19 Reasons Why Medium Is Better Than Instagram To Engage With Potential Clients
The social media giant may not be good for your consulting/coaching business.
If you’re wondering if you deserve better — you do.
Leaving Instagram For Business
To begin 2022 in the best way possible for me and my business — I left Instagram Business.
It began with “taking a break” in the middle of December, 2021-but by the end of the year, I knew it was time to see the truth of this toxic relationship, and thoroughly change my status with Instagram.
Now, I only use it for fun, my account is now private, and I only post when and whatever I want vs. feeling obligated to post on a schedule and keep up production.
I feel no pressure or obligation to do anything there for about 3 weeks now, and I am so happy with the switch.
I realized that playing this Instagram game was not doing me any good.
It wasted time and money where I could be focusing that energy and information I was providing to a tiny number of people there, and put it elsewhere — like Medium, where I have gotten spectacular results in more ways than one.
It was time to look at the facts about what Instagram does for me — once and for all.
Experience=Knowledge
Just to be clear, I’m not a business consultant, I’m a LIFE & SOUL Guidance Counselor. The only experience I have with social media is with my own business.
Obviously, my business isn’t typical-at least not the details of what I do, but I am a “coach/consultant” of sorts, and many of the same rules apply to any consultant business.
If you and your business fits the description of being a consultant or life coach, and you’ve been wondering if Instagram is worth the time, then this article is for you.
What This Article Is About
Below is an in-depth look at my journey with Instagram for my business, how I used it, the various downsides I have found to using Instagram for my business, and why and how Medium compares as the superior choice of platforms to put my time into-which is my plan for 2022.
I hope this article exposes a bit of the truth about what Instagram actually is and isn’t, and that it helps you to decide if Instagram is something you should invest in for your coaching/consulting business.
Table of Contents
- Preparing & Posting On Instagram
- Is Instagram A Necessity?
- Social Media Platforms Becoming Advertising Platforms
- Is Instagram Good For A Coaching/Consulting Business?
- Instagram Credibility & Brand Value
- How To Know If Someone Has Real Followers
- Buying Fake Followers On Instagram
- My Client Stats-THE FACTS
- Why Is Instagram So Bad At Converting People Into Clients? There Are Two Reasons
- How We Associate People To Even Virtual Places
- It Costs $ To Be Seen On Instagram
- Instagram Is Addictive & Distracting
- Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Are As Important As We Allow Them To Be
- Why Medium Is Exponentially Better For Coaching & Consulting Business
- Money Out Vs. Money In
- Being A Silenced Messenger
- Tips & Advice: Change The Rules To The Game
- Medium Bonuses To Consider
- The Shift Begun: A Big Corporate-World Sized Win
1 — Preparing & Posting On Instagram
I would end many of my days preparing the beginning stages of my post for the next day, so I would have less to do in the morning.
Once a post was live and people were seeing it, it’s a good practice to check in and respond to comments, sooner than later, as that helps the algorithm see that there’s engagement, not only for your followers, but that YOU are also part of the dance of engagement — so I would be checking in on my comments periodically throughout the day.
All in all, this is a lot of time for just one post, and my goal was one post per day that was informational. If it didn’t take so long, I would have posted more than that.
Multiplying that time daily, and being conservative with the amount of time on average I spent daily on just posting and engaging in those posts is approximately 75+ hours a month.
When I broke that down for myself, while knowing how little I get on that investment of time, I knew a change needed to happen and it made me think of how I could use that time more wisely.
As an artist and general creative person, I was also addicted to the entire creative process of posting on Instagram.
From concept, creation, writing, to engagement, and validation for what I was contributing to the collective consciousness, the fact is that I really liked the process. It’s a bit addictive & doesn’t make much sense.
I told myself that it was all for a bigger purpose, to help create a relationship with my current followers, and to obtain new followers as well.
I told myself that Instagram was an important tool for my business, and that it was a NECESSITY.
Actually, other people and Instagram itself told me that, and I believed them.
2 — Is Instagram A Necessity?
I thought it was, but I was very, very wrong. It is NOT NECESSARY for your coaching/consulting business. It’s really not.
