Why your Instagram account isn’t growing (musician tips)
Image credit: Alexander Shatov
Getting results on social media isn’t easy but optimising your efforts will ensure you’re making the right moves to find your audience.
Social media is one of the greatest weapons in an artists’ arsenal. It’s a platform that reaches the whole world and yet it’s completely free to use. However, making an impact on social media may feel like an uphill battle.
The algorithm is always changing and audiences don’t necessarily stick around. It’s time to get the fans that you deserve. With a little knowledge and some tweaking of your approach, you can ensure that all of your efforts are going in the right place.
No more wasting time on content that doesn’t work, guarantee you’re doing the right thing with our advice on why your account isn’t growing (and some pointers to make sure it does).
We’re looking specifically at Instagram, the third most popular social media platform in the world. Instagram is a fantastic platform for building a fanbase and increasing engagement on your content, whether it’s music, videos, or influencer posts. With feed posts, Reels, Stories, and more, there are many ways to engage on Instagram, you just need to know how to do it.
These are the things you might be doing wrong on Instagram that are preventing your growth from its full potential.
Not posting Stories daily
Stories should be your number-one focus on Instagram. That doesn’t mean putting loads of effort into making high-quality content to post every day on Stories, in fact it’s quite the opposite. Stories thrive off of casual and easy content and that’s what makes them so fantastic for creators.
Posts can be as simple as sharing a photo of your coffee, a quick snap of you working on a track, artists that you’re meeting. It can even be a black screen with some text on top. Stories are designed to be quick snapshots of your life and as such the pressure on amazing content isn’t there.
Stories are temporary with a 24-hour limit, so if a Story doesn’t engage then it will just disappear. Unlike Feed posts, Instagram won’t punish your account for posting a bad story but it will reward you for posting regularly.
There are loads of features to use in Stories. Stickers allow you to ask questions, encourage DMs, share songs that you’re listening to and so much more. Make use of them to keep things interesting and inspire regular content.
Don’t be afraid of repeating content either, as Stories are made for daily moments and allow creators to be true to themselves – including their daily habits. They allow viewers an easy but intimate look into a creators life which establishes a connection. If you post a picture of your coffee every morning, viewers won’t necessarily get bored of the photos so much as they’ll wonder what’s happened when you don’t post one!
Here’s one of the most amazing features of Stories: You can add links to your Instagram Story. Post a URL in your Story to encourage viewers to visit your website, listen to your music, subscribe to you on YouTube, buy your merch, and so much more! It’s a chance to translate your engagement into something more meaningful for your career.
Remember to enjoy what you’re creating. People can tell when content is forced and will be turned off.
Posting on the Feed too often
The Feed isn’t what it used to be. Now, it should be a place for highlights and quality content. You have Stories for all of the more casual, raw content about your daily occurrences but you want to save your Feed for the really special moments with the best photos/videos.
Posting mediocre content regularly will engage less, and it really impacts your position on Instagram. The Instagram Feed is no longer chronological but is based on engagement. This means that you can’t rely on your post being seen when users log in. This does however mean that if you are posting quality content and getting engagement, you have the potential to reach more and more people.
Quality over quantity should summarise your approach to your feed. Even if you’re only posting once a month, as long as it’s really good content you will get the most out of it. Think of it as your portfolio; how do you want the world to see you? In fact, talent scouts will often quite literally treat it as your portfolio and use the quality and theme of your Feed posts to define you.
You can use press photos to ensure your images are high quality. Think about what your fans want to see as well. Live photos will tell the story of you as an artist and encourage fans to see your concerts, recording studio images will show you hard at work and tease future music, photos with other artists will build hype around collaborations or live shows together.
Don’t underestimate your captions either. In a world of content, captions are your chance to stand out. If 100 artists share an image from their concert, you can enhance your image with your caption. Use it to tell a story that captures audiences and reveals more than the picture says. Don’t simply describe the photo, like “Last night’s gig in Vancouver”, as everybody can see that. Tell a large story that draws audiences in – there’s no limit on captions anymore.
And remember, reply to your comments. Engagement with your audience is a huge part of building lasting connections. The bonus engagement will also favour your account in Instagram’s eyes.
Ignoring Reels content
Reels are massive and if you’re not creating Reels, you’re missing out. Instagram put a huge push on Reels content because they want Reels content to grow and have an impact.
In terms of output, Reels is a sort-of middle ground between Feed and Stories. You can have fun and be more casual in your Reels videos than your refined Feed content, but you don’t want to be posting all the time unlike Stories.
Content can include skits and funny moments, behind the scenes content, recording snippets, live performances, and more. Take a look other creators to see what content works and follow trends to get involved in viral moments that might bring in new viewers. This is your place to have fun but still think a little bit about what will actually appeal to your existing audience and reach potential new viewers. You can experiment to see what works and double down on what audiences seem to like.
Engage within the first 3 seconds to ensure viewers. If you get swiped past, Instagram won’t favour your content. Add text to the screen to give immediate context and pull viewers in. Also, add captions to maximise your views; many people watch videos with the sound off, and you don’t want to exclude deaf or hard of hearing people either.
A note of warning, if you’re reposting your TikTok content don’t feature the watermark. This will kill your performance – Instagram can tell when a video has the TikTok watermark and will push it down.
Paying for engagement
A huge trap that creators fall for is paying to boost their content. It may feel enticing in the early days to get the ball rolling, but it’s one of the worst things you can do. Not only are the numbers meaningless when they aren’t genuine fans who’ve followed because they like your content, but Instagram have ways of detecting fake engagement and will block content.
This means that your content will be pushed down for buying comments, likes, and follows. If you have done this, you may even want to consider starting again with a new page to ensure that your future, genuine efforts aren’t marred by Instagram punishing your content. If your engagement is fake, then it doesn’t provide revenue to Instagram and therefore they will give it no chance in the algorithm.
Not making your music available in Instagram’s music library
You can upload your music to Instagram’s music library, making it available around the world for use in content like Stories, Reels, and Feed posts. This opens up your tracks to huge levels of exposure as users reach completely new audiences with their content that features your music.
Tracks can explode in popularity after featuring in a viral video or they can become the soundtrack to a trend encouraging more and more creators to use your song. This offers massive potential to find new listeners and create new fans who listen to your music beyond Instagram.
You can upload your music to Instagram’s library for free with RouteNote. You can distribute as many songs as you like at no cost, earning revenue every time your songs are used in a video. What’s more, you can upload your music to other platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts, as well as music services like Spotify and Apple Music.
Adding your music to Instagram is a fantastic way to promote your music. Whether you use it in your own posts to promote your tracks or let creators discover your songs for use in their own videos and posts, get the world listening on Instagram.
Sign up for free at www.routenote.com.