Mar 22, 2019
If you compare the engagement on Instagram you got last year with that you receive this year after Instagram’s algorithm system changed and made everything even more complicated, you will notice a drastic difference and not to your benefit. So, to make your brand a must-have in your users’ feeds without making the accent on advertisements, you will need to resort to some workarounds. InstaBF, your beloved IG and IGTV provider, is going to help you make your posts visible and Instagram algorithm work in your favor. Here are the most efficient workarounds.
Make an Investment in a Photographer or Videographer
Instagram is the social platform where quality reigns supreme! To stand out in the crowd, your photo and video content must be eye-catching and designed especially for storytelling. And taking into consideration the fact that Insta videos are set on auto-play, they must be made to the highest level so that Insta users get attracted to see your videos on their feeds constantly. If you have no unique ideas or conveniences to shoot superb-quality videos, it’s worth investing in a photographer or a videographer.
Live videos are also of high importance nowadays.
Run Instagram Contests
Among those several surefire ways of increasing your Instagram engagement is frequently running contests. It’s known that people love free items and are always willing to do a couple of clicks or other simple tasks in order to raise their chances of getting a nice gift. The frequency of your contests may vary just as the gifts promised, yet the idea of increasing your brand awareness and engagement on this social network remains the same.
Make Frequent Instagram Stories
In order to get around the decrease in post engagement, you can expand your posting in another area – Instagram Stories, to be more precise. This amazing feature offers an array of engagement opportunities with the newest Poll feature as one of the most beneficial. Remember, that the higher your engagement is the more probable your posts will appear in the feed as the “all-mighty” Algorithm considers all the actions of engagement such as even replying to a Story.
Jump on Trends
One of the most important factors in the Instagram algorithm is timeliness. Whether this is a hashtag trend or an image trend, make certain you don’t fall behind. However, this doesn’t mean you should participate in every viral meme. Choose only those trends which are applicable to your brand. For instance, on Halloween, thematic nail art designs were of great popularity on Instagram. Most brands used this trend to showcase their creative skills and remind about the great upcoming Holiday!
Pick Out Active Hours for Posting
Scheduling posts to those hours when your followers are most active will significantly increase your Instagram engagement. According to the statistics, the best times for posting are around 3 PM on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4 PM on Thursdays, and 5 AM on Thursdays and Fridays. However, depending on your brand type, the time may differ. InstaBF has already written about the ways you can use to find out the best times for posting on Instagram. Make sure you use our recommendations.
Scheme a Strong Visual Brand
Having a strong visual brand is the key to achieving success among Instagram users. This way your brand will be easily identified through photos. They will subconsciously associate your brand with certain visual attributes. There are multiple brands you can take an example of. They are bright, original and always make easily recognizable posts. If you want to outsmart the Instagram algorithm, scheming a strong visual brand is mandatory.
Feb 21, 2019
In recent time, we could see quite many warnings and pleas for engagement posted by brands and influencers. All of them were addressed to Instagram algorithm. But are they true or perhaps they are fake? In this post, InstaBF, your tested and trusted provider of IGTV and Instagram comments, followers, views, and likes, will break down four most popular Instagram rumors spread on the platform currently.
Does Instagram Hide Posts?
The first rumor spread on Instagram refers to the algorithm. Most probably, you have come across such posts from influencers, businesses, and brands in which they complain about Instagram algorithm hiding their posts from followers. They say that only around 7% of their followers can see their posts, and ask users to like and comment with “Yes” that post. As a rule, such posts are presented with two or three images in a carousel post or in a text graphic. But does the Instagram algorithm do that? How could such a social media giant let around 93% of a brand’s followers miss out on the brand’s posts? The answer is simple – no way! This is an absolute rumor that has nothing to do with reality. Moreover, posts of this type became so viral that Instagram had to respond with a statement on the issue.
The reason for such a mess among brands is the sharp declines in their engagement rates. Nowadays, brands invest more resources into Gram marketing thus providing customers with a wider choice of products/services, as well as brands to follow. Instead of posting “thirsty” messages or blaming Instagram, you, as an Instagram brand, should work better on your marketing.
Must Comments on Instagram Have at Least 3 Words?
The next rumor refers to Instagram comments. People say that a comment should be made up of not only emojis but also real words (at least three) so that Instagram algorithm recognizes them and your engagement is improved. Actually, there’s absolutely no evidence that real words are valued higher than emojis by Insta algorithm. Just the same way, Instagram has never made any statement that a comment must be at least three words in length. This rumor was especially widespread in 2016 but has come to live recently again. Hey guys, this information is fake, it’s a sheer rumor.
Can Liking and Commenting on an Insta User’s Posts Bring You More Content from Them?
This rumor is the one we can confirm. In fact, the more you engage with an Instagram user’s posts, the more content you will see from them in your feed. This engagement includes both likes and comments. The algorithm understands your behavior as an interest in that particular account hence places more content from them on a higher position on your feed.
Will Swiping Past Stories Have a Negative Impact on the Algorithm?