If you move the world of Instagram and Facebook into the real world, you would be conducting business at the local bar, jacuzzi, beach side and video rental place, or your friend’s birthday party.
Those places aren’t really made for business. They are social spaces.
Not that you can’t meet potential clients, and network in social situations — you can, but let's face it, if you stand up at a BBQ, pool party, or neighborhood soccer game and start selling your merchandise or running down the details of your consultant offers-whatever your business is-to all the other participants, you probably won’t be invited back.
At the very least, you would expect someone to say something to you about how inappropriate it is to do that.
These social media applications didn’t start out to sell and market and be the biggest advertisers in the world.
At first, it was a way to share and interact with people you knew, and didn’t know, to share photos, thoughts, ideas, teach people how to do things, show your creations, where you go on vacation, your silly cat, etc.
FACT:
What we have today with Instagram & Facebook are advertising platforms, not social media platforms.
If they were truly social media platforms, then they wouldn’t be selling advertising, and people wouldn’t be going there spending billions of dollars a year to sell their merchandise and services.
Last year Facebook made 9 billion dollars.
If Bob’s Bar on the corner started having socials, and then big events nightly and charging for you to have a booth there, to be seen by everyone coming to the event.
Nowhere around, and nothing compares to the amount of people going to Bob’s Bar for events. Everyone around you changes the way they do business and how they advertise — where they put their energy into, all because Bob’s Bar has these events every night.
No one stops to think about how they are actually aligning, working through, and using a BAR to sell their life-coaching consulting business or baby clothes.
Is it inappropriate for either of those companies to advertise through a BAR? I suppose that’s for them to decide, but personally — it feels weird to use certain spaces to advertise you, your creations, and your serious business. At least if you want to maintain a good reputation and be taken seriously.
Who, what, where and how we advertise matters, and I think we forgot what that means, and we just followed the leader — which is a phone app.
Whatever you put your energy into for whatever purpose it may be, and take that seriously, your potential clients see that and gauge where your values and ethics lie.
And that’s what we do with social media applications on our phones.
We turned them into something way more powerful and important and controlling, and manipulative than they ever should have been — all because we want our businesses to thrive, and we need to “keep up with the times”.
They told us that their platform is the way to do it. And we bought in.
It may just turn out — it’s not actually true. It’s an illusion.
3 — Social Media Platforms Becoming Advertising Platforms
Influencers developed through social media needing to put a face to the products, just like people in commercials on TV, and then service-based business decided to put their hat in the ring too.
Television started off with shows and news, and then was seen as a platform to sell things.
Fast-forward, and everything is about selling something on TV. Actors are spokes models, late-night shows are long trailers with movie stars sitting on the couch.
So, now YouTube and Instagram have Influencers. But it didn’t start off that way.
We allowed it to happen. We allowed them to use “social spaces” as advertising platforms because we need to make money too.
We were all in on the entire scheme and as it turns out, at least for me — is that Instagram isn’t actually good for my business, and it may actually be bad for it.
In fact, I estimate that Instagram cost me more in time and money in the process of posting, and in money advertising than it ever came close to actually being helpful in my business.
FACT: The majority of my clients have come from Google searches, and Medium.com-NOT INSTAGRAM.
It’s not even close.
4 — Is Instagram Good For A Coaching/Consulting Business?
The short answer is NO.
Instagram is most likely not good for you and/or your consulting business, and you can use that time more wisely, posting elsewhere — like here on Medium.
5 — Instagram Credibility & Brand Value
The one big reason that Instagram is positive for a coach/consultant is because they have a huge following, their followers numbers are impressive, and it acts like some perceived extra layer of credibility for potential clients and new followers.
The reality vs the illusion about having numerous followers is a subject I get into further down in the article, first let's talk about real vs. fake followers.
When you see big numbers on someone’s profile, you should be asking yourself, “But are all of those followers even real?” Usually, the answer is no. A big fat NO.
Luckily, it’s easy to check, and I’ll show you how in the next section.
Just yesterday I saw someone I followed go from almost 1K to 11K in the last month or so, and nothing has changed with this person to justify gaining so many new real followers. The reality is that they didn’t gain that many followers. It’s fake.
Gaining 10K followers that fast doesn’t happen organically unless something big happens that puts you in front of a ton of people all at once. This was not the case with this person.
