Followers are growing but engagement keeps dropping

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Rank Mint

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Hey all,
Seen a few accounts recently where followers numbers keep increasing but likes, comments and story views do not seem to follow.
Is this mainly an algorithm issue, audience quality problem or something else? For those managing instagram pages then what metrics are you paying the most attention to these days besides follower count?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
 
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It seems that Instagram is just increasingly limiting reach and testing content on "cold" audiences. I’ve long started paying more attention to post reach and saves rather than the actual follower count
 
SEOWITCH said:
You should also check the content quality. If this continues, you'll likely see a lower follower growth rate.
Click to expand...
This might sound dumb but what do you check to make sure a post is high quality? Is it how much original content there is in the post, or more just an overall gut check?
 
You should check your reach, shares, saves, and story replies. They usually give a much better idea of how healthy an account actually is.
 
If followers are growing but engagement is falling I suggest to look at content relevancy posting consistency and audience targeting rather than focusing only on the follower count.
 
Rank Mint said:
Hey all,
Seen a few accounts recently where followers numbers keep increasing but likes, comments and story views do not seem to follow.
Is this mainly an algorithm issue, audience quality problem or something else? For those managing instagram pages then what metrics are you paying the most attention to these days besides follower count?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Click to expand...

Post shares. Because that means people found that piece of content very informative, to the point people are sharing it with other.
.
 
toxoplasmosis said:
This might sound dumb but what do you check to make sure a post is high quality? Is it how much original content there is in the post, or more just an overall gut check?
Click to expand...
Not a dumb question at all. For me, it's a mix of both data and a gut check.

Original content helps, but I mainly look at whether the post provides value, matches what the audience wants to see, keeps people engaged, and encourages actions like saves, shares, comments, or profile visits. If people are interacting with the content and coming back for more, that's usually a good sign it's high quality.
 
I see this a lot when follower growth comes from broad content but the audience is not really interested in future posts. These days I pay more attention to reach, shares and story retention than follower count

A growing account with falling engagement usually points to audience quality issues more than growth itself
 
Rank Mint said:
Hey all,
Seen a few accounts recently where followers numbers keep increasing but likes, comments and story views do not seem to follow.
Is this mainly an algorithm issue, audience quality problem or something else? For those managing instagram pages then what metrics are you paying the most attention to these days besides follower count?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Click to expand...
Number of followers can be deceiving. I have seen pages grow fast, but then the engagement drops because the new followers do not really care about the content.
Now I look more at saves and shares and story replies, because they tend to tell you if the audience is actually engaged.
 
these days i pay most attention to reach and engagement rate
 
followers growing without engagement following is almost always bought/bot followers or shoutout swaps, real audience doesn't work that way
 
If you don't have an engaged follower base, then the number of followers becomes irrelevant. More attention should be paid to things like shares, saves, views, profile views, and follower gains from each post. This will help paint a clearer picture of your content's performance.
 
Instagram's algorithm only shows your new posts to a tiny fraction of your followers to test their initial reaction. Pay close attention to Watch Time and Retention Rate on your Reels to force the system to open up your reach.
 
Rank Mint said:
Hey all,
Seen a few accounts recently where followers numbers keep increasing but likes, comments and story views do not seem to follow.
Is this mainly an algorithm issue, audience quality problem or something else? For those managing instagram pages then what metrics are you paying the most attention to these days besides follower count?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Click to expand...
People today often scroll past and look at posts without stopping to click the like button. Focus fully on Non Follower Reach to make sure new, fresh users are finding your page every week.
 
Seen this happen when follower growth is faster than audience quality. A bigger follower count does not always mean more active users. These days i pay more attention to reach, saves, shares and profile visits than the follower number itself. Those usually give a better idea of how content is actually performing.
 
Rank Mint said:
Hey all,
Seen a few accounts recently where followers numbers keep increasing but likes, comments and story views do not seem to follow.
Is this mainly an algorithm issue, audience quality problem or something else? For those managing instagram pages then what metrics are you paying the most attention to these days besides follower count?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Click to expand...
Instead of simply going by the agigregate numbers for the whole account, I like to compare the level of engagement of the content type. Sometimes, it is possible that you gain many followers bcz of using Reels, but these followers do not actually interact with your other posts such as Stories.
The no of people who keep visiting your page again to see more of your posts would also be something I would take into consideration.
 
Follower count doesn't always reflect an engaged audience more attention to reach saves shares and overall engagement since those tend to show how people are actually interacting with the content.
 
Rank Mint said:
Hey all,
Seen a few accounts recently where followers numbers keep increasing but likes, comments and story views do not seem to follow.
Is this mainly an algorithm issue, audience quality problem or something else? For those managing instagram pages then what metrics are you paying the most attention to these days besides follower count?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of pages get followers over time but not all of those followers stay active. People is interests change and the algorithm doesn’t show every post to everyone. So I care more about how many people are acttually engaging with new content than how fast the follower number is growing. An engaged audiience is worth so much more than a large number on a profile.
 
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