Mastering the Instagram Algorithm for 2024

Its time for another instagram update from your local instagram expert! Okay so I'm not really but I do constantly research instagram algorithms because its my best feeder 😅 As usually instagram has changed the algorithm for 2024 so this blog is going to go over the new changes and how you can use those to your advantage.

Algorithm Focus Changes

In 2023 instagram really pushed hard on making and sharing reels in app. The biggest contributor to your success on instagram was creating ultra sharable reels in instagram. For 2024 they've moved the focus back to stories and regular, static posts. This means if you're awkward at making reel content like I am, we can comfortably go back to sharing our pictures in a regular format or in carousels and even stories. With the focus back on regular posts and stories, you still need to make sure you're creating and publishing content people want to interact with. Ask questions in your captions, use polls and question stickers in your stories and make sure you're interacting with the audience you're trying to get to move over to your paid sites. Now lets see what the algorithm is going to look at with Reels, stories and the Explore Page

Reels

Though instagram has shifted focus back to regular posts and stories, reels can still give a huge boost to your engagement. For example; in 2023 the number of total views on your videos only counted the first time someone viewed your video. In 2024, the total number of times someone views your video will count towards your reel views. So if you create a 5 second reel thats just going to continuously loop, if they watch that 5 second loop 10 times, maybe they're reading comments, those 10 views will count towards your total views.

Make sure you're making content that they want to loop and will create a conversation in the comments. Views are good, but likes, comments and shares are still going to do more to boost your profile than just views alone. The algorithm will also account for things like sound used, video length, and caption to determine how interesting the reel might be to your audience. This means even for short videos you want to have on a loop, you should still use a trending sound, and a caption that they'll want to read. How do you do this? Well, drama and controversy sell just as well, if not better than sex does. Even if you have to make something up, use this to your advantage. For example, I could do a 5 second looping reel that shows me dropping my camera into my lap while wearing lingerie with a caption that says "When Stroll ran into the back of Riccardo at the China Grand Prix" This will catch the attention of a male audience I'm looking for, because it's sexy but race related. And it will create controversy because people are BIG MAD at Lance Stroll... including myself. This also introduces a personality other than just selling sex so it's engaging. See how that goes?

Additionally any reels with watermarks will be demoted in the algorithm. If you're making reels in tiktok and then posting them to instagram, make sure you use an app like Tiksave to remove the tiktok water mark. Any watermark will mess you up though. Whether it's Inshot, Capcut or whatever you're using, make sure to remove the watermark the app adds from your reel to make sure it gets the most reach. Reels created in instagram or not showing any kind of watermark from another app will be promoted more in the algorithm, gaining your more engagement.

Stories

Instagram shares your stories with the people who engage with your stories the most, and who you engage with the most. So when creating story slides, make them engaging to encourage people to interact with them. I recently did a story slid that showed me crying in my kitchen with headphones on. I added a little Poll sticker that said "Why am I crying now?: Cutting Onions: Sleep Token: Both". This is a great way to get engagement as people love answering these and seeing that they got it right - only about a 4th of my audience got it right.

Another great tool for engagement that you'll see Stephanie use a few times a week is the question sticker for stories. Put AMA or something similar that will engage your audience to ask you something. Respond to the ones that will help promote your Unfiltrd page but also the ones that are genuinely interesting. This will help showcase your personality and not be totally sales driven. Sprinkle in some funny memes and other stuff relevant to your personality; again for me, this if going to be F1 related content about how Lance Stroll is a talentless nepobaby who needs to be removed from Aston Martin 😅. Instagram looks at how often your audience views and interacts with your stories, but also how often you interact with certain members of your audience to deterimine the possibility of being close friends or family. Take this into consideration when responding to questions in your story. If you know someone in your audience is unlikely to convert to a paying subscriber, interact with them less often.

Discover Page

The Instagram algorithm looks at the general popularity of a post, including how many people have interacted with it in a short amount of time. The engagement on a post is still going to be more important than story engagement when it comes to the discover page. Tiktok is similar, which is why it's so detrimental to your engagement when tiktok decides to throw a brand new reel under review as soon as you post it. I have beef with tiktok... Instagram will also show your content to people in their discover page if they've interacted with similar content. You ever notice if you watch one pimple popping video, your discover page is suddenly nothing but pimple popping videos? Make your content as grossly appealing as a pimple popping video so more people are likely to click on it and even interact with it once. The more people who do this, the more discover pages you end up in. Back to the popularity point: Instagram looks at how popular your content has become in a short period of time. So how many times has your post been viewed and interacted with since it's been published, how many people have interacted with it from the discover page. The more popular your content is in a short period, the more likely it is to end up on the discover page. How often does a certain user interact with you content? Much like stories, your content will be pushed more often to the discover pages of the people who regularly interact with your content.

How to Use This Info.

So today we've learned that there are multiple ranking factors for instagram content: number of plays/views, likes, comments, shares and relationship with the poster.

We know that we can increase plays/views, likes, comments, and shares by creating relatable or ultra- shareable content or even creating controversy. We can get people interacting with our stories more by making them interactive with questions and polls which will also increase the chances of having them click our links.

We also now know that the more we interact with certain fans the more our content is suggested to them and even users like them. This information is incredibly beneficial for those of us who largely rely on instagram for promotion and those in the US who may be looking down the barrel at a tiktok ban... or if you just hate tiktok as much as I do. Make sure you're taking all of these factors into consideration when creating content for instagram and interacting with fans.

Your fan interactions and the demographics of those fans are just as important as any other kind of engagement. This means you actually have to be more careful about the fans you interact with. I recently noticed for my own analytics that a large portion of my followers is Indian and middle eastern. These demographics either dont have access to paid fan sites where they are at or if they can access sites like Unfiltrd, they follow for free and never subscribe. How do we get our accounts suggested more to the demographics we want, such as the US Canada and Europe? Stop interacting with accounts you know cant or wont convert to paid sites.

The instagram algorithm will recommend your account more to those who interact with you and who YOU interact with. Dont answer DMs from these accounts. Dont like their comments, dont respond to their comments. Dont even respond to their questions on stickers. Basically you want to ignore this fan base. Our whole reason for having these social media platforms is to have funnels to our paid sites. We do not want to be wasting time by interacting with people who wont convert and then having that interaction push our account to that audience. Interact wisely and prioritize your interactions for the fan base more likely to convert. I know this was a long looonnnng blog post but if you made it this far, congratulations. You are now prepared to make your instagram accounts boom for 2024. Okay I wont take anymore of your time 😅

Love you byeeeeeeee Sara Lyn