Putting a lot of effort and time into Instagram and still not getting the desired outcome? To under Instagram better, it’s important to know how Instagram algorithms work.
Until the time I was using Instagram just as a platform to share my travel experiences and other things that I am interested in, I didn’t bother about learning about the technical stuff like- how Instagram works and how to make the best of it for business.
Now, along with sharing other interesting stuff, I am using Instagram to promote our travel blog. So I have started learning more about how it works because that helps me make the most of my time and efforts spent on creating and sharing content on Instagram.
What is Instagram algorithm?
Have you ever noticed that you don’t see all the posts from all the accounts that you follow on Instagram (unless you are spending most of your time scrolling through Instagram)? So how does it decide what to show you and in what order? Here comes the term ‘algorithm’.
The Instagram algorithm decides what you see on your Instagram account and provides you a personalized experience. Instagram uses a variety of algorithms and processes to make the most of your time and improve user experience.
In simple words, what you see on your Instagram depends upon your past activity on Instagram, what you follow and what you most interact with on Instagram. It aims at providing a tailored experience to the users which means that everyone sees different posts on their accounts, in a different order, depending upon various factors.
With so many people regularly sharing a lot of content on Instagram, Instagram works towards prioritizing and tailoring to your interests. Let’s see how things in the different parts of the app are ranked.
‘Feed’ and ‘Stories’
In Feed and Stories, you’d usually see content from friends and family. You see the recent posts shared by the people you follow.
The next thing that is taken into consideration is the post and your activity. What a post is about, its content and location, who shared that post, is it something you might be interested in, how popular that post has been- this determines what you see in your feed and stories. Whatever you like, save, and share on Instagram works towards deciding what you are shown on Instagram.
Secondly, what kind of posts do you like or interact with if you like posts by a particular person and commented on someone’s posts. Depending upon these things, Instagram makes predictions. The more likely you are to interact with a post, the higher you’ll see that post in your feed. Instagram keeps working on getting a better experience for you and shows you what you might be interested in.
How ‘Explore’ works
Explore helps you discover new things on Instagram. There you would find many suggested photos and videos. These may or may not be posted by the accounts you follow. Hence it gives you more options to look for the stuff you might be interested in.
So what is the determining factor behind the photos and videos you see here? Again, that majorly depends upon your past activity on Instagram. What kind of posts you liked or commented upon, whom you are interacting the most with, how popular a particular post has been among other people- all these factors are taken into consideration for bringing up the posts for you to ‘Explore’. All of this aims at giving you the kind of content you would probably like to see on Instagram.
How ‘Reels’ are ranked
The purpose of Reels is to entertain! If you can do more than just entertain with it, that’s awesome! Reels that you see in your account are based on your past activity. Instagram algorithms work towards finding and showing you the Reels with the highest probability of you being interested in those. Similar to other posts on Instagram, Reels that you see depends upon the kind of content, who shared those Reels, and how popular is it among other people.
One important thing to keep in mind while sharing content on Instagram- Don’t share something that is potentially offensive or upsetting.
Do you know that you can decide what you see on Instagram?
If someone you follow keeps sharing the kind of content you don’t like to see but you don’t want to offend the person by unfollowing them, you can just mute that account. You won’t see whatever they share on their account.
Often you would see recommended posts on Instagram which you may or may not be interested in. If there’s something that you don’t like you can express that you are not interested in that post. It gives a clear indication to Instagram about you not being interested in that type of content.
The information shared above is based on a post published on the official Instagram blog.
Keeping the above-mentioned information in my mind helped me get more exposure and followers on Instagram. Another thing that is helping me improve and be more productive is Tailwind.
How Tailwind helps me get better results on Instagram
Consistent Content
It’s not easy churning valuable content consistently on social media platforms. The grid layout of Tailwind helps me plan my content and also provides me ideas about creating new content. One day if it’s ‘Inspire’, the other day it could be to ‘Connect’ or ‘Educate’. Staying consistent with content is important and it has been noticed that posting the same kind of content at the same time on the same day helps. For example, sharing single-image posts on Monday and Friday, carousel posts on Wednesday, and Reels on Sunday.
Optimised Posting Schedule
With the help of the Tailwind Instagram scheduling dashboard, I get to know the best time to share my content and schedule it accordingly for maximum views. I make it a point to use this feature so that my posts can have a wider reach. For my Instagram account, I have noticed that the peak audience time is late evening.
Creating content in Batches
You don’t need to create one post at a time and share it. With Tailwind it is very convenient to create content in batches, schedule it and you’re done for the week or month. With Tailwind Create I can create a lot of amazing designs for my posts on various social media platforms within a few minutes.
Time is money and Tailwind helps me save a lot of it. I can put this time to better use, have more breaks in between work and get more productive. If you are not already using Tailwind, I’d highly recommend you to go for the free account. You won’t regret it!
