There’s a good chance you’ve heard of the Instagram algorithm. While many influencers out there try to work it out for themselves, we recommend figuring out how to make it work for you.
Let’s take a look at understanding the Instagram algorithm and how it can work in your favor, so you can start building your ultimate community and increase your brand’s overall reach.
Understanding the Instagram Algorithm: The Myths
1. Instagram Hides Posts
The most common myth out there is that Instagram hides certain posts. However, this isn’t true – while someone’s feed isn’t chronological, all posts will be included for what they follow.
The algorithm just places the posts they think are most relevant to the user at the top. If you spend a lot of time scrolling, you’re going to end up seeing everyone’s posts.
2. Instagram Favors Personal Accounts
Some people say that Instagram limits the reach of business accounts over personal ones. This is apparently because they want people who use business accounts to use their paid promotions.
At the end of the day, it’s not true – people just seem to favor content that’s a bit more personable.
This means that if you have a business account, your content may appear later in your followers’ feeds, and they could miss out on your content.
3. Shadowbanning
This controversial activity has been denied by Instagram. It’s what happens apparently when people use too many hashtags on their posts. Again, though, Instagram claims to not shadowban people and hide your content from people who aren’t your followers.
How to Work with Instagram’s Algorithm
As we talked about earlier, Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes content based on how they interact with other accounts, as well as their own interest.
While there are still people out there that think the algorithm works against brands, there are quite a few ways to make it work in your favor. Let’s take a look at a few ways to make things work for you on the gram.
Post Amazing Content
We all know that it takes time and effort to build up a following and an audience on Instagram.
One of the first and most important things to do when trying to make the Instagram algorithm work for you is to post relevant content that’s high quality.
You always need to be thinking about how your content is going to help you reach and connect with your target audience.
Of course, you also need to stick to your niche when you’re posting content. This is going to give Instagram a good idea of your content and what you’re trying to communicate with the people that follow you. In light of this, we suggest that you do a bit of research.
Check out some accounts of people that you’re in competition with.
Check out their content and see what people engage with the most. This is going to give you a good idea about how you should be approaching your content strategy.
Support Audience Engagement
Instagram favors the content of accounts where their followers are engaging actively and consistently. Based on this, we think it’s essential that you get your audience to engage with your content. This will also increase the chances of your content showing up in their feed and staying there.
One of the best ways to encourage your audience to engage is to include a call-to-action in your caption. This could be anything from asking your audience to comment on your photo, or tag a friend in the comments section.
You can also encourage your audience by asking them to interact with other people in your community. This could be leaving a comment, taking a look at their latest Story, or liking a post.
However, you get your audience to engage, this is going to help your account stay on top of the algorithm.
Post More Videos
To make sure that the Instagram algorithm is working in your favor, you need to change up the medium you work with from time to time. Including GIFs and videos in your content is a great way to keep your audience engaged and work with the algorithm.
Using things like videos and GIFs helps keep your audience nice and engaged. It also helps you stand out against all of those photo uploads that people scroll by.
Videos are also a great way to get people to stop scrolling and look at your content – and who knows, they may even click through to check out the rest of your account.
The algorithm takes note of how long someone is interacting with your content, so the longer they’re engaging with it, the better you’ll do.
Be Longer with Your Captions
If you want the algorithm to work for you, post longer captions. Posting a longer caption is going to encourage your audience to stick around for a bit.
The longer someone stays on your post, the longer you stay on Instagram’s algorithm. This could put your content in the spotlight and get it featured on things like the explore page.
Posting longer captions can also bring credibility to your brand. Just think of it as a way to communicate with your community and bridge that gap to bring them closer.
Choosing the right hashtags for your content is one of the essential parts of growing a successful Instagram account.
This is because Instagrammers now follow particular hashtags based on their interest. If you want people, who are interested in your niche to find you, use the right hashtags.
Of course, there are things you can do to really make your hashtags work for you. Firstly, you need to avoid using hashtags that are too vague.
While vague hashtags will have a high volume of posts, this means that your content is going to get lost quickly in the crowd. You’ll also struggle to relate to your audience.
The more specific your hashtags are you, the better your reach will be. Try using hashtags that are trendy and specific to your niche. To figure out how many hashtags you should be using, check out what other people in your niche are doing.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of social media influencers out there that don’t love the idea of an Instagram algorithm, as they see it as a bit of a roadblock to any success.
However, now that you’ve read this article and understand how the Instagram algorithm works, we hope that you’ve got some simple tricks and tips up your sleeve that can make it work for you.
As we mentioned above, there are a few strategies you can use to connect your content with your target audience.
If you want the algorithm to work for you, make sure to be effective with your captions, post high-quality content that has variety, remember to engage with your audience and always use hashtags that are specific to your niche.
Use these tips to get ahead on the gram!