Your grid is often where people land before they decide whether to follow. Make it look pretty.

Reels Might Become Your Default Homepage

Instagram is testing a design that opens directly into Reels, with a customisable “Your Feeds” hub where users can switch between Following, Friends, Latest, Saved, Favourites, and Suggested. Given that users already spend around half their Instagram time on Reels, this is less of a surprise and more of an inevitability.

Short-form video is the main event. Everything else is the support act.

Instagram is Coming to Your TV

After launching on Amazon Fire TV in December, Instagram is now available on Google TV in the US. Reels on the big screen, organised into topic-based channels. Mostly a US story for now, but worth watching if you’ll pardon the pun.

Which of These Updates Matter for Your Business?

Which of These Updates Matter for Your Business?

Instagram keeps moving, and keeping up with every change is pretty much a full-time job. Luckily, that is our full-time job.

The carousel reorder will save you real time. The scheduling myth finally being put to rest means you can plan your content properly without second-guessing yourself. And the Google knowledge panel change, if it rolls out widely, is a free visibility win that costs you nothing except a tidy profile.

Not sure what to act on and what to ignore? That is where we come in. We have been navigating changes in marketing for over 34 years now, and we are very good at working out what actually moves the needle for businesses like yours.

Here’s the thing about Instagram growth advice – there’s a lot of noise out there. Between conflicting strategies, outdated tactics, and the occasional suggestion to post 24 times daily whilst mastering every trending dance, it’s no wonder businesses feel overwhelmed.

But here’s some brilliant news: Instagram just dropped their official guidance on follower growth, complete with actual data from their platform.  We’ve spent the last 24 hours diving deep into their insights (because that’s what passes for a wild Tuesday in our world), and what we discovered will either revolutionise your approach or make you realise you’ve been overthinking this whole Instagram thing. Quite possibly both.

The Big Reveal: It’s Not What You Think

Here’s the kicker that made us spit out our Diet Coke – Instagram’s data shows creators posting 10 or more Reels per month see the biggest follower growth rates. Not three reels when inspiration strikes. Not “quality over quantity” (though we’ll get to that). Ten reels minimum.

But before businesses start panicking about their content calendars, let’s dig into what this actually means and why it matters more than perfectly curated feed aesthetics.

There Are Many Ways to Grow (But Some Work Better Than Others)

Instagram’s being refreshingly honest here – follower growth depends entirely on what business goals are and what type of content companies and their audiences actually enjoy. Revolutionary concept, we know.

Love video? Creating engaging Reels is genuinely the best way to reach new audiences. The algorithm pushes video content harder than static posts, and there’s actual data to back this up now.

Prefer static content? Carousels are your friend. They get multiple opportunities for visibility because Instagram treats each swipe as a separate engagement signal. Clever, right?

Why Reels work so well: They show up in both the Reels tab and the Explore page, giving businesses twice the chance of someone stumbling across their content. Boooom.

The Most Asked Question (And the Answer That Changes Everything)

“What’s the best way to grow followers on Instagram?” – apparently Instagram gets asked this a LOT.

Whether you’re a small business, social marketer, or content creator trying to figure out why engagement looks like a flatline, here’s what companies need to know:

It’s not about perfect content. It’s about consistent, engaging content that audiences actually want to see. The algorithm rewards reliability over virality every single time.

Video vs Photo: The Great Content Debate

Are photos your expression language? Then stick with them, but be strategic about it. Consistently sharing feed posts or carousels helps businesses engage with their audience, which boosts the distribution of content across the platform.

Here’s the clever bit: Carousels get what Instagram calls “multiple opportunities” to be seen and engaged with. If someone doesn’t scroll through all the cards in a carousel the first time, Instagram might show it again later (starting with the media that hasn’t been seen). It’s like getting a second chance at making a first impression.

The Truth About Engagement vs Reach

Right, this is where it gets interesting.

Engagement leads to reach, not the other way around.

It’s in Instagram’s interest to connect people with content they enjoy. Engagement signals like likes and comments tell the algorithm when determining how content gets distributed to people who don’t follow businesses yet.

