The most 11 popular myths about Instagram

Eleven popular myths about Instagram

There’re lots of myths about Instagram marketing. Let’s discuss the most popular ones.

Myth 1: it has to be a certain number of hashtags in each post: 10-15, 25-30, no more than 10, etc.

The authors of such recommendations make no arguments for their viewpoint. It’s like a folklore, and the optimum quantity of hashtags is different in various countries. In addition, people spread rumors about the punishment for those who dare to put more or less hashtags.

In reality

Each Instagram user may put up to 30 hashtags for one post. That is maximum, while minimum or optimum are not fixed anywhere. Instead of quantity, think about quality: if the tags will be relevant to the post itself, you will get the required page views.

Myth 2: it’s necessary to put hashtags only manually, using copy-paste is strictly prohibited.

Instagram supposedly ‘understands’, that you copied the list of your tags and very dissatisfied with that, so it reduces the reach of your post and excludes it from personalized search.

In reality

That’s a nonsense. You may put your hashtags just as you like.

Myth 3: each comment must consist of 4-5 words.

Sometimes people exchange likes and comments. These very users were those who spread such rumors: they didn’t like that sometimes their fake comments were too short or even consisted of emoji only.

In reality

Ask somebody to comment your profile with only one symbol or emoji. Then check the statistics, and you will see the comment counted. So every message, published as a comment, is actually a comment.

It’s another matter that some users try to boost their traffic and most of the comments posted in their profiles look primitive like ‘wow’, ‘superb’ and so on. Such comments look suspicious and are able to frighten off your potential followers or customers.

Myth 4: likes from those who open your post clicking a direct link are bad likes.

Some users believe that when somebody goes to your post directly, without visiting your main page, Instagram will notice his like, and it will affect your reach in a negative way. The ‘correct’ like is the one that is put from your feed only.

In reality

Noone can prove that such a nonsense really affected his reach. Such likes are similar to all other ones. However, if you use direct links to increase the quantity of likes, Instagram will notice that, warn you and even ban if you ignore the warning. The other aspect is that you don’t see your real engagement rate. Besides, Instagram will recommend your content to users that don’t belong to your target audience because the system is smart and analyzes the interests of those who liked your photos After that Instagram recommends your profile to people having same interests and to their friends as well.

Myth 5: it is necessary to put hashtags exclusively in the description of your post.

In reality

In actual practice there’s no difference between in description and tags in comments. There’s no reason to believe, that Instagram’s algorithm takes the location of your tags into consideration.

The only shortcoming of tags in comments is that you involuntary deceive your potential visitor showing to him an incorrect quantity of actual comments, because in his feed, before opening the photo, he can see only the total number of comments, not their authorship.

Myth 6: the photos taken on a cell phone get higher rankings.

Ok, let’s admit. But why than nobody can tell how Instagram knows it? Any guesses maybe? None of them: the idea is just offered as a doctrine. Then how professional photographers or any brands are promoted?

In reality

Instagram cannot actually know if you took your picture on the cell phone or any other camera. Sometimes pictures from cell phones become more popular than professional ones, because they are more active, taken from life itself.

Myth 7: pictures with text have low rankings.

In reality

Yes, such rule really exists, but it refers only to advertisements. If your photo doesn’t advertise anything, you have nothing to worry about, except readability of your text. Of course, if you are going to create an advertising post, try to make the text in it as short as you can.

Myth 8: you shouldn’t post one and the same picture more than once.

For instance, you don’t like something on the photo you’ve just published, so you delete it and then publish once again. According to rumors, such deeds are prohibited and will decrease the photo’s rank.

In reality

Since Instagram never confirmed this proposition, we consider it to be the next myth. And what if you didn’t delete but archived the post and then returned it to your feed? In this case it’s reach will really decrease, because your followers already saw this picture in the past, remembered it and now don’t pay attention to it. The follower’s inactivity concerning your post affects the reach.

Myth 9: it’s necessary to publish a certain number of posts every day (1-2, 10-15, 15-20, etc.), otherwise you will be kicked out of the smart feed.

In reality

We didn’t manage to find the source of this myth, and we see no logic of it. In the past users tried to post as often as possible because of the chronological feed, but now, with the smart feed, it’s not relevant any more.

Certainly, you must constantly work upon your account if you want to become popular among your target audience. But it’s not because otherwise you will offend Instagram and it will give your place in users’ feed to someone more active. The real reason is that otherwise your follower will forget you. The required number of posts depends on various factors: target audience and the ability to tell something interesting to your followers. The latter is extremely important. It’s better to make one good than three bad posts.

Myth 10: you should never ask your followers for likes.

Some users believe that if you will write ‘Likes, please’ or something similar, your post will be kicked out of the feed.

In reality

All restrictions for Instagram users are specified in terms of use and nothing is told there about asking for likes, so it’s also a myth. Sometimes such request irritates people and they don’t ‘like’ the post even if they actually consider it to be interesting. But only users make a decision here, not Instagram itself.

Myth 11. The more emoji — the better result. Or vice versa: try not to use emoji at all.

Both of these myths are quite popular. One people say that emoji is the language of Instagram, so each self-respecting user should be able to create long messages consisting of emoji only. Others argue that on and the same emoji look different on various gadgets that is why it’s often hard to understand such messages.

In reality

Enough is as good as a feast. Emoji is a normal way of communication. To use them or not depends on your target audience. Analyze it build a psychological profile of your followers and try to understand if they like emoji or not.

Anyway, avoid the overabundance of emoji. Five or more of them in a row make you look hysterical in the eyes of other people. Sometimes teenagers like the plentitude of emoji and even then not everyone.