Why does Instagram promote certain content?
So I’ve studied the Instagram algorithm to figure out why some accounts gain millions of followers while others never see much success at all.
Instagram just made an algorithm update and there are tons of content on YouTube all over the place, videos online that are just pushing outdated strategies. So we’re gonna cut through all that noise and I’m gonna show you some growth hacks that are gonna help you explode your reach right now.
If you’re trying to grow your account for your business or because you wanna become an Instagram creator then just keep reading this article, because I’ve got what you need.
Now, if you guys aren’t already aware, Instagram recently made an algorithm update and
one of the major changes was that they amalgamated all the video content now to be in reels.
So why is this important? It’s important because reels are gonna be the key to boosting your reach and getting more followers on Instagram.
The CEO of Instagram announced this change, and the truth is showing your IG reels to a wider audience is actually in Instagram’s best interest.
There’s a little bit of a fire under Instagram’s butt because TikTok is coming in hot. There’s some tough competition coming from TikTok.
So Instagram needs to start prioritizing more video content because that’s what people wanna see, these days, short video content is the new currency of attention.
Now, considering that Instagram used to be a photo sharing app, this next piece of advice may be a little bit confusing, but what I think you should do is I think you should abandon photos altogether.
Literally, forget carousels, forget single photos just make reels all day every day. Focus on making reels because they’re gonna get you 120% more reach than photos could.
Add captions on your reels.
This is because only 15% of people are actually watching their video with their sound on.
So if you don’t have captions you’re gonna be missing out on the other 85% of people.
They’re just gonna scroll right by your stuff. So make sure that you are adding captions in order to hook people in, so if you wanna add captions:
-you’re just gonna go and grab the caption sticker automatically generates captions.
Now, if you’re not loving the native tool within Instagram then you can actually check out the app store/play store.
There’s gonna be tons of free options there and it will give you more control of the look and the feel of your captions.
Instagram also launched some new content creation features that are gonna help make your videos more interesting and more dynamic.
So we’ve got Dual which allows you to record on the backside of your phone while also showing your reaction.
And then we also have a green screen and split screen just like TikTok.
These features are really great because if you are trying to create content with added spice
you don’t have to go into post production you can literally just edit it right within Instagram.
This makes content creation a little bit more scalable if you are trying to post really frequently
and really consistently so definitely leverage these tools.
Start your videos off with a hook
So people are actually gonna lose interest in less than two seconds. Two seconds before someone starts to scroll. So you wanna start your video with audio and visuals that take up a lot of space. Maybe someone’s jumping into the frame, maybe you have someone dancing, or maybe you have like a really crazy interesting fact you’re sharing right away. Or maybe you have like crazy visuals of like someone skydiving or like a landfill or something.
So how often should you be posting?
Well, you should be posting one to two times per day in the current state that Instagram is in.
And I know it’s like should you quit your day job in order just to do this?
But if you choose formats that are simple to complete you can actually make it a lot easier on yourself. It can be time consuming, yes, that’s true, but honestly, anything worthwhile is.
So if you’re posting reels and you’re doing that consistently, you’re gonna be golden.
Actually, I’m currently working on e-commerce and one of the things that we’ve noticed even though we’re a brand that has a really large following is that nothing other than reels is working right now.
So take it from me, reels is the key to exposure and it’s gonna be the key to more followers.
Instagram is making a point to make their search function better on the platform.
So when you think about the way that YouTube or Google search function works you know that when you search something you’re gonna get the results that you’re looking for.
So Instagram is trying to improve that about their platform.
So what that means for you is you wanna include keywords you think people will be
searching on Instagram into your content and into your profile. So like let’s say you run a business where you do people’s nails, for example maybe you’re a nail technician, then you might wanna include the keywords nail technician in your bio, your captions, your hashtags, and all that make sure that you’re focusing on keywords.
So speaking of hashtags, are they dead?
Hashtags aren’t dead, they’re not, but they’re definitely different from what they used to be.
Now the best way to use hashtags is to create amazing content that people are gonna wanna see, then based on your engagement the Instagram algorithm understands that your content is keeping people on the platform and that’s when it starts to push content on the hashtag pages and the explore pages.
So essentially your content isn’t gonna get more views or more followers just because you’re using hashtags, but if your content is good then Instagram will start to leverage the hashtags that you’ve used to give you an extra push.
But if you ask me my personal opinion, no one asked but I’m gonna say it anyways.
I actually don’t like hashtags. I find them to be like cluttered and not necessary, but they still work.
And if you are serious about Instagram growth and you wanna seize every opportunity you can in order to explode your account, then use them.
The best time to post on Instagram
The time at which you post your content is really important because the minute you post your content, you wanna show Instagram that your video is popping and that there are tons of people watching and engaging. But the thing with that is that you need to make sure that you’re posting during the times that your audience is actually on Instagram in order to get
that engagement right away, is super simple.
You’re just gonna take a look at your analytics, just like this here and see when your audience is on most and then just literally post during those times.
But if you’re like “I’m doing all these things”, but I’m still not growing, this is a crazy tip that I actually just learned from YouTuber here, his name is Chris Hau. He says you should check your account to see if you are shadow banned. You know if you ever use like a follow and unfollow app or maybe you’re like doing too many actions at once, Instagram might think you are a robot. This is against Instagram’s policy so you could actually be shadow banned.
And if so that could be what is actually hindering your growth so make sure that you are checking that out.
Instagram Notes
Instagram rolled out a feature called notes, not everyone has this yet but it’s almost been said to be kind of like Twitter kind of like MSN status update.
And if you’re looking for this is gonna live in your direct messages tab and only your close friends can see this or accounts that you follow and they follow you back, can see your notes.
Now, Instagram is still testing this feature out and I personally thought that once they did roll it out a lot of people would use it but randomly I’m seeing a lot of my friends are using it, which I find super interesting.
I don’t see this as being like a growth tool considering only people in your network can see your notes. But I see this as more of an engagement tool. The more that you show
up in people’s feeds the better chances you have of connecting with your audience. So if you are trying to add more one-on-one touch points with your audience,it’s definitely worth it.
Instagram offers a massive opportunity to drive traffic to your online store, if you have an Instagram shop, you can link to your products and this is a really great way to make it easy for your customers to make a purchase from you. You can even take advantage of Instagram’s latest feature, shopping on Explore. This makes reaching new customers so much easier than before.
Bye.