Creating engaging content and genuinely interacting with followers in the comments section can help companies get more reach overall. Not rocket science, but apparently it needed spelling out.

The Engagement Content Formula That Actually Works

Instagram’s dropped some gold here about what makes content engaging:

• Make content relatable and humorous – people share things that make them laugh or nod along
• Create content that engages audiences so they want to DM, comment, or reshare on stories
• Add a hook in the first five seconds of Reels to keep people watching (this one’s massive)
• Keep track of what content drives the most engagement so businesses know what’s working

That last point is crucial – most companies create content based on what they think will work rather than what actually does work for their specific audience.

How Many Reels Should Businesses Actually Post?

Here’s where Instagram’s data gets really specific, and it might surprise businesses.

To grow followers, the frequency companies post new Reels is just one factor of many, but they’ve found that creators with the greatest net follower growth rates post, on average, 10 or more Reels per month.

Before businesses panic about creating 24 pieces of video content monthly, remember this: creators continue to grow even when they produce more than 10 Reels per month. Creating content is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t let short-term goals get in the way of sustainable practices.

Consistency Is the Key (Whatever That Looks Like for Each Business)

This bit made us want to text every business owner who’s ever stressed about posting schedules – Instagram’s own advice is refreshingly human.

It’s important for companies to experiment with different approaches to find what works best for them. If making a Reel takes up too much time, but carousels are more manageable, then do what’s most sustainable.

The trick is consistency, whatever that looks like in each business’s world.

Different Recommendation Systems (The Bit Nobody Talks About)

Instagram has different recommendation systems for different places on the platform. The Explore page works differently from the Reels tab, which works differently from the main feed.

Each engagement ranking differs depending on where someone discovers content and how they interact with it on the platform.

Want to learn more about engagement ranking across Instagram? They’ve got a proper deep dive in their blog post about it (link in their bio, naturally).

Your key takeaways

After reading through all of Instagram’s guidance, here’s what actually matters for businesses:

1. Post at least 10 Reels per month if growing followers is the priority
2. Hook viewers in the first five seconds of any video content
3. Use carousels strategically for multiple engagement opportunities
4. Focus on engagement over reach – comments and shares matter more than views
5. Be consistent with whatever content format works for the business schedule
6. Track what actually works for specific audiences, not what works for others
7. Make content relatable rather than perfect

The Bottom Line

Instagram’s official guidance boils down to this: businesses should stop overthinking it, start being consistent, and create content that genuinely connects with their audience. The algorithm isn’t some mysterious beast – it’s designed to show people content they’ll engage with.

Whether companies post 24 times a month or stick to a more manageable schedule for them, the key is showing up regularly with content audiences actually want to see. Not content businesses think they should want. Not content that looks pretty. Content that makes people stop scrolling and actually give a sh*t.

Now it’s time for businesses to stop reading about Instagram strategy and go create something that matters to their people. They’re waiting for it.

So Instagram’s been busy this week. Three new features dropped, and while the platform’s clearly playing catch-up with everyone else, there are some genuinely clever bits worth your attention.

The reposts feature finally lets you share content properly (only took them about 24 years longer than X (or Twitter as it will forever be known at 24 fingers HQ). The location map is Instagram’s attempt at Snap Map and the Friends tab shows you what your mates are actually engaging with behind the scenes.

Here’s what each one actually does and why you might want to use it in your business.

Instagram Finally Gets Reposts (Welcome to 2019)

After years of watching every other platform offer native reposting, Instagram has finally caught up. You can now repost public reels and feed posts directly, complete with proper attribution to the original creator.

How it works: Tap the repost icon on any public content, add an optional note, and it appears on your profile in a dedicated “Reposts” tab. The original creator gets full credit, and the content may be recommended to your followers.

The business angle: This is brilliant for content curation. Instead of screenshotting industry insights or awkwardly tagging creators in comments, you can now properly share relevant content that aligns with your brand values. Your repost tab becomes a curated gallery of your professional interests.

Smart implementation: Don’t become the social media equivalent of that friend who shares every meme. Be selective. Repost content that genuinely adds value to your audience and reflects your brand expertise. Quality over quantity, always.