They obviously felt the need to buy followers and the illusion of worth and credibility, when the reality is that we do NOT need to play this game.
The fact is that many people pay for followers, so their numbers are hugely inflated.
I won’t get into detail about how bad this is for your account, and algorithm, other to say that having fake accounts following you will only hinder your exposure. DO NOT BUY FOLLOWERS.
The amount of “fake” on Instagram on so many levels is quite astonishing, if you’re paying attention — starting with how many follower’s people really have, down to what people actually look like thanks to filters, down to the fact that people pretend to be something they are not — in so many various degrees.
6 — How To Know If Someone Has Real Followers
Yes, you should care if those numbers are fake or real, and it’s easy to know the truth.
The one thing to look at is the consistency of likes and comments on posts. Observe their likes and comments, their over-all engagement on their most recent posts.
Typically, about 10% of followers like any given post, so if a person has 20k followers, and their posts generate significantly less than about 2,000 likes on average, then it’s safe to say that the majority of their followers aren’t “real”.
When they go live, consistently — how many people show up? The numbers don’t lie.
This 10% formula goes for YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and basically any social media platform, and you can see that across almost any type of account and status.
10% of your followers on average will engage, if you get more than that, then it’s a big win. However, most people hover right around a 10% exchange rate on followers/subscribers and their engagement rate. Like’s will always be the higher and more accurate read on engagement than comments-but both should reflect something consistently close to 10%.
7 — Buying Fake Followers On Instagram
People who buy massive amounts of followers are presenting as something they are not.
That is a credibility issue for me. They are trying to come off as way more popular, busy/successful than they actually are.
If I’m thinking of hiring any coach or consultant for personal or business reasons, I want to know that I can trust them. That they aren’t trying to deceive me from the get-go by lying to me.
If I see that their numbers are inflated, immediately I do not trust them.
So, the entire intent of them buying followers is to show credibility and value, but you dig just a bit just to find that it’s a lie. Zero credibility.
I hope this bit of information detracts anyone from buying followers in the future.
8 — My Client Stats-THE FACTS
The facts are that most of my clients have not come from Instagram.
A few have, but compared to the people there, and the amount of energy I put on the platform, the percentage is very, very low.
That’s not to say that I’m not grateful for every client, but there haven’t been many of them, and they aren’t consistently being generated.
They also have never been my long-term program clients, which is where I really enjoy working with people to help them deeply transform — in my Evolve Now Master’s Program.
I kept waiting for the pay-off on Instagram, like I was investing slowly into a savings account that will, someday, have made sense and I would have something to show for it, like consistently growing my following, engagement and client base.
However, after 4 years, the facts were that Instagram did not make sense, and hasn’t for quite some time, but I was on the hamster-wheel just doing what I’ve been doing and not really considering if it made any sense for me. Until now.
FACT: Medium.com consistently brought me clients-and the clients I truly was looking for: the ones who were into big transformations in their life and really needed help and someone like me to guided them to a better life.
9 — Why Is Instagram So Bad At Converting People Into Clients? There Are Two Reasons
- My work is education and information driven.
When people find me, it’s because they are seeking to learn things, or to overcome some pain, or difficulty in their life. Maybe they are being guided into entirely new territory that they’ve never known before-that happens a lot, actually.
This means that it takes a bit more effort for my clients to discover who I am, what I teach, and why they need me in their life.
They need to spend time reading my website, articles, and e-books, listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos.
They need to be educated in what I do, and how I do it, and how that relates to the issues they are experiencing.
Aside from the traditional work I do, many times, before deciding to work with me, they need to learn about numerous things they may not know anything about.
Even if they have some understanding of what a Medical Medium is, and what Distance Quantum Energy Healing is and how it works, they also need to put a few things together about their body and how energy affects them.
Then, they need to put things together as to why they have the issues they do, and how I in particular am the right person to take them where they need to be.
Needless to say, that’s a process that involves time.
However, it has happened that people find me, and know immediately that I’m the person to help them-but usually people need to be educated a little bit before diving in.
2. Because of the above, Instagram cannot possibly give someone enough information in any one post, or even all the posts combined.
