Will Turning on Notifications Help Your Instagram Feed?

instagram-post-notifications

You might find today very interesting for Instagram. It seems like everyone on your feed is posting a hefty range of different photos telling you to "turn on notifications" on their feed. If you missed Andrew's regarding Instagram changes, check it out to find out the latest on how Instagram handles feeds. Changes will definitely be happening whether you like it or not. But is that something to worry about? 

We all remember when YouTube and Vine switched to an algorithmic feed; everyone wanted you to switch on notifications. The exact same thing happened when Facebook became more selective with page posts. My feed is jammed with people asking me to turn on notifications for them. 

The question is: should we even worry about the changes and losing Instagram likes? Instagram has been breathlessly updating their app and website for weeks now. They have added some great features, such as multiple accounts and web notifications. The changes could take place little by little. Instagram's awesome robots will put the best photos at the top of your feed. They might even show posts out of order, and if posts don't perform well, they will definitely not show as high on followers' feeds. It will be tough for brands and professionals that spent months of hard work increasing the number of followers they have. Soon, it will only be a fraction of this fan base seeing their posts. But this might be an ongoing fix since the robots have to study the rhythm of your likes and feeds. Instagram also tweeted this:

In all essence, Instagram is going to change no matter what, and it's becoming more like Facebook and less like Twitter. The algorithmic feed forces us to compete with each other. This is definitely a benefit for Instagram, especially when they're working on business tools that can offer users advertising spots on their feed for which you're bound to pay. Instead of panicking and thinking that you will lose a lot of likes on your future posts, you should be ready to adapt to the changes. As a photographer or creative, you should be utilizing the latest technology to obtain the best possible results for making your work to be visible. Writing articles and submitting press releases online have been traffic generators for quite some time, yet some photographers are not utilizing tried and true methods to obtain results for their followers and clients. Blogs or vlogs have become common among Internet businesses as a way of talking directly to customers, telling them news about projects, and giving better explanations of techniques and just about any other ideas they can come up with. There are new (and not so new) techniques that any wise creative person will be utilizing to generate likes for their photos. Here are a few that can help you keep your fan base alive and liking. 

Try to get your images featured on famous Instagram accounts. Tagging them in your posts can help you gain followers as well. 

Try to reach out to other companies that interest you and do some concept ideas for them. For example, I love working with EyeFi memory cards, so I posted this photo with a few Lego Stormtroopers and tagged the proper companies. 

Placing a simple quote or just telling your audience your plan can keep your audience interested.

Lastly, the most important thing you can do to keep those followers and likes increasing on your posts is using hashtags. Hashtags are an easy way to categorize your photos with keywords. They even help you get discovered by other users, making your photos more likely to get viewed and liked. Using a lot of hashtags increases the likelihood that your photos will be viewed or even shared by others. But remember, Instagram limits the hashtags to 30 per post. Remember to use popular hashtags that correlate with your photos. Searching the list of trending hashtags can come in handy when planning your post. But keep in mind that using popular ones can also make your photo lost, since there're billions of users on Instagram. 

Don't be discouraged, and don't feel like people will stop liking your posts. Remember: "The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

Isaac Alvarez's picture

Isaac Alvarez is a Los Angeles-based photographer. His work is a reflection of contemporary/cinematic. While his images are often on the edge of any situation, photographing the situation is not nearly as interesting as photographing the edges of human emotions.

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22 Comments

It's been fun unfollowing anyone who tells me to turn on their notifications. Stop begging.

If I did that I'd have no one in my feed. lol

Same here. I just can't imagine the level of narcissism of these beggars that they can't see what they are requesting from their followers.

To turn on Notifications is to give PHONE priority to every celeb or shlub taking a picture of their lunch. Because every post they make results in YOUR phone singing/buzzing and a banner indicating "VapidBuddy295 just posted a photo".

That sort of priority in my life goes to nobody but my mother. (And if I decide to ignore her messages then that's my business)

I don't think they're really begging. They're just following what others are doing, not really knowing why. The pros I follow haven't done this, the "regular folk" I follow have.

'Everyone else is doing a thing! I have to too!'

I started using notifications some time again because there are just too many people I follow and only a handful are posting interesting content. With that said, there still isn't an easy way to see those first. On Android, the notifications for IG are clumped into 1 vs FB which has many for some reason.

Why do you follow accounts that don't have interesting content?

Yeah, if you don't like most of the people you're following, that seems like you're using it wrong.

Family and friends who I check in on. Regardless it can be overwhelming at times.

Yes, THANK YOU for this. I can't believe nobody understands this.

What about this: I take a picture, post it on Instagram, and get 139 likes.
My partner posts my picture (the same picture of my cat) and gets 772 likes...
Oh, but he had many more followers? No, I had about 1500 at that time and he had about 1700.
I work instagram way more then he does, but for some reason it won't work.
Apparently not because of the pictures, because EVERY time he posts the same picture we have this difference.
Very discouraging....

thats so weird! why would this happen?

example 1

example 2 / a difference of 150 followers at that time

ah, and they all have the same hashtags, we made sure to see if it would work

...and we can keep going on like this..., just trying to make a point.

Get over it dude, it's a free platform and 'likes' aren't everything. Your content, hashtags and collaborations count more if you are looking to get a real (local) following. You're acting like a child crying for attention because no one likes your photo. Who cares what strangers you will never meet who live in other countries think about your photo? There are other ways to get out there if you are concerned for your business.

Wow.., where does all your negativity come from?! It is painfuly clear you already formed your opinion without actually understanding or taking the time to read what I am talking about.
I am just telling it is weird, i'm trying to understand how this works.
Have a nice day ❤️

This actually happened to me in the past. But came to find out it really depends on the time that you post and when your followers are mostly online. I suggest doing a test from a morning post, mid day post and the end of the day post and see when your followers are logged on viewing your photos. It might be different now since Instagram is changing so you might want to study what bites and what doesn't.

The way I see it, you can whine about it or you can deal with it. I don't see that whining is going to get anyone anywhere so you might as well deal with it. Life's too short.

I think there is a difference between whining and trying to understand the workings to be able to deal with it. Instagram is really important for photographers and models these days, on agency websites they usually put a link so clients can see the amount of followers and quality of work.
The only thing I would like to know is how to deal with it best, since it is quite inevitable now.

Nobody is whining here. Everyone is just scrambling to understand and utilize the changes for their purpose.

And it's counterproductive to correlate "whining" with constructive dissent and feedback. If people didn't complain when others did shit they don't like, we'd still have prohibition in America.

I understand where you guys are coming from. I don't see it at all as whining. I would suggest since Instagram is changing try to test out certain times when you post to see what times are good. Sometimes you just have to study your audience cause not everyone has the same followers. Also if you keep your posting consistent at a certain time people will tune in to your post time. Hopefully this helps.