Break Out of your Follower Bubble!

What’s a follower bubble? 🧼 (👈 This is a “soap emoji”. Does it work for you?)

The follower bubble is really just something to be aware of. It’s the reason why you might want to use hashtags, for example.

How does Instagram decide whom to show your posts? What is their metric?

Basically, they want to get eyeballs—for advertising. 👀👀👀

That means, they want to show your stuff to people who enjoy your stuff. People who will stay on IG longer because they enjoy looking at your pics/ vids, and reading your caption.

Like you read this one. (Hope you enjoy it. 🤣)

How does Instagram know who will enjoy your stuff? They’re good with analyzing data such as “user behavior” but they’re not magicians 🧙‍♀️ either.

Well, how would /you/ know?

You’d look for signs that someone cares about a post or an account. “Expressions of interest” you might call it.

And one very strong way to say “I like this stuff, give me more” is following an account.

So, then Instagram is like a bloodhound picking up a trail. It knows you love that stuff and gives you more of that.

The downside of this whole “expression of interest” magic for you as a knife maker is:

Your posts will be mostly shared to your followers and people who often like your posts or or comment on them. (Other “expressions of interest”.)

That is your FOLLOWER BUBBLE.

And the question then is:

How do you reach people who have never seen your stuff? Or … How do you break out of the bubble?

(Imagine Queen’s “Break Free” playing in the background. 🎸 🔊)

There are many ways and we post about them regularly. And I think you know a few answers to that already, right? 😆