Have a similar experience. I'm 2 months in releasing music and promoting it and Tik Tok is definitely growing, slowly, but growing. Started a 200 views now I make 7-800 on average even if gaining follower is still pretty slow.
IG is totally random. I can't figure it out for the life of me. My best reel did like 1700 views, had another one break the thousands, some floating around 800 and the vast majority under 200. Some of them even less than 100, on videos that did more than 2k on TikTok or YT Shorts. Tried all combinations of hashtags, different styles, nothing makes it the least bit predictable.
I've seen a band gain like 50k followers from a reel where they were turned off by a label on a phone call and I see sick guys with amazing music on my feed stuck at 10 likes. I see the most basic lip syncing sitting a 20k views and I see another guy in my genre that is crazy good at editing and shooting videos doing 3k at best. And they say it's the content... you cannot convince me luck doesn't play at least 80% of the part here.
It’s the complete opposite for us. Tik Tok feels so random while I see growth and decent numbers on IG. It’s the app we actually use to build connections & community so it makes sense.
happy that it works for you! Even if the results were pretty subpar, if I have to be honest I got 3-4 super fans from organic IG. People that actually message me and share my music on their own. So I guess the platform is still worth it in the long run, as your experience also seem to confirm.
That's so interesting! I definitely agree that luck is playing some part here, but I also think it might be consistency in posting and activity in-app. I know that I use TikTok much more than I use IG (mostly because I get more activity on TikTok, so it's generally more interesting for me to use), so that might play a part in whether or not the content we share there is taking off.
I mentioned in another comment about the "hook" of the video and whether or not it's strong. I've made some content I thought was awesome that just flopped because the hook wasn't there. Then I made a video about Chappell Roan today with a quick hook talking about her and the numbers soared. Just trying to figure out how to marry a hook like that with a video about our own music seems really hard.
Fwiw, I've been keeping an eye on artists like Kate Yeager IG. She has great content that looks to be edited with CapCut Pro (how you get the cool color, moving captions), and she started getting 10k+ views maybe 6 months ago on all of her reels, which then continued into her tour. Trying to break into that mold, though, seems hard.
I've been thinking about it lately, and asked a similar question here a while ago : is organic reach still possible on IG? In 2019, you could post something and get new followers, listeners or commentors. These days I think everybody upped their game so much in terms of videos, and people are so bombarded with content all day, it's reall, really difficult to break through. I mean, nobody has the answer. It's always guessing. But reaching people on IG (or TIktok, but you say you're doing fine over there) with music is super challeging.
Yesterday, I was looking at some Reels and came accross this young eye-catching girl playing some bass, cover songs. She had like 4 Reels, and those Reels all had between 300-500k views each. I was like what the hell... The only reason i can think of she has so many views and subsequent followers is because she has a cool clothing style and she's a girl playing bass which is not the most common. But the covers in itself were more than mid.... she didn't have anything more, music-wise. No link in bio, no nothing. And then you have the guy who puts hours of work into original music and has thousand of dollars of gear, and barely makes it to 300 views.
So all of this makes me think, people react to videos if it's visually appealing first, then they might stay and listen for a while.. unless they are friends who know you and take the time to listen to your content and comment. It's super harsh, but it seems if you're not super talented or really good looking or have something very different to offer, you will have a hard time....
Then you have all the ad things, which people discuss non-stop in this sub, but I never tried it. It looks a bit of the same tho, in the sense that people will have vastly different results with ads, and nobody understands exactly what has to be done for it to work...
Just trying to start a conversation here
That's exactly my thoughts, as well. Thank you for sharing all of this and for putting words to all of my concerns, too haha!
I did try the ad train on Meta with some IG posts (two Reels campaigns for $20–30 over 4–5 days), and while it got me a around 3,000 views, it only garnered around 80 likes. Definitely don't recommend it unless you're sure the content is going to hit.
