At the very beginning, Instagram was a platform where you could share and see posts (mostly pictures) in chronological order – meaning at the top of your page you were able to see the newest posts. It was really easy to see what your friends or other people you follow were posting.
Over the years, as the app evolved, ads and influencers became a huge part of Instagram and the platform’s algorithm changed. You were not able to see posts in chronological order anymore and users started complaining about seeing more and more sponsored content, recommendations to follow profiles in stories/feed, or that their feed is starting to feel like TikTok with all the reels that are appearing.
Currently Instagram has three parts – Feed, Explore, Reels. Each part uses different algorithm according to how people treat it.
Why is it important to understand how the algorithm works?
When you know how to work with the set of rules that rank the content on Instagram, you understand how to optimize your content. Instagram will then show your posts to more users, and you will gain more visibility.
The current algorithm takes into consideration primary and secondary ranking factors.
Primary:
- Relationship – This is the relationship between the content creator and viewer of the content. How they interact with each other (mutual following/messaging/commenting). The higher level of engagement represents higher chance the content will be shown on top of the feed.
- Interest – User frequently interacting with the same type or format of content (liking only posts that contain reels). Algorithm will deliver more reels to the user.
- Relevancy – Analysing each content with trending topics to see how relevant it is.
Secondary:
- How frequently is the platform opened/used.
- The number of accounts user follows (higher number of followed accounts = more accounts fight for place in the feed).
- Time spent on Instagram – if the user spends less time on the platform, only accounts with most interaction appears. Therefore, challenge for business to be seen in the feed.
As TikTok gained more popularity and quickly became one of the most used apps, Instagram started to put more attention on videos. This decision was supported by the statement that the platform only supports a way of how the users want to consume content in today’s age.
After some backlash and complaints, the head of Instagram Adam Mosseri explained that Instagram will still support photos but that he believes that the app will become more and more about video in the future.
Make Instagram Instagram again movement
In July 2022 number of celebrities and creators started sharing post that protested the Instagram focus on videos and its algorithm.
People behind the petition beg Instagram to listen to creators that helped bringing in the community the platform has now. The creators don’t like that they are forced into direction of creating just to serve the algorithm. The users create reels as it appears like the only thing that drives engagement. Of course, making a reel is not only more time consuming but also more creativity and skills are needed.
How do you think future of Instagram looks like?
