63. You're Posting on Instagram Consistently... So Why Isn't It Working?

[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Social Content Made Easy, the podcast that helps you simplify content creation, grow your audience, and make sales on Instagram without spending hours glued to your phone. I'm your host, Nicole Iologio. And each week, I'll bring you bite-sized actionable strategies to help you confidently create scroll-stopping content that actually grows your business. So if you're sick of wasting hours creating content that no one sees and just want a simple proven way to show up while having some fun, you're in the right place. Let's go. You sit down, you plan out the reel, you film the reel, you write your caption, you post it, and then you sit there watching the clock, refreshing your page, and you get three likes. Two of them are you and your mom or your bestie, and you're just like, what is even the point of showing up on Instagram? If you've ever felt like you're literally talking to nobody on Instagram, this is the episode that I need you to hear. I want you to know there's actually a really specific reason that this usually is happening, and it's probably not what you're thinking. I want you to know that this is not a you problem at all. This is one of the most common things that happens to creators and business owners right now, because you're showing up, you're being consistent. That part you're doing right. The problem is not your work ethic. If you are showing up consistently. The problem is also not Instagram punishing you. You need to get that out of your head too. Something else is going on, and once you see it, you're not going to be able to unsee it, and it's going to be so easy to pinpoint why this is happening. There are three reasons that your content is going out into the void. None of them are about posting more. We're going to go through all three today, so let's just get right into it and get started. Reason number one is that Instagram doesn't know who to show your content to. The algorithm needs signals to figure out who your content is for. If your last 10, 15 posts are kind of all over the place, like maybe you do a product post, or you do a motivational quote, and then you do a meme, and then you do a tip, and then you do a personal story. But there's no clear connection point through all of that. Instagram can genuinely not figure out who to put your content in front of, so it just doesn't put it out in front of anybody. Consistency of your topic of what you're posting about, matters just as much as consistency of the actual posting itself. Now, this is not to say that you are not allowed to post a random picture of yourself that is personal. You can totally do that. I've done that on my account. I will always do that on my account. That builds relationships. But when you're talking about 18 different things on your page, Instagram might get a little bit confused at who to show your stuff to. Reason number two, your content is informing people, but it's not making people feel anything. In 2026, the content that's getting shares saves and comments is one that makes someone first feel something. If your posts are solid tips, but they're not hitting at emotion or what you did, like relief, surprise, recognition, it's humorous, people consume them and then just keep scrolling. They're gonna look at it, be like, "Oh, okay, cool, awesome." And then keep scrolling. They're not gonna like save comment, follow you, they're just not gonna engage at all. Without engagement signals, Instagram stops pushing it out. Now, yes, the number one engagement signal is watch time. So hopefully you're getting people to watch it all the way through. But even if let's say you're real as six seconds long, they're gonna watch it all the way through. Maybe they don't even read your caption. That's not good watch time. So you're really gonna need people to watch it multiple times unless you have a longer post. Reason number three is that you might be measuring the wrong things because if you're looking at likes and follow or count to decide if something is working, you're gonna feel pretty defeated constantly. The metrics that are gonna tell you if something is working right are going to be shares, DMs, link clicks, a post with 12 likes and 47 saves, that post is working. You just don't know it and it doesn't look that way from the outside. So I need you to get out of your head and to get out of the vanity metrics and start actually looking at the content that's going to matter. I can tell you what. Every other post of mine probably has more saves than likes. And I'm like, okay, well, people like my content, they're actively saving it, so that's a good thing. Now we have three fixes, so we have three main problems let's go through fixes. So a fix number one, I want you to try to pick a lane and stay in it for 30 days straight. I want you to first look at your last 10 posts. Is there a clear theme? Is there a person you're talking to? If not, that's your starting point. You're gonna narrow it down to two to three content topics about your niche and then stick to them so Instagram can learn your account. There is also a way that you can reset your algorithm on Instagram and we can chat about that in a done their episode. If you're interested, DM me on Instagram. If you want me to do an episode on that, I'm more than happy to fix number two. Before you post, I want you to ask yourself, how does this make someone feel? Does it make them feel relief? Does it make them feel validated? Are they curious about what else you can offer them? Are they entertained? Pick one of them. If you can't answer that one question, I want you to think about