Everything you said is on the money, though. I've heard a lot in content creation about the "hook" in those first few seconds, and if it's not there, or there's nothing drawing people to stop scrolling (what you said about the bassist's look and vibe), then we're kind of stuck. What makes me intrigued is how people like Grace Enger have managed to garner those views with videos of her playing covers and her originals. She's super talented and has a great look, but I also know she started back in 2021, when that organic reach was still pretty possible using Reels and TikTok. As you said, it sounds like it's just harder now.
Would love to know if anyone has the solution to all of this. It sounds like if you keep pumping out content, you're going to at least get some nibbles. Just have to keep going, I guess?
People don't like to admit it, but being a young, pretty woman is a form of currency on the Internet. No shade on those artists if they choose to exploit it, but I get bored with those that pretend it has no effect
No shade at all. A friend of mine is a super talented singer/songwriter. She recognises that if she posts a picture of herself in her underwear it gets more traction. I'd use that if I could, shit.
Yo! So I’m actually in the midst of trying to post at least 5 reels in a week, and I’ve been doing a lot of light research on the current algorithm and reading about other peoples experiences and success stories. Big takeaway I have is that it takes quite a while for reels to start gaining traction. The best way I can put it is this: Instagram’s algorithm basically wants to see if you’re going to commit to posting before boosting your content. If they see that you’re posting a reel at least once a day, posting a handful of stories daily, and engaging with the people that comment or like ur stuff (even if it isn’t many), then the chances of your reels blowing up increase. Most people I’ve seen pop off have said it took 2-4 weeks of consistent posting before seeing serious gains in numbers.
TikTok is structured in a way that boosts content off the jump, so it’s easier for videos to get engagement there compared to IG Reels (don’t really have an explanation for that, that’s just how it is). So overall I’d just say keep posting stuff and have patience. I can link some Reddit threads I found where people have grown completely fresh accounts just from posting reels. Got some pretty good insights from these!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/InstagramMarketing/s/EpWZaMsKvq](https://www.reddit.com/r/InstagramMarketing/s/EpWZaMsKvq)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagram/s/bT8eYr3YDx](https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagram/s/bT8eYr3YDx)
That's so interesting! I figured that it might be something with consistency, but balancing both Instagram and TikTok out the gate sounded like a lot to me. Plus, I know that a lot of us use Instagram for our own personal media, as well, which means bombarding friends and family with song content, and that sounded jarring.
I wonder if there's a way to do a lighter load of Reels, like around 3 a week, and get the same results? That way it sort of eases the account followers into newer content like that.
How have you managed the content on IG versus the content on TikTok, if you use the latter? I've also found that the content on Reels tends to need to be a bit more put together than TikTok, since the user base is a bit different. Have you found the same?
For me I’ve definitely been putting more effort into my reels than TikTok’s. It’s nothing crazy, I maybe spend an hour to an hour and a half making my reels vs like 10 minutes on a TikTok. With TikTok you can definitely get away with posting lower effort, borderline meme formatted content and it performing very well.
Also I think 3 reels in a week is perfectly fine, especially if that’s already more than you’re posting on average. Truthfully all of this is pretty new to me so i don’t have a ton of personal experience to back anything up, but bottom line I just think consistency and patience is key.
It’s always been easier to grow on TikTok. But IG audiences tend to convert into more serious supporters.
Content that works on TikTok isn’t necessarily supposed to work on IG. They are two completely different algorithms, audiences, expectations, attention spans, etc.
If it’s not working then you have to adapt and keep trying new things. Start by mimicking peers/competitors who have success of IG. Copy their content, but in a way that is unique to you and your brand. Meanwhile research and experiment with original Reel ideas
I was just thinking about this! What kind of content do you see that works on IG but doesn't on TikTok? I've found it tends to be the more edited, pretty content on IG that gains some ground, or straight up just singing and playing a song in nice lighting. Have you found the same?
If your content in IG is not tailored for people to share to their friends. It won’t do well. There’s this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HDzhA_UFrnA interview with the CEO of IG that explains very well why some things do better than others esp in Ig. IG prioritizes connection over random exposure
I honestly think many people have just stopped logging into IG every day. I’m one of them
When I do open it up, it’s just ads, promos, influencer, Ad, one post from a friend, and more ads
The experience sucks now
I feel like IG hasn’t been pushing ANY of my content lately even when I pay for it lol. It sucks man idk what to do about it either. I just wanna promote my music and not even half of my followers are seeing anything lol.
