How Does the Instagram Algorithm Work?

“Instagram is always evolving”

The Instagram algorithm decides the order of the posts that users see when they’re scrolling through their feed. The Instagram algorithm is important to understand as it can make the difference between your content being discovered by ideal customers or not. The algorithm is always evolving, though as you’ll learn in the video there are specific factors that affect it.

The 7 Factors that Affect the Instagram Algorithm:

1. Engagement. This is a measure of how popular the post is in terms of likes, comments and shares.
2. Relevancy. This is a measure of the categories of content you have interacted with.
3. Relationships. It’s important to interact with accounts within your target audience. Instagram recognizes who you engage with and consequently displays your account to them more regularly.
4. Timeliness. Consistency is paramount. Posting once daily is great but no more than twice a day. You want to stay relevant and top of mind without being annoying.
5. Profile Searches. This is focused on which accounts you check most often.
6. Direct Shares. How often you share and credit an image or video from another account.
7. Time Spent. This is how much time you spend looking at other people’s content. Or how often a customer is looking at your content.

RESOURCES:

• If you’d like to keep up to date on algorithm changes, you can create a Google Alert for ‘Instagram Algorithm changes’ or as suggested in the video, or when you’re scrolling through Instagram pay close attention to which content is getting the most engagement and being shared on the Instagram Explore Feed.