When people are on Instagram they go into a “quick think” mode, looking for quick bites of stimulation & information, very little bites.
Think about this, even when you find someone you like and connect with on Instagram, how often do you go to their YouTube?
How often do you go to their website? Have you or would you hire a consultant for your personal life or business purely by what you see on Instagram?
Most likely, the answer is no.
Now think about finding a consultant from an article or Google search, and going to their website and then checking out their Instagram. What if they have 300 followers, 3,000 or 30k?
What if they aren’t on Instagram at all? Would you forgo hiring them if they don’t command a big presence on Instagram?
Even when it comes to purchasing products, most people will buy something they like from a business with only 200 followers.
Why? Because they aren’t buying anything to do with followers, they are buying the product that they are attracted to, and that’s all they care about. The popularity of a business on Instagram is irrelevant to anything to do with the product, and as such — it has nothing to do with your service either.
10 — How We Associate People To Even Virtual Places
We tend to associate people where we first met them, so if we first “meet” them on Instagram, that’s typically where we will think to go to see & know them.
Humans are creatures of habit. Period.
If people like the way they know and see you on Instagram, they will just stick there, and there’s a good chance they won’t put themselves in the position to make any serious decisions about working with you.
11 — It Costs $ To Be Seen On Instagram
There’s no way for a large audience of people who don’t follow you to see your posts unless you pay for it. If you want any significant number of people to learn about your account, you have to pay to have posts sponsored.
Once you pay for those ads, and new people follow you-how many actually become clients?
For me, the answer was nearly no one, and I did buy ads, and I did get new followers, but in the end-so what? So what if I have 1,100 followers or 1,600 aside from probably around $300 I paid to get them.
I could go on about this, but what’s the point? The main point is that growing followers on Instagram costs time and money-one way or another.
12 — Instagram Is Addictive & Distracting
We all know this. We get a rush of dopamine when we see likes, and comments, when we get attention in any way.
I’ll admit it, it’s a thing. It’s gratification and validation when people say nice things to you about your posts, to show up in lives, to show love.
The interaction on whatever insignificant level it really, truly is in “real life” and how we have gotten used to that actually meaning something to us, when the bottom line is that it doesn’t mean anything.
These aren’t real relationships, with real connections. They are superficial and come in micro doses.
I’m not saying the people are superficial, or unworthy.
What I’m saying is that because of the nature of the way it’s built, unless you really put effort into building a true relationship that is outside the platform, then that’s all it really is.
Ir’s a social media connection, but not a real friendship, and definitely not a real client connection if it never moves outside of Instagram, and chances are that you are giving yourself away more than you realize because you justify it as an investment in the future.
Basically, our perception of what we define as REAL has been ALTERED.
13 — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Are As Important As We Allow Them To Be
Another thing that actually doesn’t mean anything is the follower count. I mentioned this earlier how people buy followers and how to spot that, but another thing about Instagram and followers is this: it doesn’t matter.
Most clients seeking real-deal coaches and consultants aren’t making those decisions from Instagram, and definitely not based on how many followers you have.
It’s not nail polish and dog sweaters. It’s transformative work, and most people can’t even bother to read a long caption on Instagram-let alone know the value of your expertise and services.
Your presence, your value, your worth on social media does not mean anything when it comes to the work you do and the results you get with people, but we’ve been conditioned to believe that it does matter.
That it matters a lot, and we should even hire other companies to help us with our presence on Instagram.
We have been conditioned to believe that if you have many followers, that you are actually worth something more than someone who has fewer followers — and we know how crazy that is.
It’s easy to look at you and anyone else on there and compare worth and value, by allowing those numbers to dictate how “good” or “worthy” anyone is.
Like it matters one bit. And it doesn’t. It just doesn’t.
Just like Twitter drama is only a big deal for people on Twitter, the same goes for Instagram and Facebook.
It’s not the real world. It’s a virtual reality commerce and advertising platform.
Instagram doesn’t measure the value or worth of a person or business in any way, shape, or form — except by our perception of what is mostly illusion and a fake facade.
It’s social media, and we’ve decided because they have told us that they are important because we all followed each other down that rabbit hole to be part of it — and we decided that they were right.
