‘Instagram Algorithm’ – Dread it or Love it…you cannot ignore it! Instagram Algorithm has always been the gossip talk of influencers trying to crack the tough nut.

A lot of information about the same has been gathered over the years through use and experience, however, personal experiences say that some have gained by following Instagram Algorithm guidelines, and some haven’t. Whatever may be the case, Instagram citizens have to strive to follow the algorithm if you want to increase your reach, engagement and most importantly – your followers.

Sometime back, a lot of people were posting regarding Instagram Algorithm. Here’s what the post looked like –

Well, the Facebook owned platform, Instagram has little to say anything about this Instagram algorithm, however, Instagram head – Adam Mosseri last week revealed some insights about the algorithm. You can read them here.

This week, we have some new deep insights which we would like to share. So here’s it –

How does the new Instagram Algorithm work?

Instagram has been quite clear since the beginning that there is not one single factor that drives the algorithm. It is combination of various factors (1000+) put to test and finally you see what you see in the explore feed or in the Reels section. However, the Facebook owned platform definitely has shared some key signals –

These factors are the main indicators of your Posts and Stories –

• Information about the post – These are signals both about how popular a post is – think how many people have liked it – and more mundane information about the content itself, like when it was posted, how long it is if it’s a video, and what location, if any, was attached to it.
• Information about the person who posted – This helps us get a sense for how interesting the person might be to you, and includes signals like how many times people have interacted with that person in the past few weeks.
• Your activity – This helps us understand what you might be interested in and includes signals such as how many posts you’ve liked.
• Your history of interacting with someone – This gives us a sense of how interested you are generally in seeing posts from a particular person. An example is whether or not you comment on each other’s posts.

This is what the Facebook owned platform says about Instagram Algorithm, specially about Instagram Feed –

“In Feed, the five interactions we look at most closely are how likely you are to spend a few seconds on a post, comment on it, like it, save it, and tap on the profile photo. The more likely you are to take an action, and the more heavily we weigh that action, the higher up you’ll see the post.”

This is what the Facebook owned platform says about Instagram Algorithm, specially about ranking Explore –

“To find photos and videos you might be interested in, we look at signals like what posts you’ve liked, saved, and commented on in the past.

Let’s say you’ve recently liked a number of photos from San Francisco’s dumpling chef Cathay Bi. We then look at who else likes Cathay’s photos, and then what other accounts those people are interested in. Maybe people who like Cathay are also into the SF dim sum spot Dragon Beaux. In that case, the next time you open Explore, we might show you a photo or video from Dragon Beaux. In practice, this means that if you’re interested in dumplings you might see posts about related topics, like gyoza and dim sum, without us necessarily understanding what each post is about.”

This is what the Facebook owned platform says about Instagram Algorithm, specially about ranking Reels –

“We survey people and ask whether they find a particular reel entertaining or funny, and learn from the feedback to get better at working out what will entertain people, with an eye towards smaller creators. The most important predictions we make are how likely you are to watch a reel all the way through, like it, say it was entertaining or funny, and go to the audio page (a proxy for whether or not you might be inspired to make your own reel.)”

These factors are the main indicators of your Reels ranking –

• Your activity – We look at things like which reels you’ve liked, commented on, and engaged with recently. These signals help us to understand what content might be relevant to you.
• Your history of interacting with the person who posted– Like in Explore, it’s likely the video was made by someone you’ve never heard of, but if you have interacted with them that gives us a sense of how interested you might be in what they shared.
• Information about the reel – These are signals about the content within the video such as the audio track, video understanding based on pixels and whole frames, as well as popularity.
• Information about the person who posted – We consider popularity to help find compelling content from a wide array of people and give everyone a chance to find their audience.

Hope you find this article useful. Please share you comments below.

Happy decoding the Instagram Algorithm! 😉

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