How Instagram’s Algorithm Works
How does Instagram organize its users’ feeds? That’s something social media marketers need to know but Instagram have kept to themselves. Until now!
Instagram recently announced the 6 key factors it takes into account when it places content in your feed.
Interest:
How much Instagram predicts you’ll want to see or engage with a post, based on your past behaviour on similar content.
Recency:
Instagram prioritizes the most recent posts, and your relationship to the poster is of course also considered.
Relationship:
How frequently you have interacted with another user in the past, by commenting on, or liking their posts, for instance.
These 3 factors outlined above are the main factors that Instagram take into account when working out where to place content in your feed. The following 3 factors are also considered.
Following:
If you follow a lot of people, Instagram will show you less posts from one single person.
Frequency:
How often you open the Instagram app, as it wants to show you the best posts since you last visited.
Usage:
How long you spend on Instagram. The app uses AI to decide when to show you the best posts and whether you’ll see less important posts.
Instagram also busted a few myths and gave out some further pointers on how it ranks content.
- Instagram doesn’t give greater weight to users who who utilise Live, Stories or other special features of the app.
- Instagram doesn’t favor photo or video formats. However, if you never watch a video and only engage with photos you won’t see a lot of videos in your feed.
- There is no difference in ranking between personal and business accounts.
- One of the main subjects in Instagram forums and groups is shadowbanning. Shadowbanning is when your hashtags become ‘un-discoverable’. Instagram says it’s a myth and that it doesn’t hide users content for using too many hashtags or for posting too frequently.
Instagram also announced that it has removed 10 Instagram algorithm-gaming Groups with hundreds of thousands of members. So, the lesson is post good content regularly and engage with real accounts that you like. To improve your analytics and performance use ‘legitimate’ tools like Iconsquare or for larger businesses, Sprout Social. These tools will help you find influencers, monitor hashtags etc but it will still take time to build a following. However, your following will be much more likely to engage with your posts.
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