Think about this; in order to “be something real” you had to go into a space that wasn’t real to show your worth by follower numbers that are usually fake and overblown, pandering to people you’ll never even know or meet in any significant way whatsoever.
To be addicted to all the numbers and stats that they show you each post, story, real, and live is doing, and you want to do better, have bigger numbers, and you run around trying to make that happen and the entire time–it doesn’t even matter. Not really. Not for things that really matter in life.
Your Instagram account and the number of followers you have means nothing to your overall life and value you have to offer to the world, and if you feel that it does-then that’s something to take a look at.
What is the illusion you are buying into?
It’s a vicious cycle of nothing real, having to pay for more people who will hopefully follow us, how we’ll never really know and never pay us for our services and see us personally.
The cycle continues, and the entire time the only people that profit are the platforms themselves, while the reality is that time and energy has gone into an app on my phone.
What are we doing?
And what are we teaching others who look to us for guidance, and how to be in the world?
14 — Why Medium Is Exponentially BETTER For Coaching & Consulting Business
The short answer is that Medium is the opposite of what I explained about Instagram.
People go to Medium because they are in the mode of discovery, education and bettering themselves.
They go to Medium with the intention to read and learn, and maybe have some tiny or large internal shift.
On Medium, you have the opportunity to educate yourself, learn about things you aren’t familiar with, and discover people who are serious in the field and know what they are talking about. It’s just the culture and vibe on Medium.
This place is for seriously minded people looking to improve themselves in some way.
Whether people come directly to Medium to find information, or they do an internet search–they will be directed to Medium.com articles long after they are written.
This means that anyone seeking information on a topic you know about, and have published on Medium, WILL find it, especially if it’s gotten traction and been read a decent amount before a person searches.
I have a few articles on Medium that are at the top of the results on Google when searched for that content and information-which people do regularly.
15 — Money Out Vs. Money In
Not only does Medium & Google NEVER stop showing your articles to people-unlike Instagram posts that basically live and die short lives unless people are specifically scrolling your feed.
However, the great bonus to Medium versus Instagram: YOU CAN MAKE MONEY while you are funneling clients via articles and stories to you and your website.
Every single article written on Medium is generating money to the writer. It doesn’t matter if the person wrote that article yesterday or last year. If they are part of the partner’s program, and the article gets read, the writer makes money from that reader.
Whereas Instagram not only holds your feed and posts back from the general population unless you pay to have them see it, AND the conversion rate is nearly non-existent for gaining new clients, Medium PAYS YOU to show your potential clients who you are and what you’re about through your articles and stories.
16 — Being A Silenced Messenger
If you’re a consultant or life-coach and really bring value to people, whether you’re spiritually based or not — you’re A Messenger.
You’ve probably overcome a lot in your life, figured some things out, and educated yourself in the ways you were guided to, and all of that means that you have messages for people, and the world.
I’m A Messenger.
I take that very seriously given my Divine Connections, but I know that many people are divinely guided to share their experiences and stories with the masses, even though they don’t consider themselves a Messenger.
I’m someone meant to enlighten people on their spiritual path, educate people about being Empaths, and how it is to work with their bodies and energy and how to live a better life-whether they work with me personally or not.
I love putting out information for the public to consume and begin to shift their awareness about themselves, their bodies and the world and multiverse we live in.
I’m a teacher, a healer for people and the world and to do that effectively, you need to have the space to freely express yourself, and be able to have the ability to share that with others.
I found that on Instagram, my voice is seriously limited and censored.
Posts refusing to post because of a particular word in the caption, rejected ads that once were approved, rejected ads for no reason other than it’s “woo”, ever-changing banned hashtags we’re not informed of that tank your views, or just the fact that their culture is meant for people in the mainstream who don’t challenge the status-quo.
They know and feel comfortable promoting doctors who went to medical school, and practice in hospitals, not a Psychic Medical Medium who works via distance energy work.
Even if I never post controversial things about politics and the pandemic, the vaccine, masks, or anything at all “conspiracy theory” related.
However, depending on who is looking, and judging who and what I am, do, write about, talk about, and teach — can and do find it as being controversial.
Even if it’s all about the collective energy, healing, spirituality, evolution, energy work, chakras, and self-improvement, it didn’t matter.
