9 Lessons Learned From A Decline In Instagram Growth

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July had been a month of the worst Instagram growth of My account. There was not only a halt in followers growth, but there was also a decline.

You must be thinking why am I sharing a story of decline rather than that of growth. Well, we should share our loses so that our wins become inspiring. There are people out there who think that growth comes easily to some people but it's not true. Nothing comes easy when you work genuinely and organically.

My IG account has grown organically and I am proud of where I have come but more than the numbers, I am proud of the loyal readers that my words blessed me with. They matter. You, reading this, matter. And this is what made me write this post.

It did affect me to see this decline in my Instagram growth but it also taught me a lot of important lessons. So, I am sharing them with you today.

Let's take a look at them.

1. It's Not You Or Your Art

First of all, Instagram's growth has nothing to do with your art. It was great when you were gaining followers, it's great even when you're losing them. As long as your loyal readers support your art, you don't need to doubt your work being the reason for this decline. I have seen so many people with such beautiful work but their follower growth remains limited because Instagram's algorithm requires the mind of a marketer. Growing Instagram is not art.

2. You're Not Alone

When I asked people on my story to vote yes or no if they are seeing a drop in the engagement or followers, the results weren't shocking. See the images of the results below. When I asked them what they thought could be the reason, most of them replied it's because of Instagram changing its algorithm yet again or it's because of the Reels. We never know the reason but one thing is sure, you are not alone. We're all facing the same challenges.

3. You Don't Owe Anything

Yes, you heard it right. Your Instagram account belongs to Instagram and it can do anything with your account... going as far as suspending or deleting it. You have a username, a password, a double-security, access to your account but it would take Instagram absolutely nothing to shut it down in a moment. TikTok ban in India is the perfect example of this. Creators on TikTok spent so many hours, days, months, years building their community on TikTok and it got banned in the blink of an eye. Boom, all lost.

That also reminds me, don't forget to subscribe to my mailing list, so we never lose touch. I haven't started out sending Newsletters yet, but you will be the first one to receive them when I do.

4. It's Not You, it's THEM

The night before yesterday, I kept checking my followers after every few minutes. They reached 89215. Then in 10 minutes, they were at 89166. Okay, this loss was possible. But how could they be 89224 within a few minutes again when there were hardly any new followers? They were simply messing with the numbers. It made me stop giving attention to the numbers.

This messing up with the numbers compelled me to write this post. Don't focus on numbers. It's under their control. You never know how many followers you actually have. Who counts?

5. Your Loyal Readers Matter The Most

The faster we learn this, the more we focus on creating art. The people who unfollowed you were perhaps never even interested in your work. Some merely follow you in the hope of getting a follow back (or more followers). Those people are just numbers. But the heart of your community is the people who value and respect your work. They matter. They will stay, no matter what.

6. To Them, Business Matters More Than Art

Okay, so if you know, there are three kinds of accounts: Personal, Business (for organisations and businesses), and Creator (for influencers, content creators, artists, etc). Creator account was launched last year, I guess. Every time I switch to Creator account from the Business account, my post engagement significantly drops. It gets back on track when I switch back to the Business account. I experimented this last week too. Same results. Now, I only use the business account. I don't know if my observation is a fact or not, but this is what I have faced with the creator's account.

7. Ups And Downs Can Be Anywhere

Ups and downs are a part of life. When I had like 1000 followers, I read on some InstaPoet's story, "after 10k, the follower growth is easy and rapid." There were became my belief and I kept seeing great growth. It was never on my mind that the count can go downward too, but since the beginning of 2020, the growth has been really messed up. I had never expected a decline ever. I haven't yet figured out the reason behind it but let it be. I've let go of the will to control everything.

8. Don't Let Your Art Suffer Because of Numbers

Your art should not be dependent on your numbers. Keep it genuine and authentic, keep it sacred. Art is pure and numbers should not affect its purity. Keep doing what you're doing. Create art to soothe and reflect your soul, don't create it to impress people. It takes them 5 seconds to like, scroll, and move on. And those who genuinely love your art love it because it's not like the rest. There are pages that only care about followers count. They steal the art and post it as theirs, disrespecting the art and the artists. And you know what? Their followers isn't the crowd you need. Quality over quantity. Always.

9. Be Free To Experiment

Okay, so this is mentioned at the last because this one set me free. I had been using my previous theme, which I talked about here, since 2018. I wanted to change it since long but people seemed to love it and I thought that changing it would affect my following. When I started losing followers anyway, I found it the right time to experiment. I still got a few messages asking me to switch back to the previous theme, so I did a poll on my stories. I was kinda surprised by the results (see results below) because I was expecting almost 90% to choose the previous theme. So, my experiment worked and I am enjoying creating posts even more now. The previous one had become dull and boring and there was no fun in that. I'm a Gemini. If it ain't fun, I'll instantly lose interest. 😁

Conclusion:

If things don't change even after giving your best, change yourself. Some things are just out of our control. What we can control is how we react to the situations and turn them into our favour. I haven't lost much but I was mad at Instagram for playing with the numbers, until I decided to write this post and make it a win-win situation for me. The decline inspired me to write this along with other blog ideas.

Also, I wanted people to know that you'll always see people sharing their successes on the internet, I choose to be transparent and share what goes on in my journey as a writer.

How do you turn negative situations into your favour?

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