Lately, there’s been a lot of scaremongering amongst the small business community that only 7% of your followers see your post at any one time - every day I seem to see a different warning or a desperate plea to their followers to engage with them.
Yes Instagram can be a tricky one and it’’s certainly not as easy as it used to be BUT I don’t want you to feel disheartened or even scared by the intricacies of the algorithm - no way!
So I’ve checked these myths out (using sources like Later, Planoly and Social Media Examiner) and the following are all based on FACT:
The Instagram Algorithm is NOT hiding your posts:
Instagram says “what shows up first in your feed is determined by what posts and accounts you engage with the most, as well as other contributing factors such as the timeliness of posts, how often you use Instagram, how many people you follow, etc.”
… “We [Instagram] have not made any recent changes to feed ranking, and we never hide posts from people you’re following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.”
So why might you have seen a decline?
Instagram continues to grow to over 1 *billion* users, it’s becoming harder to get your content seen by more people. It’s a louder, more competitive space than ever before.
How can you beat the competiton:
Invest in quality content that informs, educates & inspires
Up your game on Instagram Stories to reach new audiences and keep your brand front of mind
Ensure your content is engagaing and sparks conversation - ask questions and respond in a social way
Engage as you would offline - have personality!
Do Instagram Comments Have to be More Than 3 Words?
If you listen to Instagram rumors, the algorithm only recognizes comments that are in words, (and not emojis) and the comments need to be longer than 3 or 4 words to “count” towards improving your engagement.
This is not true and there is no evidence for this.
However, I would always encourage genuine engagement on posts that’s going to open a conversation and be valued by the account so here’s some to try out:
Ask Your Followers a Question
Ideas could be where they live, what they love about your products, what they think or your new serviceWrite Longer Captions
This is one I’ve been trying out with much success - Instagram seems to be moving towards more bloggy content - we’re no longer sitting reading Vogue in the hairdressers chair but flicking through Instagram - it’s becoming the go-to place to consumer longer content - try it out, look at your insights and see if it works for you!
Should I ask my Followers to go on ‘Like Sprees’ so that more of my content shows up in their feed?
If you like or comment loads on a certain accounts posts, more of their content will show up in your feed.
Instagram recoignizes that you love that accoutn and wants to ensure you see more of it - this is your personalized feed based on your interactions.
However, as for going on ‘liking sprees’, you’d also need to engage with that content when it is in your feed too.
You should watch entire Instagram Story or you won’t see that profile’s stories in your feed when they next post
No-one really knows how the Instagram Story algorithm works so we’re on a journey of discovery with that one at the moment.
Instagram says: “When you’re watching someone’s Instagram story, choose to tap through instead of swiping Next, otherwise they get pushed back further in your timeline in the future. By tapping through each post, you’re letting the algorithm know you’re interested in that content.”
“Stories has a different algorithm from the rest of your Instagram feed but it works in a similar way. It looks for the same signals, such as interest, relationship, and timeliness. It will also look at particular behaviors such as if you actively tap to watch a particular story instead of watching a feed of different stories. As well, it takes into account how many segments are watched in a story.”
So, it does sound like this Instagram rumor could be true.
If you want to know how to grow your business with Instagram Stories come along to one of my workshops or book a 1-1 online or in person!
Does Switching to an Instagram Business Profile affect anything?!
Instagram denies this and says “Instagram does not give extra feed presence to personal accounts or business accounts.”
The 2 major benefits of switching to a Business Profile are:
Scheduling your Posts
Use scheduling tools like Planoly, Preview or Later.
Instagram Analytics
Only available to business profiles, you get to understand who your audience are, which content resonates with them when they’re online (and loads more!)
So - Ignore the rumours and focus on my 3 pieces of advice for building your Instagram account:
Creating high-quality content
Posting regularly to Instagram Stories
Building an authentic community