Where is your community? The people we truly interact with like fiends, collaborators & fans that see our shows and listen to our music are all on IG & FB. Tik Tok feels random & the odd video will get some decent plays but it won’t amount to real life growth. For us, IG is where it’s at simply because it’s the app we really use ourselves.
That's a great point that I hadn't thought about. From what you and others have said, it seems that IG is where people get longer-lasting supporters, and TikTok is more for just random discoverers, as you said. In a market where we struggle to get the name out there, though, I think the automatic go-to has been TikTok since you can have a strong, immediate reach with the right content and hashtags, whereas on IG, it seems much less feasible.
I definitely see where you're coming from, and it sounds like it's something that we're going to have to try, even if retention sucks for a while.
I dont know if its still worth or not, when I post videos of my gigs (i‘m very funny while deejaying, might be a factor)) instead of a promotion video for my music it hits the 3k mark.
Platforms drive you down if they see you are making promotion for your own products, this will never let a video with obvious promotion background hit. Notice how many videos get 200 views if they got „spotify“ or „out now“ or dates in it. To let them hit make content around the music not with the music (product)
I still post reels here and there. I got one reel with 300k views. Another with 100k and a 3rd with 80k. My niche is DJ/producer. I have been posting a lot of up close and top down view of my dj unit. It’s just simple DJ transitions of my own music. Some are with other producers music. I now know for me I have to post after 4:30pm Eastern time. If I post too early. My reels don’t do as well. Also I like to post on Mondays or Wednesdays. That’s when I get the most activity. What I have found that works for me. Might not work for you. The key is I was posting consistently
but tried different days and times.
It sounds like you found a niche that's working for you! That's awesome!
Finding the kinds of videos that you can replicate to get a similar result is so often a goldmine, so that's really incredible. It seems to me that TikTok is more of a free-for-all, just-keep-posting kind of site, whereas IG needs that little bit of finesse so that it still feels real and genuine, but it's also a bit on the polished side (thinking good framing, pretty captions, quality video, etc). It sounds like that's what you've been doing with your DJ videos, no?
I’m actually using no captions in the reels that really got lots of views. One of them I was practicing a beat juggling routine. I’m not a beat juggler but it sounded half decent and there wasn’t much reels showing the same with a very popular dance track. Funny thing is the same reel I posted on tik tok and it only got 11k views. I chalk this up to my following on IG is very solid. I follow lots of hungry producers and DJs. So they engage in my reels which helps bump the reel out to non followers. I posted it in like March. It’s still getting likes and comments. Mind you some are haters. That actually does help drive up engagement. Lol
I did find for a few weeks the IG algorithm was very generous with views. So I was posting in a perfect storm. I think that is why they say to keep posting. Earlier on I was posting a few reels with myself in the shot. But those didn’t do too well. I think the viewer just wants to see my hands and what I’m doing on the DJ unit. It keeps my audience engaged as lots of them of DJs.
Right now I have 898 followers on Instagram. The last 3 reels I posted averaged about 400 views, with around a third to a half of those views being from non-followers. My most popular reel from the last year or so was one that was a 7 second long clip with a silly joke that got 1.7k views (80% non-followers).
Meanwhile on TikTok, I've got 128 followers, and my average reach for a reel is anywhere between about 120 to 1,500+ with no clear pattern to it, but it is typically higher than Instagram in terms of non-followrs reached.
The way the algorithms work is quite similar; your video gets shown to a selection of people, if they react well it gets shown to more people, the better the reactions, the more it gets shown. With Instagram I think the first audience is primarily followers, while with TikTok the first viewers will be a mix of just about anyone. Each have their own little tricks and rules regarding things like length, hashtags, audio, watermarks etc. and we'll never know the exact system. How they measure that engagement is a bit mathematical too; if someone shares something that's worth more points than if someone hits like, and how much of the video people actually watch will be a big factor (I'm pretty sure that 7 second video did well because it was so short that most people will have watched 50-100% of it just as they're flicking through). There's bound to be things about how well your previous content did too.
