Okay, I need to get something off my chest.
There is a lot of Instagram advice floating around on the internet right now and it is doing way more harm than good. I say that as someone who has been in this space for years, who has watched the platform change over and over, and who has watched people follow all the rules perfectly and still feel completely stuck.
Today we are throwing out the rulebook — or at least the parts of it that were never actually true to begin with. Because people have been spitting out Instagram hacks for years just to make themselves go viral, and it gives me the biggest ick. “Change these settings to go viral.” “Hide keywords in your reels.” “Engage for 20 minutes before and after you post.” These tips spread because they feel like an easy fix. Not because they actually work.
The Instagram advice that gets shared the most is not always the most accurate. It is just the most motivating and the simplest to do. And simple is not always true.
So here are three of the most common Instagram myths I want you to let go of — and what to focus on instead.
Myth 1: You Need to Focus on Growing Your Follower Count
Everyone is obsessed with the number. How many followers do you have, how fast is it growing, why did someone unfollow you.
And while yes, having an audience matters — follower count itself is one of the least meaningful metrics you can focus on right now. Even Adam Mosseri has said this. The way Instagram works now is that your content does not just go out to your followers — it goes out to a small portion of your followers and a small portion of the public, and if it performs well it gets pushed further. A small account can reach thousands of the right people with one well-crafted post.
I have seen accounts with 800 followers making consistent sales. I have seen accounts with 80,000 followers who cannot sell a single thing. Followers are just a number. What actually matters is whether the RIGHT people are following you.
Ten engaged followers who are your ideal client are worth more than ten thousand people who found you from a random viral moment and have zero interest in what you actually do or sell. Stop chasing the number. Start asking whether the people already following you are the right ones.
Myth 2: Go Viral and the Sales Will Follow
Going viral feels like the dream and I completely get it. I actually had a client who was convinced she needed to go viral. She had a solid following, consistent sales, great engagement — and she still kept saying “but I just really want a million view reel.”
So we went for it. We had three reels go mega viral in the span of a few months. One hit 14 million views. One hit three million. One hit one million. Did it get her followers? Yes. Were every single one of those followers her ideal client? Not entirely.
Here is the thing — to go viral we had to go broad. Instead of specific holistic wellness tips for her niche, we made general mom hacks. They blew up. But broad content attracts a broad audience, and a broad audience is not always a buying audience.
Viral content attracts a massive, mostly random group of people. Most of them watched one entertaining video and kept scrolling. They did not check the bio. They did not save the content. They did not book a call. And when your account suddenly fills up with followers who are not your ideal client, your engagement tanks — which then affects every single post you put out after that.
What actually creates sales is trust built over time with the right people. Consistent, specific, valuable content for your actual ideal client. That is what converts. Not one lucky reel that went wide for all the wrong reasons.
Myth 3: You Just Need to Post Constantly With “Good” Content
This one has two layers and I really want you to hear both of them.
Layer one: posting constantly is not a strategy.
Posting three times a day with no clear direction is how you end up with a full feed and zero results. Instagram does not reward volume. It rewards relevance — how specific, how shareable, how saveable your content actually is. One incredibly well thought out post that speaks directly to your ideal client will outperform three rushed mediocre posts every single time.
What can you actually commit to? Three posts a week? Five? One a day? Pick a pace you can sustain and stick to it. If you are pumping out content just to pump it out and you do not actually care about what you are posting — people can feel that. And it shows in your results.
Layer two: “good” content is not specific enough content.
This is the part nobody talks about enough. Your content might be good and it still might not be working — and the reason is almost always that it is not specific enough.
Think about it this way. If you are posting tips about healthy eating, so is everyone else. What makes someone stop on YOUR post is when they feel like you made it specifically for them.
Not “here are five ways to eat healthy this summer.” But “if you are a mom who is dreading the summer, trying to keep up with her protein intake, and you do not want to make a separate meal for yourself, your kids, and your husband — here are five easy high protein family meals for every night of the week.” That stops someone mid-scroll. Because that is her. You just described her exact life.
That is what I mean by I-centric and me-centric content. It is not just about using the word “I” in your hook. It is about being so specific about a feeling, a situation, a moment — that the right person reads it and thinks wait, is she literally talking about me?
The more specific you get, the smaller your net feels. But the harder it hits the exact person you are trying to reach. And that person is the one who buys. It is not about posting more. It is about posting something so specific that your ideal client feels like you made it for them and nobody else.
What Actually Works
Instagram is a trust-building platform. That is its job in your business.
Not to go viral. Not to rack up followers. Not to keep you posting around the clock. Its job is to take the right person from stranger to someone who trusts you enough to buy from you. Everything you post on Instagram should be in service of that.
So here is what I actually want you to focus on:
Attract the right followers, not the most followers. Create content that is specific enough to make the right person feel seen. Post at a pace that lets you create with intention and actually enjoy the process — because that is what keeps you showing up long term.
And measure your success differently. Stop looking at your follower count as the main indicator of whether things are working. Start looking at DMs, saves, shares, and actual sales. Those are the numbers that tell you something real.
One more thing — if you noticed a big follower drop recently, do not panic. Instagram does a bot cleanup every year or two and a lot of accounts lost followers at the same time. It is completely normal and nothing to stress about.
Your Action Challenge
Open Instagram and look at your last ten posts. Not through the lens of how many likes they got — but through this one question: how specific is this?
You can even paste your last ten captions into ChatGPT or Claude and ask “is this specific enough? Would my ideal client read this and think that is literally me?” If most of your posts could apply to anyone, that is your gap. Not posting more. Getting way more specific in the content you are already creating.
A Note If You Have Been Listening for a While
If you keep showing up for these episodes and getting value from them but you have not joined Plug & Post yet — I am talking to you.
You already know I know my stuff. You already trust the advice. The membership is literally just me doing the strategy work for you every single week instead of you figuring it out alone. Every week you get hooks, captions, content formats, and access to a brand new AI tool that takes everything I give you and builds it out in your own voice around your specific niche and audience. You just copy it, run it through the tool, and post.
If you have been on the fence, this is your sign. The link is below and I would love to have you inside.
Resources:
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