Location Sharing: Instagram’s Answer to Snap Map

Instagram has launched its own version of location sharing with the new Map feature. Users can opt in to share their last active location with selected friends, and discover location-based content from people they follow.

The reality check: This isn’t a business discovery tool. It’s designed for personal connections – sharing your location with people you mutually follow (actual friends, not business followers). The feature is opt-in only and currently US-exclusive, with global rollout coming soon.

Indirect business potential: When customers visit your location and tag themselves, their friends might see that content on the map for 24 hours. It’s authentic social proof rather than direct marketing – genuine customer moments that build credibility.

Privacy controls: Users can choose exactly who sees their location (friends, close friends, selected people, or no one), exclude specific places from sharing, and turn off location sharing at any time. Parents have full control over teen accounts.

Friends Tab: See What Your Mates Are Actually Engaging With

The new Friends tab in Reels shows public content that your friends (people you mutually follow) have liked or commented on. Think of it as Instagram’s version of social proof in action.

What this means: You can now see which reels your actual friends find engaging enough to interact with. This creates natural conversation starters and gives insight into what resonates with your immediate network.

Professional applications: For business accounts, this offers informal market research within your professional network. You can observe which business content your connections engage with and use these insights to inform your own content strategy.

Privacy options: You can hide your own likes and comments from appearing in others’ Friends tabs, or mute activity bubbles from specific people you follow. The feature started rolling out earlier this year and is now available globally.

The Bigger Picture: What Instagram Is Actually Doing

These updates signal Instagram’s shift away from pure content consumption toward more authentic social connection. The platform is prioritising features that encourage genuine interaction between people who actually know each other.

For businesses, this means moving away from broadcast-style social media toward community-focused approaches. The brands that succeed will use these tools to enhance relationships rather than just push content.

Quick Implementation Guide

Week 1: Test the repost feature with one piece of industry content that genuinely adds value to your audience. See how your followers respond.

Week 2: If you’re location-based, encourage customers to tag your location naturally. Don’t force it – authentic check-ins work better than prompted ones.

Week 3: Use the Friends tab to understand what content resonates with your friends within professional network. Note patterns in engagement without overthinking it.

Week 4: Review what’s working and adjust accordingly. These features work best when integrated naturally into your existing strategy.

The Bottom Line

None of these features will magically transform your Instagram overnight, but they do offer practical ways to enhance authentic connection and content curation. The key is using them strategically rather than just because they exist.

Instagram is clearly trying to compete with features that have worked well on other platforms (Snap Map, X Twitter reposts, etc.) while adding their own privacy controls and user experience tweaks.

For businesses, success will come from understanding that these are relationship-building tools rather than direct marketing weapons. Use them to enhance genuine connections, and they’ll serve you well.

Need a hand crafting an Instagram strategy that drives real results, not just likes?

“How often should I post on social media in 2023?” That is the billion-dollar question.

If we had a pound for every time we’d been asked that question we’d be…well, we’d probably still be looking after people’s social media. Because that’s what we love doing.

But anyway, we digress: if we had a pound for every time we were asked, “How often should I post on social media in 2023?”, we’d probably have the billion dollars required to know the answer.

However, knowing the answer isn’t as simple as us telling you to post three times a week, on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Nor is it as simple as us advising that our clients post every day. It’s much more nuanced than that. Here’s why:

Social media isn’t one size fits all 

If you’ve come here looking for a magic figure for how often you should be posting on social media, we’re sorry, because you’re likely to be disappointed. Yes, we could tell you to post once a day on Instagram, and three times a day on Twitter, but we’d be doing you a disservice.

Firstly, as a small business, would you even have enough content to post that regularly? If the answer to that question is no, then the answer to how often to post is less frequently than this. The frequency that you post needs to be able to match your content creation capacity, and when you run a small business and are CEO, head of marketing, the accounts department, HR, and the chief cook and bottle washer to boot, we appreciate that you may not have the time to create content 24/7.

Quality over Quantity

Going hand in hand with posting frequency, there’s a reason that content is always king: it’s much better to put out good quality content twice or three times a week than putting out post after post which doesn’t hit the spot because it’s of inferior quality. If you’re posting just for the sake of it, then you’re actually likely to lose followers through the use of poor quality content.

