You should be using instagram, but have you ever wondered how it works. SEO is basically just making content that is optimized for search engines. Instagram is a search engine for photos (not really, but kinda). If you understand how it works, you can get an idea of to craft your content.
How To Rank In Instagram
Recently in a tech crunch interview Instagram revealed how their feed system actually works. As you might guess it’s a bit of machine learning with a lot of weight based on how you interact with the content. If you watch more videos, then you’ll see more videos, for example. They revealed 6 key categories that are used as metrics.
1. Interest
How users interact with the post. If you interact with comic book memes, then Instagram will try to show you more of those with the goal of keeping you on the website.
2. Recency
How NEW is the content? This can work both ways though. If you post 5 posts in 5 minutes, Instagram may choose the most engaging post.
3. Relationship
How “close” are you (the poster) to the person they are showing the image to. Friends get priority, then friends of friends and so on.
4. Frequency
This is based entirely on how often the user visits.
Action Item: If your audience checks Instagram multiple times a day, then you need to post multiple times a day.
5. Followers
The feed is made up of who you follow and similar accounts. The degrees of similarity determine what’s shown. Action Item: Gain followers in your target audience.
6. Usage
How long a user spends on the content and on Instagram.
The bottom line the more engaging your content is, the more people will see it.
Four Instagram Myths Debunked
- Instagram Will Hide Your Profile If… – Nope, it doesn’t hide your profile even if you stuff your post with hashtags
- Videos Content Is Favored – They said no, that there’s no favoritism there, however, if you see more videos it’s because you’re looking at them more.
- If you Over-post you can lose your rank – Nope. If you post too much in a given time, your overall engagement will go down, thus “pushing you down.” Instagram isn’t penalizing you, your tribe is speaking.
- Instagram Puts Business In A Penalty Box (Like Facebook) – Nope, they are more like Pinterest in this regard. The accounts are the same.
If you enjoyed this podcast you might enjoy the Instagram episode as well.
Also, I mentioned Thrive Themes and their landing page tutorial on the episode, you can get that here.