Why do people always have to go and change?

We liked you just the way you were, Insta. If I can still even call you by your cute little nickname. We might be too distant for that now.

But you know what they say, if you’re not growing together, you’re growing apart. And I’m sorry to say it, Instagram, but we’ve drifted so far.

You used to be an amazing place for small biz owners and creators.

Your community was fun, friendly, and supportive. Your users posted creative and educational content that had the chance to do so well and spread so far.

But now, you’ve lost what made you you. You’re basically TikTok-lite. I know it stings to hear, but it’s the truth.

Your community is now filled with people confused by your algorithm and arguing about the best way to use it. You’re causing many of us to feel sad, drained, and used.

You haven’t been very nice.

So, Instagram, I’m sorry to say but I’m leaving you.

I’ve written you this to tell you exactly why. I’m not asking you to change, I’m not even asking for you to understand, I just needed you to know.

Okay, I have to stop talking directly to Instagram now. I can’t keep it up for the rest of the email. But it’s honestly so fun and cathartic to speak dramatically to platforms like that, highly recommend.

ANYWAY.

Deciding to leave a platform isn’t easy, especially when your biz once depended on it.

But continuing to stay with something that isn’t serving you or your business and is draining the life from you isn’t helpful either. Trying to force a square into a circle is only going to lead to frustration.

So today I’m going to outline my thoughts on why Instagram isn’t working for me anymore, how it used to work for me, why I’ve decided to leave, and where I’m going to be spending my time instead.

The problem with Instagram

So what exactly is my grudge with Instagram? Well, there’s been some changes that have made it pretty unusable for my business.

Instagram has changed its feed to not only show you the people you follow, but instead, to recommend you new things.

This might not sound like a big deal, especially because a lot of people like to see new, recommended posts, but it’s pushing down smaller voices on the platform.

Have you ever noticed that the only posts Instagram’s AI recommends you are posts that already have thousands of likes?

Part of the way Instagram decides on which posts to recommend is their popularity.

So, if your posts aren’t already popular, how are you going to become more popular and gain more followers? Instagram’s feed isn’t going to help you.

And even if you do gain more followers, is that going to even help?

It’s like pulling teeth to get your followers to see your posts anymore.

Before I dive into this issue, I do want to mention that there is a way to see posts only from people you follow, but it’s not the default, there is no way to make it the default, and there’s no way to do it on desktop.

Banking on all of your followers to do that is not realistic. But if you only want to see posts from those you follow, it can be helpful for the way you scroll. Although it’s not possible for us app uninstallers and desktop users.

Most of the time when I post anything on Instagram, it reaches a fraction of my followers. I have 1,129 followers. For most of my recent posts, only 100-200 of my followers actually even see it.

Here’s the stats for my last 4 posts:

All but one used hashtags (because why use hashtags on my “I’m leaving Instagram” post), which accounts for some of the difference in non-follower reach. And proves hashtags are still important.

Now, maybe a lot of my followers have left Instagram recently and that’s why they’re not seeing my posts. But, this still doesn’t instill any confidence in me to want to use Instagram.

The percentage of my followers that see my posts range from 11-17% in these 4 posts. That’s abysmal.

I can reach almost the same amount of people here on Substack but with content that I’m 100x more proud of.

Which brings me to…

Making content for Instagram is soul crushing

A lot of the content I create has a ton of nuance to it that takes time and length to do justice.

For example, I wrote 1518 words on Green web design tools I can't live without.

When I transferred that post over to Instagram, I had to cut it down to 253 words.

Now, there can be a benefit to posting shorter forms of content. Not everyone wants to read my novels (I don’t know why not because they’re full of fun puns and amazing information, their loss). And that’s completely valid!

But the people that I want to be connecting to are the people that want the deep dives. They want every little detail. They want to sign up to a course about Green Web Design and then watch a 33 minute video about electricity generation cause they’re nerds just like me.

Instagram isn’t and won’t be that platform.

And I could add more text by adding comments or writing a lot onto images, but then you get into issues of accessibility or people not reading or seeing all the comments.

Instagram isn’t made for longform content and that’s okay. But it doesn’t mean I have to stay when shortening my content leaves me feeling hollow.

I’m not getting clients from Instagram anymore, either

The last client I got through Instagram was in 2021.

In 2022, I heavily dropped off posting, so that could contribute to it as well, but I’ve been hearing from a lot of other designers that the Instagram well has dried up.

My biggest guess as to why is that “post Covid” (we’re not really post Covid but that’s what everyone’s calling it, so I’m referring to whatever this state that we’re in right now is called), a lot of people are going back to in person events and are sick and tired of staring at their screens and scrolling social media.

Which is understandable! I’m tired of staring at screens, too. But it’s had real dollars and cents impacts on the business I get, or should I say got, from Instagram.

On the other hand, getting local clients has seen a huge uptick in the world of design, for myself and other designers I talk to.

I know this is all anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt. I’m sure there are others still getting clients from Instagram. But it seems the trend is moving away from Insta.

The one asterisk to this is that I have gotten course sales from Instagram. It was only 1 or 2 but it was something. Everyone else that signed up was on the waitlist and had been getting my emails about it, so Insta wasn’t fully necessary for them.

