The Instagram algorithm tests new content on people who don't follow you yet

When you post something, the platform first shows it to a small test audience of people who do not follow you, and it watches closely: do they swipe past, how long do they stay, do they react at all. If they drop off, the algorithm concludes that strangers have no interest in this and stops showing it. That is the mechanism behind the feeling that your reach dies. It is not a punishment. It is a test you lost. That changes the question you should be asking. Not “is this content good”, which is a judgement made from your own taste or that of your regular audience, but “does this work for someone who has never seen me before”. If you optimise only for the people who already follow you, you are optimising for an ever smaller slice of your own reach. The consequence is that generic, broadly phrased content loses structurally. A stranger has no reason to keep watching something he has seen a hundred times before, phrased in exactly the same way. Being specific and recognisable for your own…