If you are a business owner or a digital marketer and want to maximize your reach, you must know what Instagram’s algorithm is.
And that’s totally natural if this term ‘ALGORITHM’ is freaking you out.
According to the latest stats, more than 2 million advertisers use Instagram for promoting their brand. The US has the largest number of Instagram users, with 37% of adults and 72% of teenagers.
So, if you’ve already developed a mobile-friendly website, but don’t know how to survive the new Instagram algorithm, you are in deep trouble. In fact, your Instagram profile is the main source of pushing traffic to your website.
This is how the new Instagram algorithm can help you increase traffic
This is how the Instagram algorithm will work for you in 2021.
Interest
Your audience’s interest and intent are important more than ever.
From now onwards, the Instagram feed of your people will not only be based on who they follow, but it will be based on the types of posts and accounts they follow in the past.
To put it simply, if the Instagram algorithm thinks people like a certain type of post, the chances are higher that they’ll see a similar post again in their feed. Your feed will portray your Instagram behaviors.
Plus, the algorithm prioritizes engagement which is based on likes, comments, shares, and views for videos. Liking and sharing a post like this means that you love traveling. The secret of running a successful business on Instagram is to know your audience.
This means that you have to show up consistently. A pro tip is to schedule all your posts in advance so that you can be more consistent in your content posting plan.
Relationship
The second most critical factor for the Instagram algorithm is a relationship which simply means that it places a high value on posts from your family, friends, and accounts that you love.
How Instagram theoretically identify who we care about?
Answer: How your audience uses the app.
- People who like stories and live videos of certain accounts.
- People they direct message.
- People they know in real life (i.e. common university or office)
- People they search for.
The algorithm will start calculating people’s relationship and interest level the moment they follow someone ad interact with their content in your news feed.
Timeliness
Instagram’s algorithm has started giving more attention to when you post because it started caring about serving users with the best and latest posts based on what they like.
You need to find out your personalized time for Instagram posting. By knowing the best time, you can hack the algorithm to enhance your audience reach and generate more likes and following requests.
Plus, if you post at a time when your target audiences are online, you get the opportunity to rack up those likes.
Frequency
How many times your target audiences open their Instagram app?
If they scroll many times a day, then their feed will look chronological because Instagram tries to show the best content. For example, ads for the best essay writing service UK for students.
On the flip side, your feed will be sorted out considering what you’ll like.
Following
How many pages your audience is following?
When people follow more pages and accounts, Instagram has more options to choose from. This means competition will be too high. As a remedy, you need to come up with multiple posts a day to beat the competition.
Usage
User session duration is an important indicator that tells the Instagram algorithm what to show you.
- If people open the app in short bursts, they’ll see the focused feed.
- If people spend long hours scrolling, they’ll run out of ideas.
- If people spend a few minutes, they’ll get to see important highlights.
Instagram stories ranking
Generally, the Instagram algorithm doesn’t see stories as a ranking factor. However, your followers will start seeing your stories at the start if they engage with you the most (i.e. likes, shares, DMs, story views etc.).
Make an appearance on the Explore page
This is possible if you pay close attention to the above-mentioned five factors that the Instagram algorithm prioritizes.
This means that the Instagram algorithm will see your interest, timeliness, and relationships in order to feature you on the Explore page. To achieve all this, you need to build engagement with your audience as soon as possible and interact with them many times a day.
Some other tips are:
- Use hashtags
- Choose the perfect time of the day
- Try paid Instagram ads
- Produce valuable and engaging content
The bottom line
Above all else, it is important that you know your audience well and what they are looking from you. The best way is to emphasize quality and understand Instagram psychology.
If there’s any question that I’ve missed, leave a comment below so that I’ll be able to answer it.
Author bio
Liza Brooke is a Sr. Research Analyst & Marketing Blogger at Crowd Writer, the right place for students to get personal statement help and get admission in their dream university. She is a digital marketing expert with over five years of experience. She loves to see small start-ups growing and flourishing.
