I ran two social media experiments - here's what happened
I followed Instagram's advice and it didn't work, but got surprising results from LinkedIn š
Around March time I stumbled across this video on TikTok from a creator who claimed that Instagram had held a workshop addressing what you need to do on the platform to get āgood engagementā in todayās world.
I watched it with interest although nothing in there was groundbreaking. Iām also always hesitant to follow āmagic formulaā advice given what I know about algorithms and that by their very nature, (algorithms are designed to personalise the feed for each account), there shouldnāt be a one-size-fits-all playbook.
However.
I started to see this advice pop up in multiple places. By multiple different creators. Which tells me that Instagram probably did run a session for creators providing this guidance.
So I decided to try it.
According to these creators/āInstagramā, the key to engagement on Instagram today would be:
Post to grid every day
Edit in app only š¤
Vertical video 16:9
Post to stories 5-6 times per day (and evenly space throughout the day)
Reply to all comments with a comment
Use 3 hashtags only
Which basically reads as: be on Instagram all the time. Go figure, given the channel is desperate to hook creators in and avoid it becoming another Facebook wasteland where no one posts content.
I decided to follow the advice for the month of May and see what happened. Below, are my observations:
I did see an increase in impressions*
*but not that much more than other periods where Iām posting fairly regularly
The peak you can see above ā4ā is the May period where I was posting every day (eye roll at the way Instagram displays analytics, seriously š³) . As you can see, this is a āpeakā, however itās not hugely different to other periods where Iāve been showing up a bit more (yet definitely not as frequently as every day).
The learning? That I can show up less regularly than Instagram recommends, and just showing up and sharing value is enough to make people want to spend time with my content
Reels still perform best and this creates a snowball affectā¦
*even if they arenāt great quality
I posted one reel throughout the experiment. It didnāt get much of, what Iād call, true engagement (comments, replies, shares) BUT itās still the best performing piece of content from the month in terms of reach/impressions. The second highest performing post was this one about five things that have made the biggest difference to my businessā turnover. So why did it do so well? I think it had a few things going for it:
Posted after the reel (Iād hazard a guess that if you mixed a ratio of 1 reel: 1 static carousel you would see good performance)
It was juicy content. We all want to know about making more money right?
It had a lot of comments. I think this was a chicken/egg situation. Being posted after the reel helped it to get more reach which meant it got more comments.
Because it got more comments (Iām theorising here), it then got picked up and shared in Explore. I first realised this because I suddenly got an influx of new followers who I didnāt have any shared followers with (which meant they were brand new people finding me). This was further backed up when I checked the reach of the post:
The learning? Reels still win out. Secondly, if you can create good conditions for a piece of juicy content and get onto Explore, itās enough to make a significant difference in terms of audience growth.
It did get more eyes on my content, but not enough to warrant the effort
Below are my stats from this period vs the period previous. As you can see, I saw an increase in reach and engagement, but no significant increase in account follows.
Balancing the results with the effort it took to produce one grid post daily, plus stories, engagement with my audience etc. I donāt think these results were worth the effort. Sadly, Instagramās ārulesā for best practice seem like another play to get you to spend all of your time on the platform, as opposed to your owned channels (like this newsletter!) or competing platforms such as TikTok.
Iāve seen similar engagement when Iāve been showing up posting valuable content every day just to stories, and Iāve seen better growth when another account has recommended me, or Iāve had a speaker slot at an event.
If Iād put the same content creation into TikTok I think Iād have seen 10X results (although I believe the path from TikTok engagement > actual sales is far longer so swings and roundabouts!).
In conclusion, I think I can return to a fairly regular posting schedule on Instagram and still see āgoodā results.
Most importantly, this feels sustainable, enjoyable and like the effort is worth the return.
Experiment #2: Use LinkedIn!
A dear friend that I used to work with visited me a few months ago. After covering weddings, babies and family chat we, of course, moved onto marketing. Discussing āwhat worksā today she turned and said to me: āBeth you need to start using LinkedInā.
