Most of my clients have one thing in common: they don’t like social media.

In fact, that’s why they are looking for someone to manage it for them. Because they hate it.

They all hate it for different reasons. Some think that it’s a waste of time, others think that it takes forever to build a following, and many believe that they’re too old for it.

But what I find fascinating is how quickly their opinion changes once they understand how Instagram works, how beneficial it can be for their business, and how it’s not as complex as they were imagining.

I figured that a lot of my readers may also hate Instagram. So I decided to share what I know, to help you dive in this platform that’s still full of opportunities for you and your business.

Understanding The Instagram Opportunity

There are lots of people on Instagram. More than a billion.

I won’t bore you with numbers and stats, but don’t you think that with more than a billion active users, Instagram probably isn’t just a platform for kids?

Your business is trying to sell stuff to doctors? I bet there are literal millions on doctors on Instagram. Your business is selling coaching to middle age woman that want to start traveling alone? I bet there are million of those too. Your business is a local restaurant in a remote area? I bet the vast majority of that town is on Instagram.

You get the idea. It doesn’t matter how narrow your ideal target audience is, these people are on Instagram.

The other opportunity, is the price: Instagram is free.

Sure, you can buy ads. Ads help you get results quicker.

They don’t replace good content, consistency, and a reliable Instagram strategy. It’s important to understand how ads work on social media: they buy you time. Buying ads will only scale the results you would’ve gotten organically. A bad organic post will turn into a bad ad. A great converting post will likely perform well if you spend money on ads.

Instagram virtually gives you the opportunity to spread your message to millions of people for free, or at a relatively low-cost.

Why Would You Hate Instagram?

It would seem counter intuitive to hate on such a powerful tool.

But I get it, Instagram is frustrating. And I understand that frustration that most of my clients share with me on our first call.

Because I used to be the same way. I would post, promote, spend hours on the platform each week and I wouldn’t get any results. My account would grow so slowly and my content wouldn’t attract new people. My friends and family would like my pictures, just to be polite, but that was it.

The time and energy investment was definitely not worth the reward.

On top of that, Instagram keeps changing. It used to be simple: posting square pictures. But then you could post landscapes and portraits. Then videos. And then stories. And then carousels. And now Reels, Guides, IGTV, live… It gets so confusing and unnecessarily complex.

Honestly, I can only keep up because I have been on Instagram since it came out.

So to sum up: the platform is getting more and more complex, and growing on it seems to take an enormous amount of time and energy and it simply doesn’t seem worth it anymore.

Does that sound like what you think?

How To Like Instagram?

the first thing to do would be to believe in the opportunity that Instagram can be.

I understand that it’s hard to convince yourself that Instagram can have any sort of return on investment when you have been spending hours on it without being able to grow.

This will feed your obsession of numbers. You will start obsessing about your number of likes, comments, and new followers.

And this is the issue. If this is you, that’s why you are not liking Instagram.

Instagram isn’t about the numbers. It’s about the community.

Your content shouldn’t be here to showcase your product or your perfect life. It should be here to bring people together, start discussions, and build a community.

Building a community is what you should be focusing on if you want to grow. Instagram is about sharing what you like and what matters to you, finding people that have the same interest, and conversing with them.

I know, it may seem like dumb advice.

But this what Instagram is about. In fact, this is what social media is about. Social media is made to be social.

Coca-Cola isn’t trying to convince you that their soda is the best beverage out there. Instead they focus on the unity and the love of the community.

Local restaurants are sharing pictures of the meals they enjoy making and serving to their community. Travel bloggers are sharing their passion for traveling through sharing their experience, their best spots, and their understanding of the culture they visit.

If these people and companies were constantly obsessing over their like counts and their number of followers, they wouldn’t be able to share community focused content.

The Instagram Lie

People often get the stigma that Instagram is about showing the perfect lifestyle. The perfect bodies. The perfect locations. The perfect products. The perfect life.

But that’s not all.

In fact, if that’s all you’re doing, you’re going to bore your audience very quickly.

Instagram is about sharing what matters to you. And it’s the same thing for your business. You started your business because what you do matters to you.

This is what you should share on Instagram.

And instead of obsessing on the number of likes and followers, try tracking the conversations you’re having, the debates you start, the DMs you receive.

Vanity metrics (likes and followers) shouldn’t be a goal, they should be the consequence of your authenticity and your community.

Don’t try to be something that you’re not and try to share the roots of why you are doing what you’re doing. The authenticity of the content that will come out of that will resonate with a lot more people than you may think.

This is the recipe to enjoy Instagram.

You share stuff you love and care about, and people share their love for the same thing with you. Through the discussion and the building of a community, you will start to grow, create more interactions, a bigger community.

The whole process becomes enjoyable and feeds itself: the more you talk about stuff you love, the more people come to you.

Instagram is far from being as evil as it is often described. Shifting your mindset from focusing on vanity metrics to focusing on community building and sharing what you love will make the biggest difference.

Share what you want to be known for, not what you think people will like.