Instagram explained how news feed generation algorithms work. Previously, the platform has never published such data, and there have been many questions about the social network among marketers. The most common of them are also answered on this site.
Read carefully: understanding the work of the Instagram news feed tape will help you to get the maximum reach and engagement for your posts.
The chronological tape was not convenient
This is not spoken by representatives of the social network (and certainly not users), but figures: users skipped 70% of all posts and 50% of posts of friends when the feed was formed in the order of publication of posts.
Now, according to Instagram, users see up to 90% of friends’ posts. Recall that in recent months, Facebook has paid attention to maintaining contacts between friends and family within the social network.
Main factors for the Instagram ranking algorithm
Instagram uses machine learning to analyze your behavior on the social network to create a personalized tape for each user. Even if two people are following the same list of accounts, their news feeds will differ, depending on the interactions with these accounts. You can work with Instagram services to increase your popularity, and therefore rank higher, read more.
Interest
Instagram predicts whether the publication will interest you based on your previous actions with similar content. The similarity of publications also determines machine vision.
Relevance
Priority is given to publications made recently.
Relations
Instagram determines how close you are to the post’s author. Comments are taken into account under his photographs and tags on joint images.
Three additional ranking factors
Instagram representatives also identified three additional factors that affect the display of posts in the feed.
Frequency
How often do you go to Instagram: the algorithm tries to show you the best posts since your last visit.
Number of followings
If you are following a large number of accounts, the algorithm has a wide selection of publications to add to your feed – so you rarely see the posts of a particular person.
Behavior
How much time you spend in the application, and how to view the content: quickly scroll through the tape or enter the account and see the posts there.
Myths about the work of Instagram algorithms
The Instagram team has disproved known user misconceptions.
- Instagram does not plan to return to the chronological tape. This will complicate the use of the service. However, the company listens to users’ discontent with the current algorithm.
- Posts in the tape are not hidden but only are arranged. If you browse for a very long time, you will see publications from absolutely all the accounts which you are following.
- The Instagram algorithm does not prefer posts with video over posts as a photo. It analyzes what content the user watches more often, and it is in his personalized feed that publications with this type of content are ranked higher.
- Instagram does not rank users who post Stories, Live Broadcasts or use any other application features higher. That using story affects reach is a myth.
- In the feed, users who post content too often do not rank lower. But if posts are posted one after another with a small period, Instagram in most cases will add other users’ posts in between them.
- The type of account does not affect the coverage: switching from a business account to a personal one and vice versa will not give any results.
- Shadow ban (hide posts in the issuance of hashtags) does not exist.
How to improve the performance of your account on Instagram, knowing the factors that influence the ranking?
1. Publish regularly
You need to be caught by followers to stay in their feed. Some marketers and bloggers are advised to make at least one post per day. For some, this is too much – sometimes creating content takes time and effort. Three publications per week will be enough.
2. Communicate with your audience
Yes, the very questions
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