We’ve all been guilty of encouraging cannibalism unknowingly, but not as you would expect.
Cannibalisation actually plays an important part in marketing and business in general. How, you may ask? Let’s say a company has one product (product A), and this company introduces a new product into the market (product B); Product B can – in time – steal the sales and market share of product A, thus resulting in cannibalization.
Okay that’s pretty simple, but what does this have to do with social media?
Look at your Instagram account, and imagine for one moment you are a business, what will your products be? You are selling yourself online, thus each post can be seen as a product of some sorts, & in that case, cannibalisation can occur between your Instagram posts. As of recently, I’ve started to notice how the time span between my social media posts influence the engagement on my posts.
Instagram has changed its age-old algorithm, which altered the way we see posts in our feed. Instead of our Insta feeds being arranged according to how old or new a post is, Instagram decided to order each post according to the “moments we believe you will care about the most”. This change in algorithm didn’t do any major damage to my post engagement, although I have noticed that the quantity and quality of my Hashtags no longer translate to a significant amount of engagement.
What the new algorithm has influenced however, is that when I upload a new image while I’m still receiving likes on my latest image, the likes on my latest image will cease completely (excluding the odd stalker liking a post here and there). Whether this phenomenon can be contributed to the new algorithm or other factors, I have yet to figure out, but what I can say for sure is that when my Instagram posts are spaced a few days apart, they have a higher engagement rate.
Although the time distance that works best for me is a day or two, keep in mind that MY post Goldilocks Zone may differ from YOUR post Goldilocks Zone. This timeframe between posts can influence engagement on other social media sites as well, but know that different social media sites are entirely different universes in Cyberspace, and each social media platform has its own algorithm and other contributing factors to take into consideration.
Sharen van Lill 
Really interesting content Sharen. I really didn’t know that a particular time frame can influence engagement on my social media sites. I loved reading your blog post.
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Thank you Danielle! have you tried experimenting with different time frames on your Instagram profile? And if so, what is your post “goldilocks zone”?
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Great post Sharen! Do you perhaps know how many hours or days one should post posts apart on Instagram?
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Thank you Kim! It depends on who your followers re, who your target market is and various other factors that are unique to each and everyone’s Instagram profile respectively. the best way to find the ideal posting time and the ideal “space” between posts is to experiment. Let me know if you find your “Goldilocks zone”!
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Thanks for sharing useful info.The first example is awesome where your mention that our Insta feeds are being arranged according to how old or new a post is. Experimenting is the key to finding your specific targeted niche, without experiments you are wasting your time! Have a super successful week ahead.
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Yes experimenting is definitely the key to success. But even more important, continuous experimentation is crucial since social media platforms change their algorithms frequently.
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This was really! Thanks Sharen this jad alot of information i am very unfamiliar with. i hadn’t even heard of Instagram cannibalization until you posted this. Very very informational. have a good one Sharen.
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Hello Daniel. I took some intuitive and “created” Instagram cannibalism. I hope to do more research regarding post cannibalism on other social media platforms when I find the time! Have a lovely week.
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This was really! Thanks Sharen this had alot of information i am very unfamiliar with. i hadn’t even heard of Instagram cannibalization until you posted this. Very very informational. have a good one Sharen.
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This is really awesome term and did know about this before reading your awesome post. Really found it valuable! 😱
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Hello Willie, thank you for your kind words! yes Instagram cannibalism is a relatively new term but I hope that it will catch on quickly. I will post more blog posts regarding this subject later on, so keep an eye out! Have a lovely week!
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