Learn what works to grow your bookish IG in 2024 from these Meta approved tips and tricks.

 

So, Meta called me…and I thought it was a scam. 

 

The look on my face probably said it all. 

 

But, after skeptically taking the call and even expressing my disinterest in speaking with the Meta representative on the other line, I’m glad I was patient enough to get the call verified because turns out, it wasn’t a scam at all. 😂

 

My first thought after our phone call? 

 

I couldn’t wait to share the info to further help bookstagrammers and authors grow on IG over 2024.

 

The call was for “up and coming creators who are growing,” and I feel so honored to be part of that group. 

 

Of course, I asked a million questions, got ALL the answers, and am so excited to share the goodies with you. 

 

From Meta and Instagram themselves, several of the topics revolved around “Top things working on Instagram right now” and this post will help break down the first bit of growing a steady and thriving IG account over 2024. Let’s do it! 

 

How often do I need to post to grow?

Meta recommends posting 3-5 times per week. 

I know (and I bet you know too) that this is not the newest tip out there, and at first glance it might be unhelpful. Hold on, stick with me. 

I asked Meta some clarifying questions to help make this tip feel less overwhelming, so that getting into the habit of posting more often is more worth it. 

If you didn’t know, posting less than 3 times a week can significantly dent your growth, your reach, and your engagement. Meta doesn’t recommend posting less than 3 times per week because in a way, the algorithm “resets” you. 

As a disclaimer, I have witnessed accounts grow on IG by posting 1-3 times per week, but in my experience that is more the exception, not the norm.

And while Meta encourages taking breaks when you need to, you can also be penalized for doing so (the trickiest situation to be in, right?) 

When I started out on IG, I would post 6-8 times a week. Sure, I saw a ton of account growth from doing so (0-100K+ followers) but I also rapidly burned out. Knowing I’d want a more sustainable IG, life, and business balance in the long run, I reduced to posting 3x a week.

In all honesty, posting 3x a week has worked really well for me. I might not be growing as quickly, but that also wasn’t my goal this year. 

Now I’ve been posting at this frequency for most of 2023. I’ve still managed to grow about 25K followers in 11 months of this reduced schedule and at a fraction of the time I’d originally spent pumping out content. So to me and for my goals, this was a big win!

If you’ve been wondering if you should post 3 times a week, 5 times a week, or 7-10 times a week, Meta confirmed that the 3-5 range is a great place to start and is more than enough to grow your account.

My opinion? Post more on the 5 times end if you want more chances to grow faster. There’s also nothing wrong with posting less or more than 5x a week! If you choose to post more than 5x a week, I recommend watching out for both you and your audience’s content fatigue and your capacity to create at that frequency long term.

If you’re feeling burnt out in posting daily or even 5-6 times a week, you’re officially allowed to post less (IG gave their blessing). You won’t believe how many indie authors reached out to me saying “thank god because posting daily has really burnt me out”- you are not alone if you think this too!

 

Do hashtags even work anymore?

 

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me about hashtags…I’d be sitting on a lot of nickels. 

There’s always controversy when it comes to hashtags and how many you should be using vs. ditching them entirely or how they’ll help you grow vs. why they won’t help you grow.

Meta recommends using only 3-8 narrow hashtags on each post. In a nutshell, they suggested to stop using general hashtags or anything with over 500,000 uses (like #viral, #explorepage). 

So, the more specific you get with your hashtag game (and the more specific they are to your niche and content), the better. 

Using lots of hashtags gives the algorithm too many tags to assign you to, which means your content is less likely to be shown to your target audience. Even though IG allows you to use up to 30, Meta doesn’t recommend using all 30. Though, to anyone’s credit who has been using all of them, this actually was helpful in 2022 and some of 2023. 

I personally stopped using hashtags for four months (as of this blog post) just to see how it went, and decided to focus more on SEO (search engine optimized) keywords in and throughout my content. I noticed my and other creator’s content still performed well without hashtags. 

You may be asking, “So, Tina, give it to me straight. Can they help?!”

Yes.

But are they a must? Not necessarily!

My overall recommendation: Everyone should focus on utilizing keywords for SEO purposes whether or not you also put hashtags in your content. The algorithm is really smart and picks up on your keywords to decide who to show your content to. If you want to double your effort, start prioritizing keywords and the IG recommended 3-8 hashtags related to your niche and audience. But- you can 100% see success without the hashtags.

 

 

Which will help me grow more? Reels or Posts?

Meta confirmed that the algorithm pushes reels more.

“Wait, aren’t reel views down?”

Yes, reel views are lower than what they were in 2021-2022, but it isn’t because the algorithm stopped pushing them — it’s largely due to the rapidly increasing saturation of reels coming from creators around the globe, as well as audience reel fatigue and user habits. 

Another contributing factor to reel views being overall lower than before: it is two to three times more difficult to get your reel watched because it is just that much harder to stand out and shift your hooks to what is now working (familiar hooks are NOT working as they used to).

But posting reels will still give you a bigger chance to get on the explore page and get pushed to non-followers quicker. Meta recommends a minimum 1-2 reels per week.

So if you have a goal to grow faster and reach more non followers, I’d definitely recommend focusing on posting more reels.

I noticed that my reels get seen more rapidly than my carousel posts. But often I will see equal success in the reach my posts and reels get. 

In my opinion, no one format works for everyone. Some accounts grow solely on carousel posts while others grow solely from reels. It depends on what you like, and what works best for your niche + audience (if you want to work on crafting great hooks and creating shareable content, grab my free Content Creation Guide here). 

I do, however, recommend posting a minimum of one reel a week.

Now, you don’t have to take these tips as the “say all, end all.” 

Meta says that the “optimal upload cadence is different for every creator, based on different factors like your audience and type of content you’re making.”

This was in response to me asking if there is an optimal exact posting frequency, post format and reel length.

Even though these tips came straight from the source, it does not mean implementing them will bring success. Even if you post 4 reels a week with 8 hashtags each, nothing is guaranteed. IG growth is a combination of literally hundreds of small factors.

You can’t grow if you implement just these tips because you still need to know your audience, how to craft great hooks, how to provide value and create shareable content, optimize your profile for conversion, etc — grab my new freebie, Profile Refresh Guide to update + optimize your account. 

Still, these tips can absolutely give tracks to run on as they provide direction and should also be taken in context of everything else you know. Tap here to watch my IG live for more help on these these Meta tips. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of what I learned from Meta and if you want to go deeper into the topics covered in today’s blog, head over to Bookstagram 101 (my bestselling program to help bookstagrammers and authors grow on IG).