The NEW #SmallWins by Art Storefronts!
Regan Almonte

Lost a chunk of Instagram followers overnight, no idea why

Woke up yesterday to about 200 fewer followers on Instagram. Nothing changed on my end, same posting schedule, same kind of content (process shots from the bench, finished enamel pieces, the occasional kiln fail). I haven't been inactive or done anything differently.

I know the number itself isn't everything, but it rattled me a little. I rely on that audience to find buyers for my small silver and enamel work, and Providence isn't exactly a massive local market for what I make.

Has anyone figured out whether these drops are just Instagram purging bots and inactive accounts, or is it something else? Did changing your content or posting frequency help recover, or did you just wait it out? Would love to hear what actually happened for other makers who saw this.

Posted in The NEW #SmallWins by Art Storefronts!
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Steven Roucourt 1d ago
Translated from Deutsch

I know it's different for you because it's actually your income, but the number of people who like posts is going down drastically. I don't post often, but what's remarkable is that for me the number of likes has gone from 120 to a maximum of 20. I don't think this has much to do with your work but rather with the consumption of social media.

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Eamon Chirathivat2d ago

I had a similar drop a while back and it shook me too, even though I kept telling myself the number doesn't matter. From what I gathered talking to other makers, it's almost always Instagram clearing out bot accounts and inactive profiles. In my experience it actually meant the people still following were more likely to be real folks who care about the work. I didn't change my posting schedule or content, just kept sharing process shots and finished pieces the way I always do. The count slowly climbed back with people who actually engaged. For a small market like yours or mine here in Portland, those real followers are the ones who eventually become buyers. The purge stung but it was honestly a cleanup, not a punishment.

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Ueli Wittwer2d ago

I realized the same on my account. This is something that is going on for several weeks now. I lose a lot of followers, but the next day I get sometimes 100-200 new followers. But it seems to me that those are mostly not real people. I have no idea why this is happening. I assume that Meta is deleting all those fake followers and accounts. So, I don't look too much at the number of my followers.

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