How Does Instagram Work? – Instagram Algorithm and Tips

Instagram is one of our favourite distractions on the internet. With 2.4 billion monthly active users, the platform is just too big to ignore for any marketer.

The biggest challenge for brand with the platform is to build a sincere audience for themselves to yield constant engagement and attention but with 1.3 billion photos being posted every day, it takes nothing to lose your online presence into oblivion.

Trends come and go faster than the speed of light, the platform is constantly evolving and introducing new form of content and the brands in the constant need for attention. The platform has matured more than ever before. So, to navigate through the Instagram algorithm, here is everything you need to know about how does Instagram work.

Why Instagram?

The platform is seriously too big to ignore, specially for a B2B brand. The followings are the reason why brand use Instagram for marketing.

• Visual Appeal: Instagram is a visual platform and it is ideal for showcasing products through photos and videos. This helps brands create engaging and aesthetically pleasing content that can attract potential customers.
• Large User Base: Instagram has a vast and diverse user base, with over a 2.4 billion active users, it provides brands with the large pool of audience to reach and engage with, increasing the potential for sales and brand awareness.
• Engagement and Interaction: Instagram has variety of features, such as Stories, Reels, and live videos. It provides various means for a brand to interact with the audience on real time basis. This helps in building stronger relationships with customers.
• E-commerce Integration: Instagram has integrated shopping features, such as shoppable posts and the Instagram Shop. It allows users to purchase products directly through the app. It makes shopping experience seamless and smoothens out the whole process.
• Brand Storytelling: Instagram generally has a very casual and informal tonality. The platform allows a brand to be more personal with its audience. This greatly helps in brand storytelling and creates a more emotional connection with the audience.

Now that we know how essential Instagram marketing is for a brand. Let us try to understand how Instagram or the algorithm works from a brands perspective.

How Does Instagram Work – Instagram Algorithm

For building a great brand presence, it is necessary to understand the algorithm that it doing all the magic both from user’s perspective and marketing strategy perspective.

There are basically 6 key factors of Instagram algorithm.

1. Interest

• User Interaction: The algorithm predicts user interest based on past interactions. If users frequently engage with similar content, they are more likely to see related posts.
• Marketing Strategy: Marketers should create content that resonates with their target audience, encouraging likes, comments, shares, and saves. Analysing what type of content gets the most engagement can help refine future posts.

2. Timelines

• Recency: Newer posts are prioritized to keep the feed fresh.
• Marketing Strategy: Posting at times when your target audience is most active can increase the chances of your content being seen. Use Instagram Insights to determine peak activity times.

3. Relationship

• Interactions with Accounts: Posts from accounts with which users have frequent interactions are given priority.
• Marketing Strategy: Building relationships with followers by regularly engaging with them (e.g., responding to comments and DMs) can improve your content’s visibility.

4. Frequency

• Usage Patterns: How often users open Instagram influences what they see.
• Marketing Strategy: Maintain a consistent posting schedule to stay top-of-mind for followers. This helps ensure your posts appear in the feed of frequent users.

5. Following

• Number of Accounts Followed: The more accounts a user follows, the more content the algorithm has to sort through.
• Marketing Strategy: Creating highly engaging and unique content can help your posts stand out amidst a crowded feed. Niche-specific content may have a better chance of being noticed by your target audience.

6. Session Time

• Duration of Usage: The length of time users spend on Instagram affects the breadth of content they see.
• Marketing Strategy: Posting engaging content that encourages users to spend more time on your posts (e.g., carousel posts, engaging videos) can improve visibility.

But understanding Instagram algorithm is just a start and almost every brand working on building a strong brand presence for themselves knows about it. With that being said, it is time for us to go beyond the algorithm and basics and dive deeper. Being a content writer and creator myself, I always wondered why some brands are just better at Instagramming (if it is a word). How some brands are consistently able to come up with great post ideas no matter the current trend.

With this curiosity or rather an ich in my mind, I went on to observe few brands and found that they are knowingly (or in rare cases unknowingly) doing something unique. I have curated them into 5 tips. So here we go.