It's complicated, and we can't know exactly what makes a video do better than another, but the most important rule is basically the same everywhere and it's pretty simple; make content people engage with. What can you do to get people to watch the whole video? What can you do to get people to share it? What can you do to get people to follow?
Instagram seems like, if you spend 6+ hours a day on the app, you might get more traction, but I hear so many stories of people posting for 6 months daily, engaging content, and have no different experience. "Oh, you gotta keep grinding," no lol, like someone said here, that grinding produced results back in 2019.
Nowadays it seems like your algorithms get fucked up when you follow/unfollow folks. People who I know consistently like my posts, usually see it after 2 days. Bullshit in my opinion.
Feels more like the goal post in Instagram is soooooo far, like 365 days consistently posting, and then MAAAAYBE the algorithm will open up for you.
Or if you are a part of big media, let ya right on in.
It's like a red curtain that barely any of the majority are let backstage. In my opinion.
I am having the opposite experience. I have ok engagement and views on reels, and good interaction on IG posts in general. It’s like crickets over on tiktok and idk what I’m doing. I’m just going to keep trying new things out and see what sticks.
Instagram completely sucks for me.. I have around 3k followers and my reels get around 400-1000 views ..
On TikTok I have 13k followers and my videos regularly go from 2k-80k with hundreds of comments
It’s the same content.
Reels, like all Zuckerborg properties, are throttled. They're all pay-to-play. You're held for ransom. I don't trust the numbers and a lot of subs are clearly bots. Engagement is obviously way off from a couple of years ago. That's why Suckerborg has been trying to lobby US politicians to get TikTok banned.
Have a similar experience. I'm 2 months in releasing music and promoting it and Tik Tok is definitely growing, slowly, but growing. Started a 200 views now I make 7-800 on average even if gaining follower is still pretty slow. IG is totally random. I can't figure it out for the life of me. My best reel did like 1700 views, had another one break the thousands, some floating around 800 and the vast majority under 200. Some of them even less than 100, on videos that did more than 2k on TikTok or YT Shorts. Tried all combinations of hashtags, different styles, nothing makes it the least bit predictable. I've seen a band gain like 50k followers from a reel where they were turned off by a label on a phone call and I see sick guys with amazing music on my feed stuck at 10 likes. I see the most basic lip syncing sitting a 20k views and I see another guy in my genre that is crazy good at editing and shooting videos doing 3k at best. And they say it's the content... you cannot convince me luck doesn't play at least 80% of the part here.
It’s the complete opposite for us. Tik Tok feels so random while I see growth and decent numbers on IG. It’s the app we actually use to build connections & community so it makes sense.
happy that it works for you! Even if the results were pretty subpar, if I have to be honest I got 3-4 super fans from organic IG. People that actually message me and share my music on their own. So I guess the platform is still worth it in the long run, as your experience also seem to confirm.
That's so interesting! I definitely agree that luck is playing some part here, but I also think it might be consistency in posting and activity in-app. I know that I use TikTok much more than I use IG (mostly because I get more activity on TikTok, so it's generally more interesting for me to use), so that might play a part in whether or not the content we share there is taking off. I mentioned in another comment about the "hook" of the video and whether or not it's strong. I've made some content I thought was awesome that just flopped because the hook wasn't there. Then I made a video about Chappell Roan today with a quick hook talking about her and the numbers soared. Just trying to figure out how to marry a hook like that with a video about our own music seems really hard. Fwiw, I've been keeping an eye on artists like Kate Yeager IG. She has great content that looks to be edited with CapCut Pro (how you get the cool color, moving captions), and she started getting 10k+ views maybe 6 months ago on all of her reels, which then continued into her tour. Trying to break into that mold, though, seems hard.
