How the Instagram algorithm actually works is a big question that has caused confusion.  We have a look into the myths and facts and share some tips for your business or brand to implement.

Instagram state there are 6 key factors that influence the algorithm for newsfeed posts

1. Interest
2. Relationship
3. Timeliness
4. Frequency
5. Following
6. Usage

Let’s look into these factors a little bit more

Interest – Your feed doesn’t just include posts from those you follow, it’s based on the types of posts you liked previously.  If Instagram thinks you will like a certain post it will appear higher in your feed. So in summary it assesses all of you instagram behaviours, the posts you like, comment on, interact with and photos you are tagged in.  

Instagram’s prioritises posts by engagement but what counts as engagement? Instagram says the most important engagement for feed rankings are comments, likes, reshapes and views for videos.

Posting consistently will send a positive signal to Instagram and gives your audience opportunity to interact with you. So plan ahead and ensure you have posts ready to go, think about using a scheduling tool so you don’t drop the ball!

Relationship – Instagram wants to prioritise posts from people and accounts you care about. So, instagram uses your interactions to decide who you are close to and who interests you. Instagram can figure out who is important to you from your usage on the app

Instagram can assess this with the following:

• People whose content you like
• People you direct message
• People you search for

Timeliness – The algorithm doesn’t just look at how much engagement your post gets but how long ago you posted it. Instagram wants to serve the latest and most interesting posts. 

Frequency – How often do you open the app? If you are a frequent user your feed will seem more chronological, if you check less often the feed will be organised more by the algorithm and what Instagram thinks you’ll like.

Following – How many people do you follow on Instagram? If you follow a lot of people then Instagram has more choice on what you see

Usage – If you spend just a few minutes in the app each day you will just see the highlights Instagram thinks will interest you, but the longer you spend each day the more Instagram will dig into other content it thinks will interest you.

To find out when you audience are most active on Instagram you need a business profile. Access your insights and click ‘see all’ next to your audience and you’ll get a breakdown including the times that they are online. 

Normally Instagram stories that appear at the start of your feed are from the accounts you engage with the most.

Stories also puts emphasis on timeliness as it wants to show you the latest stories form your favourite accounts

Consistently post to Instagram Stories, this gives you a better chance of reaching your audience

The algorithm works in a very similar way to the newsfeed it assesses what you interact with but instead of being content from people you follow it will me nearly completely new accounts

If you regularly share great content with niche hashtags your ranking will be good.  For hashtags in Explore Instagram chooses post based on engagement and how much competition there is for that hashtag.

The theme continues and Instagram continues to serve the content you interact with most and what it thinks you will like based on your historic use of the app.

Share a 1 minute preview of your IGTV video to your Instagram feed to increase discoverability.  Likewise share your reels to your newsfeed to.