Most founders should not be on Instagram. I know that's the opposite of what every social media guide says. But Instagram is hard, slow, and bad for B2B, and your time is better spent in the platforms where you can win.
So the question isn't "how do I grow on Instagram?" It's "should I be there at all?" Here's how to tell.
The two cases where Instagram is worth it
The first is if your product is visual. Skincare, food, design tools, anything where the product looks like something. You can show it, and showing it is most of the sale. Instagram is built for that.
The second is if your customers are creators. Photographers, makers, small e-comm operators. Those people live on Instagram. They check it more than email. If that's your audience, you have to be there or you don't exist to them.
If neither of those is you, skip it. Spend the time on Reddit and X.
What "barely" looks like
If you're on the line, the right level of Instagram effort is one post a week and zero stories. That's it.
The post is a short caption and a clean image. No reel, no carousel. Just enough that people who look you up have something to see. The bar is "this account is alive," not "this account is growing."
This costs you ten minutes a week and pays you the small amount of trust that comes from having a working profile. That's all you should expect.
If you're going to do it for real
If you're in one of the two cases above, do it for real. That means reels. Reels are the format with reach right now and feed posts barely move at all.
The format that works is the same as TikTok. One founder, one phone, one minute, hook in the first three seconds. The audience overlaps enough that you can post the same video on both.
What not to do
Don't run an Instagram account where you post a quote on a stock background once a week. That's the worst kind of effort: visible enough to look like you're trying, low enough that nobody is impressed. Better to not be there at all.
If you're going to skip Instagram, skip it cleanly. A profile with three posts from a year ago is fine. A profile that posts inspirational squares every Wednesday is worse than nothing.