The largest photographic social network in the world unveiled one of its most intimate secrets: how it decides to display the posts in the feed (main page).
Instagram decided to stop showing the posts in chronological order and began to rely on an algorithm that changed over time, and that no one knew exactly what it was about.
Therefore, in this article, we are going to reveal how the algorithm of Instagram works and how you can take advantage of it to improve your brand’s profile on this network.
The Success Trilogy
To order the feed of updates for each user, Instagram relies on its machine learning: a learning machine that understands what each person likes according to their actions within the network.
This machine learning analyzes three fundamental variables: interest, relationship and novelty. But what exactly is each one about? Let’s see them in detail.
● Interest
This variable is calculated from the history of each user, that is, according to their likes, their comments or the words they have searched for on this social network.
In other words, Instagram takes into account the content that the user liked in the past to determine what they will be most interested in seeing now. From there, it analyzes the current content of your contacts and determines what to show you first.
In addition, Instagram is capable of recognizing the content of photographs, which makes it better able to identify people’s interest in certain topics.
All this means that:
- The interest goes hand in hand with the behavior that the user has had within the network. In this way, your preferred content will rank higher in your feed.
- If a user follows exactly the same people as another user but their level of interest is different (one comments and the other does not, one puts like and the other does not), their feeds will be different as well since Instagram does personalize according to the interests of each.
Tip 1: As soon as you receive a comment or a private message, reply to it! In this way, you will score points to appear on the main page of your follower.
Tip 2: Generate content that you think can add a lot of likes, so you make sure you are in the feed of your followers!
Also Read : Tricks To Get Instagram Followers And Likes
● Relationship
Another variable that the Instagram algorithm uses to order the posts in the feed is the relationship that a user has with others, and this is measured from the interaction.
The more comments a user writes on the photos of certain people, or is tagged in them, Instagram will assume that these people are part of their family or friends group, and that is why it will show their posts first.
For Instagram to include you in this group, we recommend that you:
Tip 1: Create posts that generate interaction with your followers, for example, asking questions, and inviting them in the post to respond in the comments.
Tip 2: Create contests where your followers have to tag their contacts. All these actions can get you to appear on their Instagram feed!
● Novelty
The new is what has the most weight: the most recent content is the one that, taking into account the other two variables, is going to position itself better in the feed ranking, even if it has not yet been consumed.
Tip 1: Be careful! It’s not about you posting anything every 10 minutes just to have fresh content. Pay attention to the quality of your posts so that they generate more interaction and measure better in the Instagram algorithm. Yes, the secret is to find balance!
Tip 2: Create a content calendar to organize what day and time you are going to publish according to your brand’s audience. For example, if you analyze Instagram metrics and discover that your posts have more interaction in the afternoon, take advantage of that time of day to get a lot of juice out of it!
With this magic algorithm, different Instagram managers ensure that more than 1,000 million active users of the network in the world see 90% of the most relevant posts, thus favoring their user experience.
What other factors define the order of Instagram posts?
In addition to the three variables, there are others (less relevant) that can also determine the ranking of a user’s posts.
● Frequency
If the user opens the Instagram application many times a day, their feed may look more chronological because Instagram tries to show the best content since their last visit.
On the other hand, if the user does not frequently open Instagram, his feed will be ordered clearly based on the Instagram algorithm.
● Tracked Accounts
Instagram selects content from all accounts that a user follows. This means that the more people or brands you follow, the less content of each of them you will see.
● Use
This social network also considers the time that each user spends in the application: if it is looooong, the user will probably see more posts as they immerse themselves in Instagram. If it is more moderate, you will see the highlights of the algorithm.
Also Read: 5 Benefits Of Being On Instagram As A Blogger
Debunking Instagram Myths
Finally, and to clear up certain doubts that the public has had for some time, those responsible for Instagram ensure that the application:
- It does not favor more or less those accounts that use stories.
- It does not benefit business accounts over personal accounts.
- It does not give more importance to photos than to videos, nor vice versa.
Now that you know how the Instagram algorithm works, it’s time to apply it to your social media strategy.
You can also take the opportunity to apply the latest Instagram Shopping functionality to increase your online sales, right? Learn more about how to sell on Instagram in our super complete guide.