Remember to keep your target audience in mind at all times when creating content, and follow your brand’s guidelines: keep your tone of voice consistent, use your brand’s colours throughout, choose high quality images and perhaps an infographic or two.

Consider the type of content you’re posting

Key for 2023 is choosing the right type of content in order to reach your goals. Different types of content will give different end results.

• Want to build your engagement and your community? Use Instagram Stories.
• Looking to connect with other B2B brands? Choose LinkedIn.
• Ready to see your followers grow? Instagram Reels, carousel posts and TikTok are great for reaching new audiences.
• Want to drive conversions? Make use of User Generated Content.

Knowing what your social media goals are will help you determine what type of content to use*, and this will then lead you to how often you post.

For example, Stories can be used every day, and more than once a day, as they’re great for behind-the-scenes and getting to know your audience. But Instagram Reels take time and a lot of effort (and sometimes, a swear word or two) and so you may wish to use these more sparingly, maybe once a week. Getting to know what works for you and what works towards your goals will help you to decide when to post, and what.

*And then the social media experts like us creep in and whisper “and actually, you should really be posting a mixture of all of the above, at regular intervals, to really make the most of your platforms.” It’s a juggling act. It really is. But that’s where your friendly social media agency steps in. Get in contact with us if you’d like to hear more about that.

Keep it consistent

Above all else, keeping it consistent on your social media is the best thing you can do. If you only have enough content to post twice a week? Then make sure you do post twice a week, every week. This way, you won’t upset the algorithms too much, and your followers will get to know when to expect content from you.

Need more help with how often to post on social media in 2023? Get in touch with 24 fingers

We get it. We really do. It’s difficult to know how often to post to keep your brand in your followers’ minds, and how not to be the brand equivalent of that annoying person that you can track their every move via their Facebook posts because they share EVERYTHING.

And this is where 24 fingers steps in: we can help you to create good quality, consistent content. We will know which types of content will help you to reach your social media goals. And we can even help you to manage your feeds and post consistently.

Get in contact today and we’ll help you with how often to post on social media in 2023.

Facebook and Instagram are up to their antics AGAIN. As a business owner, it can be hard to keep up with the ever-changing information circling the web. Don’t panic though, 24fingers are here to break it down so you can see if NFTs are right for your business.

Crypto coin has really made their mark in the last few years. NFTs are the latest example of digital crypto assets making headlines. In May NFTs began making an appearance to select users and these “digital collectibles” doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. It may surprise you that NFTs have been around longer than you think. The first NFT was minted on May 13, 2014, by Kevin Mccoy and has since led to many weird and wonderful NFTs on the market. Even Charmin is getting in on the trend with work dubbed as “the world’s first Non-Fungible Toilet Paper”. Bids have reached over $2,000 simply for the fact it is an NFT. Bids are so competitive, that we are getting traumatic flashbacks to the great toilet roll shortage of 2020 (What a time to be alive?).

It has recently been reported that Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Meta created has promoted the sale of his own Little League Baseball card to celebrate NFTs reaching 100 countries around the globe. But that begs the question why do people collect? Some may begin collections for sentimental reasons such as childhood nostalgia, some may have an affinity to a certain music genre or sports team for pleasure and enjoyment and some may simply appreciate the recognition and the community it creates. Whatever the reason for starting a collection, many collectors find tremendous satisfaction when finding a new treasure. Instagram is all about community and building an NFT community could be just the thing you need to spark engagement with your following.

What is an NFT?

So what the F is an NFT? NFT stands for “non-fungible token” it is a special digital asset that cannot be copied. It is possible to trade NFTs but a lot of fans enjoy the thrill of the chase when collecting and prefer to keep them. They are made using the process of minting and you will require a Meta mask wallet to make your first investment. One way to create your own NFT without programming knowledge is to use a service like OpenSea or NFT showroom. If this isn’t your style it is also possible with a little bit of coding to do it manually.

