Are you in Control?
The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand.”
―Irene C. Kassorla
Once upon a time, we were happy and having fun in life. Then came Instagram and Facebook!
If you are anybody trying to grow on one of these 2 social media platforms, then you will understand what I meant.
I have been on Instagram for about 2 years now. And in the last 2 years, the number of hoops I have jumped through and the number of new dance moves I have learned is uncountable!
Thanks to the “ALGORITHM”!
Now, don’t take that literally. By dance moves, I meant the amount of twists and turns I had to take to satisfy the algorithm.
It is strange. Isn’t it?
We have given away all of our control to a few algorithms.
Every one of our emotions – happiness, frustration, joy, etc., everything is controlled by this algorithm!
In the last 2 years, I spent countless hours creating content for Instagram. Followed every one of those advice from the so-called Instagram GURUs out there.
I created reels in spite of my not liking the idea of creating a 15-second video tutorial. But then REELs were the thing that the algorithm promoted, so you had no choice.
Then suddenly it changed to carousels and posts. While some professed that these had more weightage than REELs, a few others kept harping on the old advice.
Then we spent hours trying to find trending music. Suddenly one day they said, “trending music” is not as important as it used to be.
The same was the case with hashtags!
All these months we have only been trying to cope with the changing algorithm. And the vanity metric of “number of followers”, didn’t move an inch.
So I spent a few weeks evaluating the growth of some of the Instagrammers. Here’s what I could learn –
- One Instagrammer who was posting Instagram tutorial content had a sudden burst of followers with one of his reels about “5 ChatGPT alternatives” that went viral.
- Another one who was creating content around happy living hacks saw a reel about “eating the biggest thali” go viral.
- Yet another influencer who is getting a lot of paid collaborations started off with cooking videos but found one of her videos about a restaurant review going viral. Since then she has been doing only restaurant reviews.
If you evaluate each of the above, you will find that the creators themselves would have had no clue which of their videos would go viral.
In fact, it is true for most creators who found their videos going viral.
Virality is not something that you can control, at least on Instagram. And a lot of us spend hours and a lot of sweat trying to grow on Instagram.
With all of that rambling, I might be sounding like a pessimist!
So, let me clarify.
People asked me why I was so infrequent on Instagram. This is my answer to that question.
And in fact, my sincerest advice to every one of you out there.
Remember, the content shelf life of short-form content like reels, shorts, etc. is extremely low as compared to long-form content.
How many times have you scrolled down on a creator’s profile to watch one of their older videos?
Compare it to a YouTube video, a blog post, or, even a podcast which keeps popping up every now and then on search engines.
Some of the oldest videos on YouTube are still getting views every day.
There was this video I had released about 6 years back which still brings me about $300 in commissions even today!
So, in your opinion what should I be concentrating more on?
Exactly!
Long-form content.
It is hence that I advise putting together a website for your podcast.
Search engines haven’t yet figured out how to index audio content. And it is going to take some time for that to happen.
But does that mean that you cannot index your podcast episodes on Google or, Bing?
No. Absolutely not!
You can do that by ranking your blog post with the podcast episode embedded in it, on these search engines.
Funnily enough, the growth of my podcast has all been through search engines only.
And some through discovery on Listening apps.
The growth through Social Media, especially through Instagram was minimal.
In fact, LinkedIn has contributed more than Instagram.
“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over, instead of craving control over what you don’t.”
– Anonymous
Don’t let the algorithms define your journey. Take control.
Focus more on long-form content.
Write blog posts, create audio episodes, create videos, build an email list, and send newsletters!
All of this will get you way more followers and audience than an Instagram reel.
Focus minimally or, only as much as is required on Instagram!
You will be much more relaxed, feel a lot less stress, and will find much more satisfaction.
I put in about 18 hours every month to create this newsletter, starting from researching to writing and editing it.
So, If you enjoyed reading this Newsletter, I would sincerely appreciate it if you could recommend it to others. You can send them to https://theloudspeakeronline.com to subscribe to it for FREE!
Found on the internet
Here’s what I found on the internet this week.
This is an amazing post with some extremely valuable data points about YouTube stats. You might like this if you like looking at data to find what works and what doesn’t.
In fact, this can be applied to other mediums too.
This tweet and the experiment that Kate talks about are incredible. It helps us understand what we might need to change in terms of our approach to understanding our audience.
What am I reading?
This week I picked up the second book in the series from Ankur Warikoo – Get Epic Shit Done.
I am only a few pages into it.
I think it is a little too early to comment on the content.
I will be able to do that in the next newsletter, maybe.
You can check out the book here!
From the Podcast
Why would you continue to listen to a podcast episode if you don’t get to know what it has to offer you, at least in the first 30 seconds?
Grabbing attention is all about how early you are able to tell your listeners, “What’s in it for them”!
And it is here that I see a lot of beginner podcasters make the biggest mistake.
Last week I released an episode where I spoke about a proven “3-step episode structure” that most successful podcasters follow.
If you want your listener to listen to the entire episode, then you might want to listen to this episode!
This was episode 125 of the show!
Do let me know your comments and feedback.
That’s it for this week!
Do let me know your thoughts, feedback, and opinions about this newsletter.
