If you have an Instagram account, you are likely familiar with the struggle of making your posts visible to as many people as possible. You may create the perfect hashtags, the best quality post, and probably bought some Instagram followers to help boost your engagements –but in this current Instagram space, those efforts are not enough.
Instead of relying on these alone, there is the almighty Instagram algorithm you must please if you want your content to blow up. This is what determines the prioritization of your content, as well as what users see and what they do not see.
To make your content reach wider, it is worth taking some time to understand what the Instagram algorithm is all about and maximize these strategies to win more audiences. We discuss some of these tips below.
Ensure you respect community guidelines
All social media platforms have community guidelines, and the same applies to Instagram – regardless of whether it is in the Stories menu, Reels, or the Feed. Going against these guidelines leads to the algorithm limiting your reach, so that includes sharing politically-charged posts, misinformation, sensitive or upsetting content, and even low-resolution videos and photos.
This is probably the reason behind shadowbans – where you post content on your account but notice that the engagement rates are unusually low.
Ensure your reels involve creativity
Reels are part of the Instagram highlight experience, so they will be essential if you want to improve your brand’s visibility. Ensure you get creative with them, and one of the ways to do that is by adding them to your content calendar.
Instagram also has a @creators account where they share the best strategies you can use to boost your engagements, and one of their tips is to maximize actual engagement. Real humans will sift through different reels and prioritize watching and sharing the best ones they find, so the best guidelines to use in this case include:
- Shooting your reels in a vertical format (portrait) instead of horizontal (landscape)
- Avoid recycling watermarked TikToks. You can post watermarked TikToks in your posts and credit their creators there.
- Use all the extra features Reels provide, including music, camera effects, filters, and so on
- Ensure these reels are short but get to the point, and remain entertaining. The more entertaining they are, the higher they will rank on the feed.
Promote maximum reach by scheduling the posts at the optimum time
As you aim to build your brand on social media, it is important to monitor the interactions with your audience has with your content and the timings. This will allow you to post your content at the best times, resulting in higher organic reaches.
Fortunately, this does not need to be a hard task – social media management platforms are always the best options to help you monitor your engagements. They will also give you suggestions on the best posting times, depending on the unique behavior of your audiences.
Improve interactions
The Instagram algorithm heavily depends on engagement – and that is what you should prioritize for improvements. If you are not getting the engagement levels you want, you can employ simple strategies like putting stickers in your reels and stories.
Through strategies like polls, emoji sliders, question stickers, and Instagram stories, you can encourage your audience to give you direct feedback on your brand and its products, and share their stories about how your brand has a positive impact on them. You can also promote the conversation by giving them a chance to give their commentary within the videos or images, or the comment section of a post.
As a general guideline, the algorithm ranks posts with ‘good’ engagement as those with a 1 to 5% engagement rate. To increase it, you can use strategies such as:
- Creating ongoing stories based on the stories your audience tags you in
- Defining your audience and marketing to them
- Responding to DMs and comments
- Using hashtags to increase your content visibility to new audiences
In conclusion, dealing with the Instagram algorithm may seem like a complicated or extensive process, but the good news is that you will get rewarded eventually if your content has high engagement rates and is of excellent quality. The tips we discuss will help you optimize the algorithm and grow your reach as well.
