The algorithm is not seeing it as valuable content based on the initial
interaction that content got. Sorry.
Now I've been doing this Instagram thing for a long time in internet years and
people can't stop asking about the algorithm,
so if you are wondering a few things about how that dang algorithm works,
you're in the right place because today I'm going to break down the Instagram
algorithm in 2020.
But the good news is I'm not just speculating.
The information I'm going to share, it comes directly from the horse's mouth,
Instagram itself,
so forget everything that you've heard or you've believed about the algorithm.
Today, I am just talking about truth.
And stay tuned until the end where I'm going to share my answer to a question I
still get a lot: "Elise,
should I be business or personal?" I'm going to share what's most beneficial for
your account at the end.
What I'm about to teach you today has worked for lots of my students inside my
course InstaGrowth Boss,
so I'm just going to put some of their wins up here on screen.
Have a read through them. I'm going to grab some tea. Don't worry.
Take your time. I'll be back.
The point is what I'm about to share with you works, so let's dive in.
I'm Elise Darma and I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs,
freelancers and creatives like yourself use Instagram to actually grow their
business and today I'm teaching you the Instagram algorithm in 2020.
First things first, what is the Instagram algorithm?
The algorithm like most for social media is powered by machine learning.
That means it's changing all the time and it's not the same for two people.
This also means that the more you use Instagram,
the more the algorithm gets to know what you like.
So this is all based on the videos you're watching, the people you're messaging,
the stories you're replying to,
all your actions inside the app are tracked and taken into account by the
machine learning that is behind the algorithm.
This is why the Explore page is different for every user.
It's curated based on what the algorithm thinks you like the most.
Take my Explore page, for example.
Instagram knows my age and it knows my behavior,
so it shows me a lot of baby announcements,
pregnancy photos and memes from The Bachelor. So when you think about it,
the Instagram algorithm is on your side,
it's here for you and it's designed to give you the content that you've already
liked because the thing is there is so much content on Instagram right now.
Even if you're following a thousand accounts,
it's unlikely that you're going to be able to see everyone's content.
So the algorithm chooses what it thinks you're going to like the most.
You're going to see la creme de la creme. Next,
let's talk about how to make the Instagram algorithm like you.
The golden rule here is to publish content that people will care about.
Did you like that I got closer here to emphasize my point?
When you publish new content,
Instagram decides how many people are going to see it based on the initial
interactions that content gets. I'm talking shares,
saves comments, replies, DMs.
These are high quality interactions and if your content gets a lot of those in a
short amount of time,
you better believe the algorithm is going to show it to more people.
Breaking news, breaking news,
Instagram has confirmed that it does not hide content and shadow banning:
it is not a thing. Again,
people are just following thousands of accounts and there's a lot of content to
show, so Instagram isn't hiding your content, it's just,
it can't show it to all of your followers,
especially if the content is not resonating or hitting the mark right away.
I hate to be the bearer of this bad news, but if you've ever wondered,
Why is my engagement so low?
It could be because the algorithm is not seeing it as valuable content based on
the initial interaction that content got. Sorry.
On that note, here's my little PSA about leaving comment pods.
Comment pods were really hot in 2016 and 2017 but Instagram has officially come
out and said that they know when people are in common pods,
the algorithm knows.
So that's not really considered high quality activity or high quality
engagement.
So if you're in a comment pod and the same people are commenting on your stuff
over and over again to "boost your post in the algorithm",
Instagram has said that's not going to fly. This is fun, right?
I love understanding the back end of things.
So now that we understand how the algorithm works,
let's talk about what kind of content you should be posting.
I'm going to cover three types of content. Number one, videos.
On average, videos outperform photo based posts in the feed.
However,
Instagram has confirmed that the algorithm doesn't favor videos over photos.
It's just that videos are more engaging.
They catch people's attention and hold it longer. Now,
what counts as a video view? Three seconds, my friend.
So if someone stops on your video and watches for three seconds or more,
you got a new view.
One other thing to keep in mind is videos take up four times the amount of space
on the Explore page. So if you haven't yet dabbled in video,
I've got some other trainings for you here on this channel.
Now is the day to try video.
The second type of content to post in 2020 is IGTVs and Lives.
Now, I have covered both of these topics on my channel already,
so go ahead and find those videos and then come back to this one.
Between the two of them.
I prefer IGTV because the cool thing about IGTV is you get clickable links in
the description. So if you're not sure how to do this,
go ahead and check out this video right here and I'll walk you through it.
Breaking news, breaking news, we've got more breaking news here.
This just in:
now Instagram is rolling out and testing a new feature where you can go live and
it's going to publish as an IGTV video on your channel. Super cool.
So now it's removing a step from the process. Before I would go live,
I would save it to my camera roll and then I would post it as an IGTV.
But with this new feature that is slowly being rolled out,
you're going to be able to go live and then publish it directly to your channel.
So that's saving us lots of time.
The third type of content isn't really content, but you should be using them:
hashtags.
Now Instagram recommends that you use relevant and targeted hashtags.
So for example, if you're in the fitness niche, instead of using #fitness,
you could try something like #tabatafitness, right?
Now we're getting more specific to your content. Last but not least,
I want to cover a few common questions I always get about the Instagram
algorithm. When is the best time to post?
The best place to find this information is in your insights.
If you have a business profile,
Instagram tells you when your audience is most active. Now,
if you don't have insights, you can also just think about your audience.
When are they likely to scroll Instagram? Is it during their commute?
Is it during their lunch break?
So you can also put yourself in their shoes and think strategically that way.
And same with live videos. Whenever you're about to go live,
you'll actually get a notification to see how many people are active in the app
right now. So to get that information, check your insights.
The next question I get is, How often should I be posting?
There is no magic number here.
The Instagram algorithm just likes to see you being consistent.
It is the word of the day.
Consistency is queen when it comes to Instagram and content is probably King,
on that note. But yes, consistency is the most important key.
So right now I'm posting about three times a week to my feed.
If you can do that, great. If you can do every day, great.
The algorithm just wants to see you being consistent so that it knows you're not
going to drop off. The last question I get is, Elise,
should I be a personal account or a business account? On that note,
we also have Creator profiles as an option, too.
So back in the day there was this rumor that if you switch to a business
account,
Instagram would reduce your organic reach just like what happened to Facebook
pages.
But Instagram has since come out and said whether you are a personal account,
a business, or a creator account, you're not penalized in the algorithm.
So it's really a personal choice.
And usually what I recommend is to stay a personal account unless you're going
to use the insights that you get with a account.
If you're not going to use them, you may as well stay personal.
And then once you hit 10,000 followers,
switch to a business account so that you can get the Swipe Up feature. And yes,
I did try the creator profile for about a day,
but none of the features really spoke to me and I thought the business profile
was more robust. So that's the one I use today.
Now that we've covered the inner workings of the algorithm,
I want to help you out.
I want to actually give you 800 ideas for your Stories and yes,
you can apply them to your captions too.
They are all inside my product Story Vault.
Story Vault is a my answer to your question of, What should I post today?
So go ahead and check out Story Vault.
I'll leave the link right below in the description of this video.
To ease and revenue. I'll see you in the next video.
Ready for a little truth tea about the Instagram algorithm? I can't,
I can't. Ready for a little tooth,
tooth tree? Why am I holding it so weird?
Let's hold it normally. What is normal?