I knew she was right but I still didnāt want to. You see, itās the place where my most profitable target audience hangs out.
I simply havenāt enjoyed using it because 1. Iāve had a few posts hit tumbleweed and this knocks my confidence and makes me not want to return and 2. All my clients use it (!) so I feel the pressure a lot more when I write something and then end up with posting paralysis feeling as though the content isnāt good enough, in a way I never feel with Instagram.
A few weeks later my husband (who isnāt a marketer) turns to me and says āYou really need to start using LinkedInā. Heād been growing his companyās LinkedIn profile page (again, he isnāt a marketer) and was getting great results.
The jury was in: I needed to use LinkedIn.
I didnāt want to go from zero to 100, so I decided to experiment. Iād post a couple of times each week and see what happens.
After a month of doing this, I donāt have any great charts to show (again, thanks to LinkedIn for being rubbish with analytics š³). The most I can report is this peak in profile views over the month of May when Iād been posting more regularly.
But you know what I did get from posting on LinkedIn? Qualitative feedback that it was working. By this I mean stuff that people said to me like:
(New client) āI saw that post you did on LinkedIn about the effects of AI on SEO - really interestingā
Power hour booked - someone I worked with many moons ago saw my content on LinkedIn and booked some consultancy with me for a new project
Client booked - an ex-client saw Iād be working again in July and got in touch to work with me
SEO project enquiry - from someone I went to Uni with who has me on LinkedIn. Apparently SEO has been on his list āforeverā but what prompted him to get the ball rolling? My LinkedIn post
I donāt find LinkedIn the easiest and definitely have to spend longer thinking about the content, but in terms of the return vs effort, itās definitely showing up for me more at the moment than Instagram.
Social media changes so quickly it can be really hard to keep on top of whatās working, which is why I love doing (and sharing) experiments like this one.
Thoughts, questions, feelings? Hit reply and let me know.
Yours,
Beth
A juicy Q&A
A few weeks back I joined the Being Freelance community to be part of a Q&A about all things marketing, SEO and content. We covered TONS š¤Æ like whether itās even worth having a blog today, to how copywriters can add SEO as part of their offering, how to keep your own marketing consistent and how to handle odd SEO requests when working alongside other agencies.
Sharing simply to say that Iām really enjoying joining and helping communities and companies with their general marketing Q&As/strategies this year. So if youāre looking for a lunch & learn type session for a community or company youāre a part of, let me know and perhaps we could collaborate?
Links worth clicking š„
One thing that TikTok users do extremely well is satire and this fully shows up in the latest craze of #canonevent which, as the Guardian describes here, is a rite of passage type life event thatās is usually painful, but essential to who you turn out to be. Examples include bad haircuts, first jobs/boyfriends and other momental life events. Do you know yours? š
It comes as zero surprise to me that 70% of UK graduates and students prioritise a "good salary" when choosing a career. Fun sidenote, after a failed work experience this week working in a designer clothes shop my younger sister told me she wants a ācool jobā like mine instead. Who knew Iād make the cool cut !
This is a fascinating insight into how TikTok curates content for you, or āreads your mindā š, from marketing experts Moz (sorry but TikTok is really the only platform doing anything interesting IMO at the moment).
Interesting move this week when Google sold its domain hosting business to Squarespace. Not much more to say - Googleās known for ditching unprofitable products and trying to compete with website CMSs like Squarespace is probably a bit old hat compared to more exciting options (#AI)
Shout out time > Need to get a webinar up and running for your B2B business? Friend of the newsletter Christina Pashialis is your person. Check out her end-to-end webinar management offering here. Sheās ran 60+ webinars for B2B brands to date š±
Thanks for reading ā¤ļø
Hi Iām Beth š a marketing freelancer who works with owner-led businesses and startups to help initiate, launch and optimise marketing channels. I specialise in content and SEO and am always looking for the next best way to help a company achieve growth š. I also offer a limited number of mentoring spots to freelance and in-house marketers looking for fulfilling, financially rewarding careers.
Get in touch if you think youād like to work me - beth@builtbycontent.com