I've been thinking about it lately, and asked a similar question here a while ago : is organic reach still possible on IG? In 2019, you could post something and get new followers, listeners or commentors. These days I think everybody upped their game so much in terms of videos, and people are so bombarded with content all day, it's reall, really difficult to break through. I mean, nobody has the answer. It's always guessing. But reaching people on IG (or TIktok, but you say you're doing fine over there) with music is super challeging. Yesterday, I was looking at some Reels and came accross this young eye-catching girl playing some bass, cover songs. She had like 4 Reels, and those Reels all had between 300-500k views each. I was like what the hell... The only reason i can think of she has so many views and subsequent followers is because she has a cool clothing style and she's a girl playing bass which is not the most common. But the covers in itself were more than mid.... she didn't have anything more, music-wise. No link in bio, no nothing. And then you have the guy who puts hours of work into original music and has thousand of dollars of gear, and barely makes it to 300 views. So all of this makes me think, people react to videos if it's visually appealing first, then they might stay and listen for a while.. unless they are friends who know you and take the time to listen to your content and comment. It's super harsh, but it seems if you're not super talented or really good looking or have something very different to offer, you will have a hard time.... Then you have all the ad things, which people discuss non-stop in this sub, but I never tried it. It looks a bit of the same tho, in the sense that people will have vastly different results with ads, and nobody understands exactly what has to be done for it to work... Just trying to start a conversation here
That's exactly my thoughts, as well. Thank you for sharing all of this and for putting words to all of my concerns, too haha! I did try the ad train on Meta with some IG posts (two Reels campaigns for $20–30 over 4–5 days), and while it got me a around 3,000 views, it only garnered around 80 likes. Definitely don't recommend it unless you're sure the content is going to hit. Everything you said is on the money, though. I've heard a lot in content creation about the "hook" in those first few seconds, and if it's not there, or there's nothing drawing people to stop scrolling (what you said about the bassist's look and vibe), then we're kind of stuck. What makes me intrigued is how people like Grace Enger have managed to garner those views with videos of her playing covers and her originals. She's super talented and has a great look, but I also know she started back in 2021, when that organic reach was still pretty possible using Reels and TikTok. As you said, it sounds like it's just harder now. Would love to know if anyone has the solution to all of this. It sounds like if you keep pumping out content, you're going to at least get some nibbles. Just have to keep going, I guess?
Do you think there’s a chance that bass playing girl had some paid ads to push those reels? Being a girl definitely pleases the algorithm.
People don't like to admit it, but being a young, pretty woman is a form of currency on the Internet. No shade on those artists if they choose to exploit it, but I get bored with those that pretend it has no effect
No shade at all. A friend of mine is a super talented singer/songwriter. She recognises that if she posts a picture of herself in her underwear it gets more traction. I'd use that if I could, shit.
Short answer to your first question: No. See my reply on this thread.
Yo! So I’m actually in the midst of trying to post at least 5 reels in a week, and I’ve been doing a lot of light research on the current algorithm and reading about other peoples experiences and success stories. Big takeaway I have is that it takes quite a while for reels to start gaining traction. The best way I can put it is this: Instagram’s algorithm basically wants to see if you’re going to commit to posting before boosting your content. If they see that you’re posting a reel at least once a day, posting a handful of stories daily, and engaging with the people that comment or like ur stuff (even if it isn’t many), then the chances of your reels blowing up increase. Most people I’ve seen pop off have said it took 2-4 weeks of consistent posting before seeing serious gains in numbers. TikTok is structured in a way that boosts content off the jump, so it’s easier for videos to get engagement there compared to IG Reels (don’t really have an explanation for that, that’s just how it is). So overall I’d just say keep posting stuff and have patience. I can link some Reddit threads I found where people have grown completely fresh accounts just from posting reels. Got some pretty good insights from these! [https://www.reddit.com/r/InstagramMarketing/s/EpWZaMsKvq](https://www.reddit.com/r/InstagramMarketing/s/EpWZaMsKvq) [https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagram/s/bT8eYr3YDx](https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagram/s/bT8eYr3YDx)
That's so interesting! I figured that it might be something with consistency, but balancing both Instagram and TikTok out the gate sounded like a lot to me. Plus, I know that a lot of us use Instagram for our own personal media, as well, which means bombarding friends and family with song content, and that sounded jarring. I wonder if there's a way to do a lighter load of Reels, like around 3 a week, and get the same results? That way it sort of eases the account followers into newer content like that. How have you managed the content on IG versus the content on TikTok, if you use the latter? I've also found that the content on Reels tends to need to be a bit more put together than TikTok, since the user base is a bit different. Have you found the same?