rewriting the hook before you post it. Fix number three. First, you're going to go look at your saves and shares right now, open up your insights, ignore likes, look at what posts got saves and shares. That is your best performing content. Make more of that. The biggest thing I want you to take away from this is to please get away from the generic topics, three ways to blink and get into the, this is how I was able to blink in this timeframe. That is super helpful for your people. I wish I could like scream this from the rooftops because I feel like it's the hardest thing to get people through because what they've been doing is just the same thing since like 2014, right? And those three ways to blink, six tips to blank, 32 tips to blank, they used to do great. But that's not telling us what someone is specifically doing. So we want to hear your perspective. Think of these as me centric, I centric tips and hooks. Like what did you do to get from A to B? What did your client do to get from A to B? Specifically, what did they do? We like to hear stories. We like to see transformations. And we don't just want to take your word for it. We want to know that it's actually working. How do we know that through storytelling, through you sharing your unique perspective, through you sharing what you did with your clients to help them do something through a customer of yours, saying, oh my gosh, this was the absolute perfect gift. My grandmother cried when she opened it. That is the kind of stuff that we want to hear about. That's the kind of stuff that's going to move the needle in your business. You need to know that posting to the void quote unquote does not mean that Instagram is broken. It does not mean that you're bad at this. It just means that your content and your strategy around it are slightly out of alignment. That is really, really fixable. And if you need a one on one VIP day with me to do that fantastic, I also have a bunch of courses that I can guide you in the right direction. Just DM me on Instagram @Necolaylegio. More than happy to point you in the right direction of some resources that can help. Consistency got you to the starting line, right? So you're here, you're posting consistently. Honestly, that's the hardest battle. If you're actually posting consistently and posting on a schedule, that's amazing. You really need to reward yourself, clap to yourself, get yourself something that is a huge hurdle. And that is the first hurdle to pass. Now this next one is going to be much easier. You just need to put on a little detective lens in order to do it. You do not eat to post more. You just need to post a little bit smarter. Once you make one of these shifts, you're gonna start to see the difference pretty quickly. And I cannot wait for you to share your wins with me over on Instagram. As with all of these episodes, I love doing a recap and an action challenge. So this week, your recap. The three reasons your content is not getting responses is one, Instagram doesn't know who to show it to. Two, your content is informing people but not making them feel something. And three, you're measuring the wrong metrics. The fix is, are you pick a lane and you stick in it for a certain amount of time? I gave you 30 days. Ask how every post will make someone feel before you share it with them. And then you're gonna look at your saves and shares right now instead of your likes. Your action challenge. I want you to go into your Instagram insights right now today after this episode, as long as you're not driving, pull over and check this. You're gonna find your top three posts from the past three months by saves and shares. You're gonna write them down. That's your content blueprint. Make your next post like these. And then I want you to think about hooks that are trending right now. If you want content that's already mapped out for you and you want hooks that are currently working right now, that's exactly what my plug-in post membership is. So it's on you to figure out what the topics are that's pulling people in. It's on me to help you figure out what those hooks are that's actually gonna make people listen and read what you're saying to people. So think if you want the hooks, the captions, so you never have to guess what to post or what format to put it in. That's exactly what the plug-in post membership is. Every single week you get the hooks that are working right now, you get caption prompts, you get stories. It's so much and it's a really great price and we also have live Q&A's that are super fun. All you do is you show up, you plug it in and you post it. The links below, if you're interested in that, I would love to have you inside. If not, that's cool too. You might not be in a season where this makes sense for you right now, but you can do the action challenge that I gave you today. So you're gonna start with your content, Blueprint. You're going to figure out what hooks are performing right now and you're gonna start posting more. I promise you can do this. Please DM me on Instagram @Nacole_Iledgeo. Let me know how it's going. I love cheering you on. I will totally blow up your Instagram. notifications and like and comment and just hype you up. So I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week and I'll catch you next time. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I hope you're walking away with at least one actionable takeaway to make creating content easier. If you love today's episode, it would be in the world if you could take 10 seconds, leave a review or screenshot this episode and tag me on Instagram at insta.amplebide. I'd love to connect and see your new content. Always cheering for you. See you next time. [Music]