If I had a pound (or dollar) for every post, tweet or caption talking about Instagram, reach and engagement right now I’d have enough money to fund my next plane ticket (and Joe’s) back to America.
If you’re a blogger, creator, influencer or business owner using Instagram you’ve probably been feeling a dip in your usual amount of traffic.
PLEASE STOP WORRYING ABOUT THIS.
And I’m ready to tell you why. I know you’re going to say, “but Kelly, this is my livelihood and losing engagement will impact my career”. I’m telling you, I’m promising you… it’s not going to effect you or your business long term. Unless Instagram suddenly decides to shut up shop and close their app, it’s very unlikely that a summertime dip will impact your business in the long run.
I’m here to tell you why you need to stop sweating the small stuff and take a breather right now.
5 reasons why your account engagement has dropped this summer
It’s an industry thing
In the world of marketing and public relations, there is a summertime dip. It happens every single year without fail and was happening before the world of blogging was really big. When I worked in the industry we knew that we’d hold off on planning big events or running large campaigns. July and August are the months when most people are away on holiday. Journalists (in the fashion, travel, and lifestyle sectors) were in their offices much less. It happened every year without fail. And I’d hazard a guess that it’s the same with bloggers. Have you personally noticed that you’re out more? I thought so! I am too. Instead of nights in, we want to pick up a bottle of rosé, meet up with friends and enjoy a little thing called living.
It’s exceptionally hot out
We’ve been having a heatwave pals! My flat is an actual sauna at the moment and the last thing I am thinking about is scrolling through my phone engaging with people’s content. I’m plotting how I can get either some sunshine with a breeze or where on earth I can get an oscillating fan immediately. When it’s hot out, we automatically gravitate offline. We want early office finishes and likely when the clock strikes, we aren’t reaching for our phones to head onto social media, we’re grabbing them to make plans.
YOU are on your phone less
Not pointing fingers or anything here… but there’s a chance even you are on your phone less. I definitely don’t want to spend my summer glued to my phone. I’ve noticed the past few weeks that I’ve been spending less and less time on it. It feels good to set it down.
Point blank of it is, I’m putting my content out there but am not really doing much to receive that engagement back. And I’m engaging way less now that it’s hot out. I’m guessing I’m not alone in that either. Your usual theatre audience that engages with you are currently out buying their drinks and snacks during this summer intermission. They’ll be back for the second half but you’ve got to give them time – and give yourself time too.
Everyone is on holiday
If you’re still online (hello), you’ll notice that a lot of your friends and people you follow are off on holiday in July and August. As I mentioned earlier that it’s an industry thing too. You’ll notice companies you work with will have plenty of employees out of offices on. I’ve already had three emails this week back with OOO replies. So don’t sweat it, even if you don’t have a holiday planned, a majority of people are currently offline.
What if it IS your content though?
Okay, I thought I’d keep this a super positive it’s not you it’s the summertime kind of post. But then I thought I’d throw in a wildcard. Now, I think that if you receive typically great engagement then it’s likely you can blame the summertime on your drop. But if you genuinely are doubting your content, maybe it’s a good time to take stock and reevaluate your methods. Is the content you’re creating making you happy or do you feel like you’re just churning things out to keep up? (Sometimes I feel like this too).
Create a mood board on Pinterest as to what you’re inspired by. Look at accounts you absolutely love. Use this dip in engagement to take the time to recreate something that inspires you. I’ve found Pinterest has helped me so much in terms of feeling more inspired to create.
My recommendations for going forward this summer without totally losing your Instagram cool?
Post less
Are you a twice a day kind of person? Maybe scale back to posting once a day on your Instagram. I’ve been doing this for the past few weeks and while I’ve noticed that slight drop in my engagement across the board. But hey, it’s not across a usual two Instagram feed posts a day anymore. You’ll feel less pressure by lowering your commitment to the app during this time period. And maybe shift your focus to share a few stories instead of a usual play by play of your day. The choice is of course, yours.
Remind yourself it’s temporary
It’s hard to feel positive when a job you’re dedicated to isn’t showing you love back. But it helps to remind yourself that it’s temporary. Instagram is an ebb and flow kind of app. Sometimes months are full of growth and sometimes they’re not. It’s OK. What drew us into this app in the first place was (I hope) our love of creation first and foremost. And to be honest, as much as we love when people are “real” on the gram… people don’t love seeing others complain constantly about the same thing. I’m here to reassure you it’s temporary, take my word for it and focus on trying to leave your hard decisions to which ice cream flavour you want to get (FYI I’m very much a fan of cotton candy ice cream in the summer).
Brands are more understanding than you think
Let’s be honest – a wonderfully performing post on Instagram is fantastic. With likes and comments through the roof on a post, you feel like you’ve smashed it out of the park for a brand. But there’s something that I think we forget when we’re creating content. Brands are in it for the content. When you work with a brand you’ve created an image (or several) and a caption alongside it. You’ve been a model, photographer, copywriter and social media manager. And they’ve probably paid you less than they would pay anyone to do any of those singular jobs. They want the image. Don’t beat yourself up if the engagement isn’t sky high. The brand is psyched to work with you for getting your content, not as much for the 35 comments saying “love the look”.
Focus on another platform
Pinterest is a super driver for traffic to your website. I’ve been working on playing around with that a lot lately. And remember that it’s alway good to have your toes in a few other platforms. My personal recommendation is your own website where you have the rights over. It means you have the control over it at all times. There isn’t an algorithm to worry about – it’s all yours.
I love having my site to write about travel and my daily life – and of course posts like this too!
TL;DR.
This happens every single summer. We get panicked every summer. But with 12 months in-between you forget that it’s normal, it happens. So try to set your phone down without worrying. Instagram isn’t out to get us. We’re just out on holiday, in the sunshine, living our lives. Embrace it for the next two months and know that once September rolls around, we all come crawling back to our phones with the usual furore.
Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments below or hello self promotion, send me a message on Instagram. Or just leave it because hey, it’s the summer. I won’t blame you for popping that phone on charge and heading outside.
Lots of love,
Kelly xx