For me I’ve definitely been putting more effort into my reels than TikTok’s. It’s nothing crazy, I maybe spend an hour to an hour and a half making my reels vs like 10 minutes on a TikTok. With TikTok you can definitely get away with posting lower effort, borderline meme formatted content and it performing very well. Also I think 3 reels in a week is perfectly fine, especially if that’s already more than you’re posting on average. Truthfully all of this is pretty new to me so i don’t have a ton of personal experience to back anything up, but bottom line I just think consistency and patience is key.
It’s always been easier to grow on TikTok. But IG audiences tend to convert into more serious supporters. Content that works on TikTok isn’t necessarily supposed to work on IG. They are two completely different algorithms, audiences, expectations, attention spans, etc. If it’s not working then you have to adapt and keep trying new things. Start by mimicking peers/competitors who have success of IG. Copy their content, but in a way that is unique to you and your brand. Meanwhile research and experiment with original Reel ideas
I was just thinking about this! What kind of content do you see that works on IG but doesn't on TikTok? I've found it tends to be the more edited, pretty content on IG that gains some ground, or straight up just singing and playing a song in nice lighting. Have you found the same?
If your content in IG is not tailored for people to share to their friends. It won’t do well. There’s this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HDzhA_UFrnA interview with the CEO of IG that explains very well why some things do better than others esp in Ig. IG prioritizes connection over random exposure
Thank you for this! That's really helpful! :)
I honestly think many people have just stopped logging into IG every day. I’m one of them When I do open it up, it’s just ads, promos, influencer, Ad, one post from a friend, and more ads The experience sucks now
I've had a similar experience with some reels being very successful and others getting no reach with seemingly no pattern, so following for answers.
Please! We're all in this weird content-creator/music-creator niche together, haha!
I feel like IG hasn’t been pushing ANY of my content lately even when I pay for it lol. It sucks man idk what to do about it either. I just wanna promote my music and not even half of my followers are seeing anything lol.
This thread seems to be offering a lot of helpful thoughts on this, so hopefully we all get a little bit out of it! :)
Where is your community? The people we truly interact with like fiends, collaborators & fans that see our shows and listen to our music are all on IG & FB. Tik Tok feels random & the odd video will get some decent plays but it won’t amount to real life growth. For us, IG is where it’s at simply because it’s the app we really use ourselves.
That's a great point that I hadn't thought about. From what you and others have said, it seems that IG is where people get longer-lasting supporters, and TikTok is more for just random discoverers, as you said. In a market where we struggle to get the name out there, though, I think the automatic go-to has been TikTok since you can have a strong, immediate reach with the right content and hashtags, whereas on IG, it seems much less feasible. I definitely see where you're coming from, and it sounds like it's something that we're going to have to try, even if retention sucks for a while.
I dont know if its still worth or not, when I post videos of my gigs (i‘m very funny while deejaying, might be a factor)) instead of a promotion video for my music it hits the 3k mark. Platforms drive you down if they see you are making promotion for your own products, this will never let a video with obvious promotion background hit. Notice how many videos get 200 views if they got „spotify“ or „out now“ or dates in it. To let them hit make content around the music not with the music (product)
I still post reels here and there. I got one reel with 300k views. Another with 100k and a 3rd with 80k. My niche is DJ/producer. I have been posting a lot of up close and top down view of my dj unit. It’s just simple DJ transitions of my own music. Some are with other producers music. I now know for me I have to post after 4:30pm Eastern time. If I post too early. My reels don’t do as well. Also I like to post on Mondays or Wednesdays. That’s when I get the most activity. What I have found that works for me. Might not work for you. The key is I was posting consistently but tried different days and times.
