When you unearth hundreds of old pictures in a box in your attic or a closet and realise that you need to organise them, you may experience feelings of tension and anxiety. Can you picture the task of sorting a billion of them? How would you even begin? Just how would you classify them? Just think about how often you’d have to do it! That’s essentially what Instagram does all day, every day. To try to fathom the complexity of such an achievement is mind-boggling. But today, we’re going to try to achieve that very thing by dissecting the Instagram algorithm.

The new Feed algorithm is based on six primary considerations:

• Your interest rate is based on your actions in the past. Not only does it keep tabs on who you’re following, but also the content you like and the advertising you click on. The things you’re bookmarking and sharing. Your news feed will be influenced by how frequently you interact with various sorts of articles and profiles. Did you know that it also keeps track of when you click on a photo to enlarge it or when you bookmark a page? You should watch how much time you spend on each post.
• Relationship – Instagram’s endeavour to provide you with more relevant information from the people and accounts you follow. Who you’re connected to on the app depends on how you interact with the people whose material you enjoy, who you direct message and whose posts you comment on more often, who you search for, and who you know in real life. The contacts you have and the accounts you maintain with them.
• Time order: the most recent posts will appear first. The goal is to anticipate when your followers want to see a new post from you. The optimal time to post has grown in significance.
• The frequency with which you access the app determines whether your feed is chronological or prioritises content based on the app’s predictions about what you’ll find most interesting. As you explore the app, content will load in the order of its release date. The less you use the programme, the more it will focus on what it believes you’ll find useful.

Increase the number of people you follow to get a more diverse feed.
The less time you spend in the app, the less features you’ll see. Following people ensures that you only hear about the most important news. If you keep digging, the app will find more more interesting stuff to show you. When you’ve read everything posted by the people you’re following, the app will recommend similar articles.

Additional Instagram Features

The Instagram Stories algorithm prioritises fresh content by default, displaying the most recent posts from your favourite accounts. The accounts with which you have the most interaction will be prioritised when populating tales. Daily updates are recommended because they enhance the likelihood of being noticed.
In a similar vein to the feed algorithm, Explore will display content from accounts you don’t already follow when you visit the page. This opens the door to exploration. Here you’ll see accounts that are similar to the ones you already follow based on your activity, including the posts you like, the hashtags you use, the accounts you follow, and the information you share in your own feed.

Instagram TV

The algorithms behind IGTV and Reels are quite similar to Feeds’. Instagram highlights IGTV and Reels in specialised Explore tabs. Sharing a one-minute teaser of your IGTV in your feed helps boost your channel’s discoverability, and you should always promote your Reels through your feed.

Hashtags have long been a great technique to increase the visibility of your content in search results. Instagram has just added the option to include Alt Text with uploaded photos. Not only does this help with searching, but it also opens up Instagram to the visually handicapped.

The ability to search Instagram with keywords has also been improved. This enables you to search for certain keywords, and if those terms appear in your caption, your post will be returned in the search results. This means you no longer have to overuse hashtags while commenting or captioning. The social media platform specifies that this feature will only apply to “…general interest topics and keywords that are within Instagram’s community guidelines.” They also mentioned that elements like post date, caption quality, and content kind would all play a role in how a post is ranked. The new search tool use machine learning to “find the highest quality content that’s relevant to you.” At now, outcomes are shown in a grid layout.

Conclusion

When you post engaging material on Instagram, the “algorithm gods” will reward you and your feed. PLENTY of it (including images, movies, captions, alternative text, etc.) But that material must also appear and feel like it belongs to a larger plan. Demonstrate to your audience that you’ve given careful consideration to both your brand and your feed. UNUM was developed for this same purpose. Have a central hub where you can learn about and organise your visual social media channels’ content strategy.

You should use the app often and with intent, posting high-quality material on a regular basis and interacting with your followers and other users.