Good morning Reptile Entrepreneurs. This is going to be an update as to what is going on in the fast paced world of social media and an analysis of what it means for us entrepreneurs. Since TikTok burst onto the scene, the social media platforms have been in a race for their lives to maintain relevance. And so here are my choice for changes we need to know about.

TikTok

First, TikTok. You can now post a series of still images to TikTok and they it will put them into a slideshow video and attach music. I do not know why they did this, but I kind of hope it was to troll Instagram that just copies all their features. So, what does this mean for you? This means that if Instagram Reels was intimidating to the point where you just don’t want to try TikTok or you just don’t “get” TikTok that now is an easy transition time. I encourage you to get a TikTok account and, at least, become familiar with the platform if not dive in and devote yourself it. So, open a TikTok account and use the 30k images on your phone right now to make a TikTok a day. Don’t care about the reach. TikTok likes to artificially push your first Tiktoks to get you excited and then it settles down to you earning your place in the algorithm.

Now I am aware that if you are not on TikTok already there is a reason for that. I would say the majority of my listeners are on Instagram and are not excited about picking up and going to the app of lip syncs and public flash dancing. But I want to encourage you to get past that view. TikTok is increasingly less and less the flashy entertainment and is having much more diversity with debate styles, Vlogs, and plain educational posts. Yes, the language is video. And if that is the roadblock for you I need you to realize that video is the present and the future. You can still work with still images, but that is part of a generation that is fading away. Believe me, I don’t like it either and doing video has been a rough transition for me. I dove into it and dedicated myself to it and am becoming more comfortable with doing long form video, short form video, and live sessions. And I have made progress that I am happy with. I still have my goals, of course, but I am able to function in the video world. So, I understand what it takes. And I know it is not easy. It is like training for a marathon and all the while you are wondering if it is worth it.

The plain answer is that if you are not developing your video skills you are fading away. That is the harsh truth and it is my job to tell you that. So, there is only one way forward. Start taking videos and posting them. Allow yourself to be horrible at it, but post anyway and commit to posting at least three to five times a week either on Instagram Reels or TikTok. Force yourself to do it knowing you will be bad at it in the beginning. But, you will get better as your practice increases your skills. Let’s all acknowledge that it is not easy, but there is no other option.

YouTube

YouTube tends to move slower because they are not threatened as much by TikTok. YouTube has a fleet of creators dedicated to their platform because they are making a living. Both Instagram and TikTok are running in circles trying to figure out how to do that on their platform. But YouTube has had this in place for many years. Though they are trying to figure out how to monetize short form video. So they have introduced a program to pay for your Shorts. And just as a review: Short form video on TikTok is a TikTok. On Instagram it is a Reel. On YouTube it is a Short. As wonderful as it sounds that the best platform for supporting creators is now monetizing shorts, you can only be part of the program if you get 10million views in 90 days so this is being rolled out for the top creators. Eventually it should trickle its way down for more people. Alternatively, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok all have short form video funds that they set aside so you can get into those programs and earn money from the short form you post. The difference with this new YouTube program is that they plan on tying your payment to ads shown during a certain shorts block instead of just on the amount of views you get which is how the creator fund programs work. The important take away is that these platforms are actively working on ways of funding creators and so that is a positive direction.

Being a content creator is still a very difficult line of work to make more than Starbuck’s money from. And I suspect it will get worse as easier access to money starts being put behind content creation. The platforms hold the cards as creators have traditionally done it for free. We have made the platforms billions of dollars for the price of digital likes and follows. So their incentive is only to give us enough that we keep making content for them. You will have to fight hard to get anything near a living wage paycheck making content.

Instagram

Okay, let’s get to my favorite, Instagram, The good ole IG has been busy as usual. We have been peppered with a variety of new features being tested. This is confusing because I may have a different set of features being tested than you do and they can shift around. Two somewhat noticeable features that we could take note of are multiple bio links and topics. There is also a substantial new feature called subscriptions which we need to dig into.

So biolinks. A link is where you can send someone off the Instagram platform to, for example, your website. Traditionally, Instagram has not wanted to allow you to get off the app that easily. Links are banned in post descriptions and comments. You were allowed one link in your profile bio and, eventually they were allowed into the Stories feature. This restriction was not popular with Instagram users and was an example how Instagram is there to serve themselves instead of us. This discontent produced a while new industry of bio-link tools like Linktr.ee which allowed you to create a landing page from one link. On that landing page would be all the links you wanted. Instagram was so angry with this that they banned Linktr.ee from being used. But the user revolt was such that Instagram had to allow linker.ee back on. And now there are many providers of that service. Well, after getting beat up by TikTok who has specific fields in their bio for your other social media links, Instagram is finally testing the ability to put more links into your bio. But this appears to be still in some stage of test. It may or may not be fully rolled out. On my account I just got the option of putting my Facebook profile link. This merging of Instagram and Facebook has gotten ridiculous. But, hey, if you want to send people from your Instagram account to your Facebook account then I guess they will allow that. No thank you from my side. I will stick with my link aggregator. I like to use Koji, by the way. You can check out this recommendation in my season 2, episode  30 where I talk about link aggregators. This feature expansion will become useful to us once we are free to decide what links to put in that space. 