I was still greatly censored, and had to really bend myself into spaces to make myself fit into their mold of what is OK to advertise to the Instagram platform.
On that note, my new publication, The Messengers (formally The Dreamer’s 963) will be a focus of mine.
Publishing energy updates, and spiritual information for people at any stage of their evolution.
Please reach out if you are interested in contributing.
I’m very much interested in brining a community of spiritual people together who are intent about their own evolution, and the collective push towards The New Earth.
17 — TIPS & ADVICE: Change The Rules of The Game
I encourage anyone who has a coaching/consulting-based business who puts a lot of energy, time, and money into Instagram, to challenge yourself to leave there, and shift to Medium.
Write short or long articles-then turn them into e-books, share of yourself through personal stories about what you do, educate people about the things you know and how you help people.
Give general advice and the truth about life and the world, and you’ll see that the people who are actually meant to work with you will find you.
Consider using Instagram for your personal use only. Take yourself out of the game completely, be above it, and don’t allow some app on your phone to be such a big part of your life or business, and invest on a site that works for you and your business in more ways than one.
Serious business needs a serious platform, and Instagram is not that.
Besides, being too dependent on any one platform, regardless of what it is, to reach your clients, will eventually be a problem.
There’s a lack of control that you must deal with, and be at the mercy of.
I know there are other places to post articles besides Medium, and I intend to find and use them as well.
Make sure you convert your subscribers/followers/readers to your website and ask them to subscribe there as well.
Copy your medium articles to your website’s blog and also funnel readers and subscribers to you that way.
Make sure your SEO is on-point, so you don’t miss opportunities in searches.
18 — Medium Bonuses To Consider
Your articles and stories have the chance to be picked up by other publications, allowing for yourself and your business to be seen by many more people-as well as being able to label yourself having being published in popular magazines, newspapers, and publications — not to mention being asked to do podcasts and other shows.
That is much more impressive than any number of followers on Instagram.
The last time I checked, life coaches, consultants, and gurus don’t get booked on TV and Podcasts because they have a lot of Instagram followers.
Why? Because we all know that having a lot of followers really doesn’t mean much. It’s a popularity contest that can easily be contrived and fake.
What do you actually know and do? How do you help people? What’s your track record? Those are things that matter.
People get booked and published on those platforms, and asked to be on shows because they are experts, icons, gurus, and have something real to teach people and their track record proves it.
19 — The Shift Began: A Big Corporate-World Sized Win
Regardless of how Facebook/Instagram censors some of us, there is change happening — in the real world.
There is a shift there in the main-stream when it comes to people like me and what we do, and I hope that you can celebrate in this achievement with me.
A current client-who originally found me via Google-was able to obtain a loan from her bank in Austria to join The Evolve Now Master’s Program I created via Divine Guidance.
The 9-month program is based on a sliding scale, starting at 52K. She needed a significant loan to be able to enroll in the program.
It was a major win for me personally that a banking institution signed off on a significant loan for this purpose.
If they didn’t see the value in this type of work dedicated to interpersonal education and self-mastery, then they would not have approved the loan.
She was approved on 12.31.2021. It was a great way to end the year.
About Infiniti
I am Infiniti, Incarnate for The Divine Archangel Gabriel, as such, I am a Channel and Vessel for Mother Earth GAIA, all The Archangels, Ascended Masters, Dragons, Fae, Unicorn, Mer, Galactics, and Spirit Animals.
Together, we, The High Council, heal, guide and enlighten humanity to The Truth of how spirituality connected and infinitely powerful you are.
As your Real-Deal “Faerie Godmother”, I am always incarnated and divinely guided to work with those of you that find me again through this multidimensional, magical, sacred connection here, in this timeline.
We are SOUL FAMILY — Empaths, Lightworkers, Earth Angels and Starseeds– meant to magnetize and reunite.
My purpose for being is to guide and work directly with those of you who are ready to EVOLVE.
Read all about me, my magical & miraculous story of healing, and what I have to offer at ArchangelsLove.com
The Healing Butterfly.org an open treasure chest of FREE informational resources, including free e-books, and my art.
Social Media : VERO @ Infiniti_963
