Instagram officially let business accounts schedule posts a little while ago and we REJOICED. Platforms popped up left and right to do it, and it seemed like everyone bought into it. It was optimized. You could be there when your followers were there. Life was amazing. Or was it?
Those beautifully optimized, perfectly curated, scheduled posts can’t beat out my organic ones. They’re not even top 5 on my lifetime best posts ever, and I’ve never gone viral!
Here’s the reality… the scheduled posts don’t get the same reach or engagement as my other posts. And interestingly enough, they perform noticeably worse on hashtags. So by scheduling posts I was actually reaching fewer people overall and hurting my own growth.
Now I’m nothing if not analytical, so I did a test. Yes, these are my actual stats from @diy.my.way. I had started scheduling In late January and while I didn’t notice a strong drop in performance, I did notice that I was growing slower. Only one post from the whole scheduling experience made it in my top 15, and it was extremely on brand for my niche. (It’s the yarn picture circled in red). The post circled in GREEN was posted a week later. Similar image, similar caption, same set of hashtags, and it was posted around the same time… THE REACH WAS 3 TIMES HIGHER.
I’m convinced- I won’t be auto-posting any more on Instagram. I went back to my old method of planning on advance and getting a reminder to post! I also have since started engaging with my audience after I post, but I’ll tell you why I do that later 😉
Market with Emily 