Next is a move that gives Instagram more control over understanding the content in your post. You will now be able to assign certain pre-selected topics to your reel before posting. This is exactly the same function that hashtags served, but I’m just guessing that Instagram noticed that hashtags became a strategy instead of a description tool. So we were using hashtags to tell Instagram who we wanted the image to go to rather than telling Instagram what it was and let the algorithm decide who to match up. A subtle difference I know, but I think Instagram wanted to have more control over what we could assign as description. So we now have a high level list to choose from. We can still use hashtags, but these moves by Instagram continue to show they are not happy with the hashtag system and are looking to move on. Anyway, you’ll find the added option of “Find Topics” listed on the final step before posting your reel below where you type in your description. Once again, this is a feature that is being rolled out and you may or may not have it today. You may get it tomorrow or it may disappear unexpectedly. I have been hearing people talk about it, but I didn’t get it until a few days ago. So we are all running around Instagram’s lab and we get what we get when we get it. Your action item is to look for that option when you post reels. It will just appear one day. I encourage you to still stick with whatever hashtag strategy you are using, but as soon as the Find Topics becomes available use it. Because Instagram will be eager to use any new feature they produce. So, it is in your best interests to give them what they want.

The final feature addition is subscriptions have rolled out to professional accounts. So if you have a business or creator account you can offer your followers a subscription. This means that your followers can sign up to pay a certain amount to receive exclusive content from you. You might recall a while ago I reported on Instagram testing this with just ten accounts. Well, it met their expectations and so all professional accounts in the US and India have this option. The rest of the world is next so just be patient as you have no other choice.

This works by you turning on the subscription feature and then your followers can join up. The default fee was $4.99, but Instagram changed that up to allow you to set your own price. Currently, Instagram is not taking a cut from the subscription payment, but good ole Apple and Google Play get their percentage. At this point I am not sure what percentage they are taking. They usually take 30%, but there are circumstances where they take a reduced percentage and I will be digging deeper to see just what that fee turns out to be.

You will be able to post images, reels, and stories that only your subscribers can see. So, the question is how to use this. Well, I will tell you that the community is still trying to figure that out. I subscribed to a few Instagram gurus to see what they are doing and I can tell you no one has any idea what they are doing with it! And I can understand the difficult position. They, we, you…we are all pushed to the max trying to get regular content out the digital door. I don’t think many of us have this hidden side of things that would be a deep content store to pull from. We are already giving it all to our regular followers! I mean, isn’t behind-the-scenes and more intimate life images what the Stories feature was for? So this is a great opportunity that has yet been figured out. One guru I subscribed to is just trying to repurpose content and the other is putting together a complete menu of events for their subscribers. I think they have no idea what to do with this and are jumping in because their job requires that they know about this feature. For only $4.99 a month I am happy to watch them figure it out while I figure out my approach.

So, let’s get into that. What I am going to do with this feature? I actually like this. I have had such a problem with the quantity vs quality issue. And that, simply, is that if you measure success by the reach and number of followers you get from a post that it is a much better investment to do simple, flashy reels and pepper the algorithm with five per day. A couple will hit that riptide and get you a bunch of views and followers. I think we have all had the frustration that success – at least when defined by views and followers – is not connected to how long you spend on the reel or how much solid information is in it. It really comes down to whether it is entertaining. And, this is the problem I as an educator run into. I have solid information to share, but my skills are not naturally in making that flashy or entertaining. So I can put together content which is deep and useful and it will have pathetic reach. But I spend ten seconds taking video of my chameleon looking at me and find a funny song to put over it and I get 20k views and a bunch of follows. So quality doesn’t have the reward it used to. And I don’t want to say the views and follower number is purely a vanity metric. It is how we bring people past our account to find the one in a thousand follower that actually cares about what you have to say. So, yes, we have to play the game set before us. The problem is that we can’t let the search for followers become 100% what we do or else the serious follower will get tired of 10 second reels. My ideal fan is not the one wondering when I am going to do a cutesy 10 second video. It is the one who truly wants to learn how to care for their chameleon better. And, this is my Chameleon Academy account I am talking about. So I have to put together cutesy reels as well as find time to do substantial content. So, I am thinking that having a subscriber base will allow me to do that. Because only my serious followers will pay to be a subscriber. And I know that I can create the kind of content that will make it worth their while. While the this content before would be dropped low in priority by an algorithm before, it would now be shown to its exact target audience. So this is something I am doing on my account and I will let you know how it goes. Some accounts are using this as a patreon sort of thing where you just subscribe as a sign of support Which is totally fine. I think it is a good idea to support the creators who make the content you enjoy. That is how they keep making the content! Others are giving behind the scenes content of them prepping for their show or a photo session. Basically offering a more intimate look into their lives and what goes on on the other side of the camera. And then there is me who is working on creating a separate experience for subscribers.