Overall, if Instagram’s not bringing me many sales and it’s bringing my mood down, it’s hard to justify the time cost for keeping my profile active.

And sunk cost is not a good enough reason to keep up with it.

(Although I am keeping my profile and will be using it to keep up with people through DMs. So if we usually talk through Insta, feel free to keep DMing me, I just won’t be posting or interacting with many posts anymore.)

But, I will admit, it’s hard to cut and run

It’s scary out in the world without the place that used to keep you anchored to reality. Or at least your business reality.

It’s where I made a ton of my wonderful friends.

It’s where I used to find so much inspiration.

It’s where I started to learn a lot about green design.

But I have to face the cold, hard truth that it’s all not the case anymore. Holding onto hope of it coming back to how it used to be is draining even more life from me.

And there’s tons of successful businesses who don’t use Instagram. It’s not a requirement. I can pivot, try new things, and see what works.

This isn’t the first time I’ve left a place that wasn’t serving me. I used to be in a local networking group and I was scared to leave it because they made me believe I wouldn’t get any business if I did.

They’d stop referring clients to me if I wasn’t a part of their little club. They’d ignore me because I dared to leave an environment that was bringing me down.

But you know what?

I left that in early 2021 and I’m still here. I still have a business. I didn’t actually need them. And leaving opened up time for me to do things that actually helped me instead of brought me down.

And I made more money in my business after leaving them. They truly were a drain.

It’s hard to take the leap but, you know, in your soul, when it’s time to go.

And it’s time to go.

Where am I going from here?

Without Insta, where am I going to be spending my time? Well, here of course!

Substack has been such a joy in my life. It doesn’t cut me off with a character limit and it doesn’t leave me worried about whether my subscribers will actually see my posts.

Most of the topics I talk about lend themselves to long-form content over quick carousels or captions. It let’s me dive as deep as I want to and pull in sources and quotes from others.

And unlike other email platforms, my emails don’t disappear into the void! They all exist for anyone to find within Substack. And Substack’s network helps me build my audience.

I can’t say enough good things about this platform.

The only drawback is it will take time to rebuild an engaged community here. I did move here with a list of about 270 subscribers. People started leaving once I started sending emails again, which is to be expected. But I’ve had new subscribers trickling in, too, so I’m sitting a smidgen above the 270 mark now.

And while that might not sound super encouraging, it’s all part of the growing pains that come with change. It will stable itself out and eventually grow past where I started. It just takes some consistent effort on my part!

Right now, I have an open rate of about 45-50% for every post. Which is amazing!! And that’s better than the percent of my Instagram followers that see each post by a lot.

The open rate plus views from other peeps in the Substack network get me around 240-350 views for each post. And I’m absolutely overjoyed with that! Especially since I only started posting here back in May. It’s a great starting place to be at and will continue to go up.

Outside of Substack, I might explore Pinterest as an option. Making pins is really fun for me - it was always the highlight at my old job. I haven’t dived into Pinterest fully yet because I haven’t had the time to sit down and make templates, but it will happen.

I have absolutely no idea how it will go. I’ve never invested enough time in Pinterest to find out. It will be an experiment but it should be a fun one.

I’m pretty much avoiding all other social platforms, though. You couldn’t pay me enough to go to TikTok, which my biz isn’t suited for anyway.

I don’t trust Meta so Threads is also out. I never liked Twitter either so going to what might become their successor sounds soul crushing on top of the Meta distrust.

And LinkedIn makes me sad so I’m kind of abandoning that, too (maybe I’ll write another post about my LinkedIn experience if anyone’s interested).

It’s a new chapter in my online biz world. It’s both an exciting and scary time.

But overall, I feel like a weight has been lifted. I don’t have to spend hours making a carousel anymore just to watch it tank. I don’t have to fight off the inevitable spam comments and DMs.

I can find a new way of biz that works for me.

Are you also feeling down about Insta?

If you are and want to vent or talk about your fears and concerns with leaving or staying, feel free to reply or drop a comment below. I’m always happy to chat openly and honestly about these kinds of things!

It’s also not just you or your fault that Insta isn’t as good as it used to be. There’s a lot of bad things going on behind the scenes that aren’t helping us. And you can’t just post more to get around it, no matter what anyone says.

If you want the full scoop into the “enshittification” of Instagram and all the juicy details behind the scenes, check out this post from Emma Fanning over on Green Graphic Design.

Green Graphic Design

I hate Instagram. But I feel I can't leave...

In nearly every private conversation I’ve had with different designers and creatives over the last 6 months, the topic of hating social media, specifically Instagram, comes up. The doomscroll. The addictive nature of the apps. The difficulty of keeping up with the ever-changing whims of the algorithm. The pressure of having to post weekly, if not daily…

Read more

3 years ago · 11 likes · 13 comments · Emma Fanning

Her post is so worth the read! Don’t let its length intimidate you 😉

Thanks so much for venturing into the Blue Raspberry Patch with me! I’ve enjoyed writing about both biz and personal stuff to you all and am so grateful for all of you that are here.