Oh Instagram, how I love you but sometimes I wish you were easier to use and understand! It’s not secret that Instagram algorithm is ALWAYS changing and it can be so so hard to figure it out. I have struggled with this for soooo long but I feel like I am starting to get the hang of it a little bit more, at least enough to share it with y’all so that you can benefit from it too! Have you ever asked yourself, “why did my number of likes go down?” ” Why are my followers telling me they can’t see my posts on their feed?” well my friends, thats algorithm and today we are going to dive into it!
Just to start out, like I said above, Instagrams algorithm changes frequently so this post could become irrelevant in the next year heck, even the next month but I will do my best to update it as I learn! So, my first tip is to always periodically update yourself on Instagrams algorithm so that you can become the successful blogger you are meant to be. I forgot to talk above a little bit about what algorithm is but basically in Instagrams terms, the Instagram algorithm is kind of a set of actions that you can take to do many things like get your post seen by your followers, get new followers, have good engagement and so on. Below, I am going to list out some of Instagrams algorithms that have helped me be more successful on my page and I hope it helps you!
The algorithm predicts how much you care about a post
what this means is if you like a post or a blogger, you need to be interacting on their posts and engaging with them because your feed shows you things it thinks you will like from your past behavior. As a blogger, this means you need to encourage your followers to engage on your posts and with your page. I usually like to ask my followers a question so that it encourages them to stay and chat!
Comments are EVERYTHING
According to the new algorithm, comments are ranked as the highest engagement. So for instance lets say you get 1,000 likes but only 50 comments, the new algorithm might show your post less to your followers because comments out way likes. If this is happening to you, really encourage your followers to engage more with your posts. Also, I wanted to touch on fake followers. If you are paying money for random people to like your photos so you will get a lot of likes, it will end up hurting you in the long run. Brands also look for that type of stuff as well so good luck landing big deals in the future!
Friends & Family List
Instagram likes to show you what you like so if you comment on the same girls post every day Instagram will loop her into your “friends and family” list and show you her feed regularly. Again, if your followers are having trouble seeing your post, encourage them to engage more and even tell them to turn on post notifications so they don’t miss your posts!
Be consistent with your posting
Posting good quality content and consistently to Instagram tells Instagram that you are a good quality account and you will appear higher up on your followers feed. This means, if you are serious about growing, you really want to dedicate sometime to making a posting schedule. For instance, if you’re a new account and you decide you want to post 3 times a day and then once you’ve grown you switch to 2 times a day, you will actually end up losing a lot of followers. When making a posting schedule stick to something that will be easy to maintain for years to come. I like to post once a day but I like to look at my insights to help me figure out when my followers are active the most on Instagram to figure out a good time to post!
Treat comments like a conversation
This means that you need to be responding to all your comments. Yes, I know it can be vary tedious especially when you have over 100 comments but trust me, it makes a huge engagement and shows your followers you care and want to build a relationship with them! For the most part, you might be replying the same thing 99 times but what if someone has a question about an outfit and you don’t comment back, you probably just lost a follower. Try to block out a time for just engaging with followers. I like to respond to comments in the morning while I sip my coffee for about an hour!
Timeliness is important to the algorithm
Time is everything when posting on Instagram. Instagram likes to post the most relevant pictures to the top of the feed so it is very important to be interactive when your picture is just posted. It also helps to post when the majority of your followers are active on Instagram. One way you can find out when your followers are active is by looking at your pages insights which can be located in settings. I also like to respond and engage with comments in the first hour of my post being live. Example below of my insights of when my followers are most active.
There is so much more I could dive into with this post, but I sorted everything out and shared the most important ones I thought would be relevant for y’all! If you have more questions or want to dive deeper into the algorithm of Instagram, feel free to comment questions below! hope this helps y’all grow and flourish on Instagram!
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