Stories, Reels & IGTV

Using both stories and posts on your Instagram account can give you a better chance of reaching viewers as they have two opportunities to hit you, your brand or business.  The more views you gain, the better your ranking will be.  For Stories, Reels and IGTV the algorithm acts in much the same way as the Feed by showing you content from the accounts you interact with the most, as well as the type of posts you typically engage with. To give your IGTV and Reels the best chance of being seen, always share your Reels onto your main Instagram feed and include several hashtags to boost their discoverability.  For IGTV, share a 1min preview of your IGTV video to your main feed.

Now we have shown you how the algorithm picks content for you to see, it’s important to think about how this affects your content and what your followers see. 

To improve your ranking with the Instagram algorithm and to be shown to new audiences, the best thing you can do is drive as many interactions such as likes, comments, DMs, saves, and shares as possible.

7 ways to improve your ranking and reach new audiences:

1.   Embrace All of Instagram’s Features 

Jump on the latest trends to take advantage of extra boosts with early adoption. For example, learn how to use Instagram Reels and incorporate them into your strategy, Instagram’s algorithm will LOVE this!

2.   Use Instagram Stories Stickers to Encourage more Interactions

Use the question sticker or ask a poll to encourage your followers to engage with you.  The more engagement your posts get, the higher they’ll be boosted by the Instagram algorithm.

3.   Drive Conversations with Engaging Captions and Comments   – A Call to Action

Make sure to use great captions with a ‘call to action’ to encourage interactions. Instagram has confirmed comments are really important when it comes to feed ranking — so it’s a great idea to encourage as many as possible for your posts.

4.   Optimise Your Hashtag Strategy

With a good hashtag strategy, you’ll reach people who are relevant for your business, and most likely to engage with your content.

Adding hashtags to your posts is one of the most effective ways to reach more people on Instagram, which means more “views” for the Instagram algorithm to take into account.

5.   Keep up the communication

Reply to all comments on your posts within a few hours after you post.

6.   Encourage users to save your content.

Create and post content that users would want to save for later.

The most important thing you can do to improve your algorithm ranking is to keep creating content that has ‘engaging with your audience’ as the most important factor. Be genuine and listen to your audience – the algorithm will reward you for your efforts!