So, have you turned on the subscribe feature? What is your plan for using that feature? As this is new there are no expectations. You can chart your own course and be part of the group figuring it out. But I would suggest you figure out something to offer. Make a promise to the subscribers as to what more they can expect. It can be special live sessions, insight into your personal life , hints and tips or education for just the serious people, or all of the above. This will be fun to see what actually work. We are combining an audience that is not sure what to expect and content creators that are already giving their all. Should be interesting to see how this works out.

Community Frustration

The last thing I would like to address is frustration. There has been a growing frustration in the community over the same amount of effort put into social media and getting less and less return on that investment. This is not your imagination. I have tracked various Instagram and TikTok accounts over the last year and I can confirm that on instagram there has been a definite crash. There is growth, but it is concentrated on a few accounts with the others crawling forward. And this isn’t a direct function of how much posting is done. There is a dynamic where you can hit a riptide and then, as long as you continue what you are doing you get more reach and more likes and the algorithm is encouraged to continue sending your stuff out there. As long as you hold up your end of the bargain with consistent and quality posting you can do the upward spiral. But there still is that equivalent of being discovered. So many people are creating their hearts out and seeing little growth. And I think this is worth addressing. Yes, it is frustrating to not see growth. And, yes, it is frustrating seeing growth somewhere else that is producing what you feel is equivalent work. But remember that the algorithm is treating us all the same. We are all working under the same chances and dynamics to be discovered and be propelled up. There is definitely a lot more competition out there. And so I want to encourage you to stop spending time being frustrated that you are not growing. Do a deep dive into what you are doing and how you can make it more unique. And take your attention from growing your account to taking care of the followers you already have. How can you serve them better? Institute regular live sessions maybe? Make how-to videos or carousels for anything as simple as making fruit fly cultures to building a cage? It could be anything new. And the thing with anything new is that it will take time for your followers to figure out whether they like it or not. So you have to commit to up to three months of doing something before you should expect to be able to determine if it is working or not. I do this all the time! I have great ideas, I try them out and stick with it for a while and then see the results. I can tell you I have failed more than succeeded. I can tell you right now that putting a 30 minute audio podcast episode over a still image on Instagram just isn’t where the community is right now. But, hey, at least I can say I know that from experience! So, what I am saying is don’t just give up if your numbers aren’t scrolling like you want. Use this time to be creative. Find some new approaches. If your posts aren’t getting out there anyways, why not take this opportunity to try new things? Who cares if they flop? 

I am now in the process of experimenting with a weekly hour long variety show for the chameleon community on YouTube. It is called the Chameleon Hour and I premiere it every Friday evening at 5PM Pacific.  It is kind of funny that I put an enormous amount of work into putting together that show and my subscribers due to the show are almost non-existent. In fact, one show I got -1 subscriber! So, is that a failure? It is only if you measure it by subscriber growth. But an hour long show is not the kind of thing I would expect would bring in new people to the channel. People new to the channel trying to figure out if this is for them are going to be turned off by an hour long show. No, the Chameleon Hour is for my dedicated followers. This is for the true believers. This is how I feed the serious follower. They are not going to be sticking around if all I do it throw out eye candy shorts once a day. That is for the newcomers. So I am making sure that my ideal follower is being taken care of. So, maybe, if you are having a down time as far as reach on any of these platforms is to double down on producing content that your true followers will be ecstatic to see in their feed.

We have no idea where this will go. Will things stabilize or just become more chaotic? Probably the latter. Just remember why you are on social media to begin with. For most of you it isn’t just to gain followers. It is to develop customers. Yes, you will find more customers in a 100k followers, but if you have 5k followers are you sure you have developed every one of them to their greatest potential? I’d say there is a lot you can still do with the followers you already have. Keep making content that is bait for your ideal follower. Don’t get so caught up in the follower number that you forget the value of a real customer interested in what you are doing over the 300 fake account followers playing the follow unfollow game.

As always, I am going to keep you up to date as to what is going on in this crazy social media world of ours. I am actively in the fray and so what I share with you is from the front lines. But it is time for me to record that welcome video for Instagram subscribers. I’ll let you know how it goes in real time!