3 Instagram Marketing Tips to Crush the Competition

Find Your Space

There is one common bit between traditional marketing and digital marketing; brands who emote themselves as an artificial person that closely understand their target audience are the one who made most out of a platform.

By finding your space, I mean identifying that one personality trait you want your target audience to associate your brand with and reinforcing that again and again with everything that you do on the platform.

But how do you do that? Or where shall I begin with? The first task is to clearly define the target audience. Who are they, why do they exist, from their age to their eating habits, the more details you have, the better it is. Then focusing on your offering; What is it that you have but your competition lacks? Why do your target audience need it? Why should they even care about the product/service attribute that you are talking about? What is the pain point of the user? What is the consumer tension?

The thing is nobody cares about your brand, except you. The self-obsessed audience doesn’t need another voice that is talking about its source. So next time, from updating your bio to posting something, ask yourself: Why would my target audience care about it?

Proximity

Making your brand reachable to it’s target audience goes a long way. A brand that feels closer to its target audience has always enjoyed a constant rate of engagement.

The reasons your audience care about proximity are as follows:

• It makes them feel heard which gives meaning to the engagement.
• It makes them feel like a part of the brand in a way that it urges them to think “I can make an impactful change into these brands functioning”. It makes them feel like a part of something bigger than themselves.
• It develops a closer understand of your brand for them.
• It makes them feel like the brand won’t leave them into oblivion if in case of any adversity.

There are many ways you can install proximity into your account:

• By replying on the comments of your post.
• By organising contest that inherently allows your target audience feel as if they are the part of product development and branding.
• By Identifying your competitors that your target audience are most like to follow and them coming up with some collaborative posts with them.
• By commenting on a politically correct post that your target audience is most likely to see on their Instagram feed.
• Anything that makes audience engage and participate in a way that doesn’t deviates from your brand vision.

Choose Clarity over Intelligence

Instagram is mostly used as a platform of entertainment. It works as a quick shot of dopamine for its active users. You are mostly likely to find mindless, quirky and cheesy posts getting more attention and engagement than a post about climate change.

The platform itself was designed to have casual exchange of information through photos and videos.

An audience seeking mindless fun need clarity over intelligence. The platform is full unlimited posts so don’t make it even more difficult for yourself to get noticed by making content that sounds intelligent to you but is difficult to engage for your audience. Try to say less in a post, or maybe just one thing with a post. This helps in retaining the message you want to convey.

Instagram Organic Growth vs Instagram Advertising

Both Instagram organic growth and paid ads go hand in hand together. Although no one is stopping you from using one over the other for your brand, it is necessary to understand the key differences so as to make more informed decision as a social media marketer. Let us discuss the key differences between both of them.

Cost

• Organic Growth: No direct monetary cost; relies on time and effort in content creation and engagement.
• Paid Ads: Requires direct financial investment; budget affects reach and visibility.

Speed

• Organic Growth: Slower, gradual increase in followers and engagement over time.
• Paid Ads: Provides immediate results and quick visibility.

Targeting

• Organic Growth: Reach is primarily limited to followers and those who discover content via hashtags, Explore page, or shares.
• Paid Ads: Offers precise targeting options based on demographics, interests, behaviours, and more.

Engagement

• Organic Growth: Often results in higher, more authentic engagement as followers choose to interact with the content.
• Paid Ads: Can achieve high engagement, but interactions might be less genuine as users know it’s a paid promotion.

Longevity

• Organic Growth: Focuses on long-term community building and sustained engagement.
• Paid Ads: Effective for short-term campaigns and immediate results, requiring continuous investment to maintain visibility.

So, these are my do’s (and don’t) with an Instagram platform. While the inherent truth of “no one can actually tell what works and what doesn’t” may still seem somewhat true. It is better to have a structured set of rules that can tell you what may or may not work for your brand.

Be it viral post or a trend, anything that has worked on the platform ever since its inception has either followed all of these principles or at least one of these rules.
Please feel free to comment on latest marketing trends that you have you have observed the platform.