Instagram and its algorithm are constantly changing, making it a real challenge for content creators to keep up. It can be really demotivating when you invest a lot of time and energy into creating great content, but your content barely reaches its destination. Here are seven useful tips to increase your reach: here are the latest information about the algorithm as of November 2023!
1. Video Editing / For cutting social videos, CapCut and TikTok are the most popular platforms, but of course the IG algorithm does not support this, and it especially ranks watermarked videos. Instagram's current video editor suffers from serious shortcomings, but they are already working on improving it. In the meantime, try to at least post-edit your simpler videos on Instagram!
2. 9:16 Aspect Ratio / Nothing new under the Sun: Instagram's algorithm still prefers the portrait format, in a 9:16 ratio, without borders. These are prioritized by the algorithm, and of course they are much more enjoyable on mobile, so try to edit any landscape content you may have to portrait!
3. Hashtags are so 2013! / It is no longer necessary to add a lot of hashtags to a post: instead of the previous 10 hashtags, the algorithm now prefers 3-5 that are relevant to the content.
4. Caption on Point! / While hashtags have declined in importance, captions have increased. Be informative, detailed, and clearly structured so that your followers (or rather the algorithm) fully understand the content!
5. Instagram Music / Although it's still in its infancy, Instagram offers a variety of its own audio tracks that you can use in your videos. You can always find the algorithm's current favorite tracks on the @creators Instagram page.
6. Call to Action / You can enrich your Instagram stories with many interactive elements. Use these to post more exciting stories that will reach an even wider audience!
7. Your Community / This is nothing new: it's worth writing a response to every comment, message, or reaction so that the sender gets notified and can find their way back to your content. This can quickly become tedious, but it's especially important for the algorithm and your community strengthens it, so the time and energy spent is absolutely worth it.
8. Daily Post / A surprising news is that instead of the previous 2-3 posts per week, the Instagram algorithm now prefers daily posting. This may seem like a lot at first, but with a well-thought-out, pre-prepared feed plan and strategy, it shouldn't be an obstacle.
9. Stories / Similar to posts, there has been a bigger change for stories: 6 stories per day are recommended - 2 in the morning, 2 during the day and 2 in the evening. It's hard to decide whether the previous or this point sounds worse, but this time there is no reason to panic; plan stories for every day! Create general stories too, which you can share at any time in case you need an SOS plan B!
Incorporate the tips above into your strategy and watch the results! Remember, the key is still to produce diverse, quality, and fresh content that is valuable to your followers, whether it's humorous, informative, or aesthetic.