Popular NFT use

NFTs are the best way of securing digital provenance. Many creators are hopping on the trend such as digital artists, sports teams, game designers, and musical artists. The rise of blockchain and digital assets has created an enormous shift in personal branding. NFTs help artists monetize in a whole new way. What is even better are the new experiences and privileges – front row concert tickets anyone? Artists such as Kings of Leon have already offered this money and can’t buy experiences. Who doesn’t love a good perk? After all, no one wants to experience FOMO.

One of the main benefits of NFTs for digital creators is the ability to track ownership and originality. This feature has saved many artists the hassle and headache of fighting expensive legal battles. This exciting new market appears to be far more profitable with a boost in revenue from 10% to 90% adding an increased value.

Here at 24fingers, we will be keeping a close eye on this new trend. If you have something that you think could smash it on the NFT market slide into our contact page.

Calling all Insta Kings and Queens 🤳

The platform has recently announced the introduction of their new algorithm, where users will be able to view their feed in chronological order… deja vu or what?! Don’t panic though, although we might be going back in time, if users aren’t a fan of this change, they’ll still be able to view their feed based on the content algorithm.

This, unlike chronological order, takes into consideration the relationship between the brand and the user, looking at repeated interactions with certain users. Whether that be in the form of a comment, follow or even a cheeky DM… Instagram knows your audience much better than you think! In fact, most social media platforms do… the power of the internet, eh?

Adapting and overcoming…

You may be unsure on how to respond to this change, perhaps why you have found yourself here. Two words: Embrace it – brands big and small may feel intimidated by the thought of being buried under the algorithm, so you are not alone.

Just remember though, if there weren’t positives to it, Instagram wouldn’t do it. ‘Embracing continued evolution’ is at the heart of their platform and, they intend to, I quote, ‘create an immersive and inclusive experience for our community.’ With so many users switching up the way they view their feed, many brands which have been struggling to beat the algorithm are now dusting off their ‘Insta-shoes’ and coming back better than ever.

 3 top tips to give your Instagram a new leash of life ⭐

Consistency: Stick to posting on your feed at least 2-3 times a week. The more you post, the more chance you have of people discovering you. Lets be real, who wants to follow an account that posts once every blue moon?!

Captions: Eye catchy captions are crucial in attracting your target audience. Encourage them to interact with your post, like asking a question they can answer in the comments, this increases the level of engagement within your posts, making Instagram want to show your content more.

Hashtags: Find a balance between using hashtags that will ensure you land on the correct explore pages, and ones that won’t drown out your content by heaps of other posts. Remember you can use up to 30 – so milk it.

What’s the need for yet ANOTHER change?

This change is crucial for brands to re engage with followers and therefore maximises their opportunity to appeal to their target audience, what’s not to love? BUT… if the thought of having to adapt to yet another change to Instagram is keeping you awake at night, amongst many of life’s other worries, then please don’t hesitate to contact one of our team at 24 fingers. We always have at least one finger spare to help you, specialising in making sure your content attracts your target market. With a little bit of magic, you can get the best out of your Instagram and watch your brand grow more and more.

In celebration of emoji day, Emojipedia have released sample images of new emoji designs hopefully to be approved in September of this year. 31 emojis are up for approval which is significantly less than previous years (2020 had a grand total of 334 emojis released that year). Are the designers getting lazy or are we simply running out of fruits that don’t have an emoji yet?

The new collection includes emojis that no one knew were in demand with one twitter user referring to the new ginger root emoji as ’the weird branch thing’. However, we finally have an emoji for a high five. The new hand emoji referred to as rightward and leftward pushing hands (in all skin tones) can be used together to create a high five, which means no more using the prayer emoji to celebrate with your friends. High five to that. 

The small list of new additions also includes the long awaited plain pink heart, which has been highly requested since the start of emojis themselves and people online are very excited. However, we will remain unsure on how easy it will be to slip in the new donkey emoji into a conversation, but we’re sure people will find a way to give it a new meaning much like the beloved eggplant (ahem). 

Emoji 15.0 is planned to be released on major platforms by the end of 2022, Google being one of the first, and then on the other platforms by October 2023. Most of the drafted emojis, if not all of them, will be released onto our screens such as a jellyfish, a hand fan, a flute – just more random objects we can throw around in a text that don’t make total sense, but makes it more fun.