Just like our first rumor, this one has gone viral recently. According to it, if you keep on swiping past Stories, you run the risk of missing any more Stories posted by that user. Just for this reason, there is a warning by Instagram to tap through when watching a Story instead of swiping Next. If not, those Stories will be pushed back in your timeline as algorithm will think you are not interested in that user’s Stories. In fact, nobody really knows how the algorithm of Instagram Stories works. With this said, this rumor can be true just as it can be fake
Jul 22, 2018
Can you guess at the first try what has enough power to break or make your Instagram marketing strategy? Sure, it’s the all-mighty Instagram algorithm! And if you, like the vast majority of Instagram users, can’t make out how this algorithm works, today is going to be the great disclosure!
Until the last few days, nobody had any idea how the Gram’s algorithm chose how to display posts in the feed. Even though there are tricks how to make your post appear in the top and InstaBF, a reliable Instagram provider has already talked about a couple, it’s only now that we can tell for sure the three crucial criteria the Instagram algorithm is based on.
The Interest Level
There can be no denial that Instagram’s algorithm is a smart thing. It can predict particularly what posts may interest the user based on his previous behavior. This means that if an Insta user viewed your business’ or personally your posts, chances are high he will want to see more. This way it brings your new posts to the top of that user’s feed.
Additionally, Instagram determines the interest basing on the engagement with identical content and the potential machine vision analyzing every post. Consequently, as InstaBF has already told you multiple times, you need to post only quality and relevant content to work “His Majesty” algorithm in your favor!
Recency
Instagram makes bets on the “now” factor thus allowing communities to connect and share with their current special things! One shouldn’t be a genius now to understand that Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes new posts to older ones. Recency is another clue to being noticed by Instagram. Therefore, so that your business strategy on this social media works, producing premium-quality content at regular intervals is a must.
Relationships between Users
Besides the two above-mentioned aspects, Instagram’s algorithm also pays great attention to the relationships established between different accounts. For instance, if your business account is “close” with a certain user, you have high chances for more displays. Therefore, don’t disregard tagging and hashtagging, as well as reposting and generating posts as they will help you appear in more friendly relationships with your followers in the algorithm’s eyes.
Other Factors to Take Into Account
Even though we referred to the three major aspects that can affect the Instagram algorithm, there are also several other points worth consideration.
Instagram counts how many times you open the application, and then the algorithm relates it to the number of times you post per week or day. Hence, if there is much to say, opt for the Stories rather than ordinary posts.
Both every Insta user and the usage patterns are different. If a certain user opens the app a couple of times a day for around ten to twenty minutes, there are also others who check in every now and then for several seconds. Based on this pattern, Insta’s algorithm decides a specific way to show the content on every individual’s feed.
So, these were the key factors that can help you find a way to be noticed by the Instagram algorithm. With all this said, we only ought to add “create amazing content, keep Instagram cool and your efforts will be repaid”!
Mar 28, 2018
Several days ago, on the 22nd of March, the Instagram social network made an announcement about a significant change in the network’s system. As they state, this change was long been anticipated by multiple users. And if you are one of those Instagrammers wondering whether the chronological feed is again back or not, you are welcome to InstaBF’s blog. Right now we are going to have a close look at all these Instagram algorithm changes. But prior to that, we would like to introduce you our special offer – packages of Instagram likes, comments and followers at an affordable price. Let InstaBF assist you in increasing your Instagram engagement as quickly as within a couple of days.
How Instagram’s Chronological Feed Turned into Algorithm
Before we pass on to the latest changes made, let’s recollect when and how the so much loved chronological feed order was transformed into an algorithm.
Back in 2016, Insta substituted the chronological feed with an algorithm. The latter brought much more relevant content to every user and was aimed to organize the tones of videos and photos people shared every day. However, despite this smart idea, Insta users along with businesses became immensely frustrated. All that mattered for a chronological feed was posting the right content when one’s audience was most active. The Instagram algorithm, meanwhile, presumed multiple diverse factors including how long followers watch your Instagram post, what content type users engage with, etc. All this reacted in a significant decrease in user’s engagement rates. And now, after two years, it seems that Instagram has undertaken some really useful measures.
New Changes Already Applied
Now let’s review what particular changes were applied.
First of all, the new button “New Posts” will make it possible to refresh your feed manually. As Instagram states, they were receiving many complaints about the feed refreshing automatically when it was least expected and bump the user to the top. Now, with this improvement, one can pick up the time when it’s most convenient for him/her to refresh the feed.
The next change, which is actually much more important than the first one, prevents older posts from appearing in the top of the feed. With this new feature, your feed will always look fresher than before. Anyway, this doesn’t mean that the old chronological feed is back again. The same algorithm that was being used during the past two years, was just adjusted to the users’ convenience.
Additionally, the latest changes also give more significance to the time when users make posts rather than what is being posted.
What Influence New Algorithm Changes Will Have On Users
So, with all the new changes applied, the advanced Instagram algorithm still won’t bring any changes to users’ feeds. Yet, there are certain aspects users, especially business account owners should be warned about.
First, remember that the time you make a post is as important as never before.
If the algorithm found you would be interested in a certain post, you would see it in your feed even if it had been posted several days before. But now, Instagram promises to set your feed free from old posts. This, in its turn, decreases the lifespan of every post. Accordingly, businesses should be more accurate picking up the time for posts or do it much more frequently than before.
