- How do you make Instagram work?
What if you understood its algorithm
so you knew how to get more followers
and sell more of what you want to sell?
That's what you're gonna learn today.
I'm Crystal King, the Social Media Professor
for HubSpot Academy.
I teach social media to businesses
so that they can grow bigger, better, and faster.
Today I'm gonna explain the Instagram algorithm,
how it affects your content so you can maximize
your marketing efforts to drive visibility,
attract new customers, and reach more people.
If you like this video don't forget to like and subscribe.
Essentially there are three main factors
that determine what you see in your Instagram feed.
First, interest and relevancy.
Instagram will prioritize posts that it believes
will be of more interest to you
or have greater relevance in comparison
to the posts you've liked and engaged with in the past.
This was a big shift when it first came about,
moving posts from a chronological timeline
to this new format, which focuses on the content topics
you tend to view, and how you're connected
to the users you follow.
This algorithm change proves to be a bit
of a challenge for marketers, as many have seen
a shift away from branded content being viewed.
Some marketers are reporting that only 10%
of the audience will ever see organic content.
Compared to the one percent opportunity
for your content to be seen on Facebook,
that's not a statistic to take lightly
in the marketing world.
So keep this in mind as you think
about your contents, interest, and relevancy levels.
Currently, 90% of a users' Instagram feed
are comprised of posts from friends and family.
But the idea of a friend is a loose one.
If a user likes a couple of posts from the same person,
then they will soon see a lot of posts from that person
in their feed, even if they're not the most recent.
That brings us to number two, timeliness.
While Instagram is no longer chronological,
it still considers timeliness to be important
for prioritizing, and will reorder only
the new posts between a user's current visit
and their last visit.
That means, if a friend has posted five photos
since your last visit, and Instagram has determined
that friend has relevancy to you,
you'll see those five photos mixed
into all the other top photos in your feed.
The more a user refreshes during a session,
the more likely they'll see content beyond
those top individuals that Instagram
considers their friends and family.
That means it's probably best to post primarily
when your audience is most active
to improve your chances of being seen.
So let's talk about relationships.
This also connects deeply with the relevancy factor.
Showing you the accounts that you always interact with.
The algorithm will take into consideration likes,
and how long a user looks at a post.
It will also use information from Facebook
to determine relationships.
The good thing about this for brands however
is that if a user spends a certain amount of time
looking at an ad, they'll be more likely
to see that ad again later,
or see ads in similar categories.
The relationship factor will also take into account
a user searching for a profile,
ranking that profile higher in the feed moving forward.
What this means is that brands need to engage
regularly with their followers.
Answer questions, reply to comments,
and actively seek out engagement.
This will in turn foster new interactions,
thus boosting your profile and content in users' feeds.
There are three additional criteria
that play a smaller part in Instagram feed rankings.
Frequency, following, and usage.
The first is frequency.
This is based on how often a user accesses Instagram,
and will show the user what it considers
to be the best posts since the user's last visit.
Next is following.
The more people a user follows, the wider that pool
that Instagram uses to show content.
So the user will likely see less of any one specific
brand or person.
And the third criteria is usage.
How long a user is on Instagram determines what they see.
If it's a short session you'll only see
the best top priority post.
If it's a longer session then Instagram
will dive deeper into the content mix
of the people the user follows.
This way of displaying content has led
to some people accustomed to shorter sessions
to think that Instagram is hiding posts in their feed.
But if you're scrolling, you'll eventually
see everything by everyone you follow.
Are you with me?
Tell me what you think in the comment box below.
There are a few other points to consider
when thinking about the Instagram algorithm.
Instagram doesn't look at photo
or video content differently.
One type of content will rank higher
if a user engages with it more often,
but unlike some other channels,
video will not rank over photos and vice versa.
Instagram's feed doesn't favor users
who use stories, Live, or IGTV.
It doesn't matter if you have
a business or personal account.
Instagram doesn't give better visibility
for one over the other.
What matters is great content.
While Instagram says that being shadow banned isn't real,
there are a lot of indications that it might be.
What is shadowbanning?
It's the act of blocking a user's content
on social media sites in such a way
that the user doesn't know it's happening.
If you're shadowbanned on Instagram
your content won't appear on anyone's feed
unless they already follow you.
This can happen if you use bots to run your account,
use too many hashtags, or if you've exceeded
certain following limits.
It can also happen if you're using
a popular hashtag that has been overtaken
by inappropriate content,
which leads to Instagram removing access
to that hashtag for a period of time.
For more information on banned hashtags
and how to combat shadowbanning,
check the description for a link.
So how do you get around the algorithm
and still have your content be seen?
Let's look at some of the possibilities.
First, you want to post frequently.
It's especially beneficial if you're doing
frequent story posts which tend to have
higher engagement and will improve
the change that your content will appear in a user's feed.
Ask questions in posts to boost engagement.
Reply to comments quickly to further engagement
and build affinity among your followers.
Use trending hashtags.
You can use a service like Hashtagify
to help you find relevant hashtags to your topic.
Post high quality images and video.
Quality makes a big difference on Instagram,
perhaps more so than all the other social media channels.
If you have beautiful, interesting content,
users will engage more.
Use live video and pre-promote that live video.
Users can comment and engage in realtime
which again boosts visibility.
Post when your users are most active.
Users who are spending more time in Instagram scrolling
are more likely to see a wider variety of content.
Consider creating an Instagram pod.
This is a group that boosts each other's engagement,
which will help your content be viewed more often.
See the resources section in the description
for more about Instagram pods.
Work with influencers and have them tag you
as part of that collaboration.
And finally, consider advertising.
You can easily boost posts and take advantage
of the same deep targeting that's available on Facebook
while benefiting from the generally higher engagement
that Instagram offers.
I want to leave you with one last thought
about the Instagram algorithm.
At some point it will probably change.
Stay up to date on the news about the channel.
The HubSpot marketing blog is a great way to do so
since we regularly cover major social media updates.
That way when it does change you can easily pivot
and shake up your marketing strategy to match.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
If so, the good news is that it's only
a small slice of a much larger lesson
I'm teaching on Instagram.
Check out the link in the description
to the complete and free course on the elements
of a successful Instagram marketing strategy.
And don't forget to like and subscribe.
Thank you for joining me today.