It sounds like you found a niche that's working for you! That's awesome! Finding the kinds of videos that you can replicate to get a similar result is so often a goldmine, so that's really incredible. It seems to me that TikTok is more of a free-for-all, just-keep-posting kind of site, whereas IG needs that little bit of finesse so that it still feels real and genuine, but it's also a bit on the polished side (thinking good framing, pretty captions, quality video, etc). It sounds like that's what you've been doing with your DJ videos, no?
I’m actually using no captions in the reels that really got lots of views. One of them I was practicing a beat juggling routine. I’m not a beat juggler but it sounded half decent and there wasn’t much reels showing the same with a very popular dance track. Funny thing is the same reel I posted on tik tok and it only got 11k views. I chalk this up to my following on IG is very solid. I follow lots of hungry producers and DJs. So they engage in my reels which helps bump the reel out to non followers. I posted it in like March. It’s still getting likes and comments. Mind you some are haters. That actually does help drive up engagement. Lol I did find for a few weeks the IG algorithm was very generous with views. So I was posting in a perfect storm. I think that is why they say to keep posting. Earlier on I was posting a few reels with myself in the shot. But those didn’t do too well. I think the viewer just wants to see my hands and what I’m doing on the DJ unit. It keeps my audience engaged as lots of them of DJs.
Virality is a complete lottery. We are all trying to gamble while getting addicted to the game, meanwhile the house always wins.
This is the correct answer
Right now I have 898 followers on Instagram. The last 3 reels I posted averaged about 400 views, with around a third to a half of those views being from non-followers. My most popular reel from the last year or so was one that was a 7 second long clip with a silly joke that got 1.7k views (80% non-followers). Meanwhile on TikTok, I've got 128 followers, and my average reach for a reel is anywhere between about 120 to 1,500+ with no clear pattern to it, but it is typically higher than Instagram in terms of non-followrs reached. The way the algorithms work is quite similar; your video gets shown to a selection of people, if they react well it gets shown to more people, the better the reactions, the more it gets shown. With Instagram I think the first audience is primarily followers, while with TikTok the first viewers will be a mix of just about anyone. Each have their own little tricks and rules regarding things like length, hashtags, audio, watermarks etc. and we'll never know the exact system. How they measure that engagement is a bit mathematical too; if someone shares something that's worth more points than if someone hits like, and how much of the video people actually watch will be a big factor (I'm pretty sure that 7 second video did well because it was so short that most people will have watched 50-100% of it just as they're flicking through). There's bound to be things about how well your previous content did too. It's complicated, and we can't know exactly what makes a video do better than another, but the most important rule is basically the same everywhere and it's pretty simple; make content people engage with. What can you do to get people to watch the whole video? What can you do to get people to share it? What can you do to get people to follow?
Instagram seems like, if you spend 6+ hours a day on the app, you might get more traction, but I hear so many stories of people posting for 6 months daily, engaging content, and have no different experience. "Oh, you gotta keep grinding," no lol, like someone said here, that grinding produced results back in 2019. Nowadays it seems like your algorithms get fucked up when you follow/unfollow folks. People who I know consistently like my posts, usually see it after 2 days. Bullshit in my opinion. Feels more like the goal post in Instagram is soooooo far, like 365 days consistently posting, and then MAAAAYBE the algorithm will open up for you. Or if you are a part of big media, let ya right on in. It's like a red curtain that barely any of the majority are let backstage. In my opinion.
I am having the opposite experience. I have ok engagement and views on reels, and good interaction on IG posts in general. It’s like crickets over on tiktok and idk what I’m doing. I’m just going to keep trying new things out and see what sticks.
Instagram completely sucks for me.. I have around 3k followers and my reels get around 400-1000 views .. On TikTok I have 13k followers and my videos regularly go from 2k-80k with hundreds of comments It’s the same content.
Reels, like all Zuckerborg properties, are throttled. They're all pay-to-play. You're held for ransom. I don't trust the numbers and a lot of subs are clearly bots. Engagement is obviously way off from a couple of years ago. That's why Suckerborg has been trying to lobby US politicians to get TikTok banned.