Everyone hates the new instagram algorithm, myself included. It’s messy and doesn’t keep you up to date with the people you follow and results in less engagement from your followers and in general, just sucks. I have written so many posts about beating the algorithm and how to grow your instagram and yada yada. But recently I have actually had a bit of a revelation. I need to stop fighting the algorithm, and just ride it.
Instagram is kinda dumb, but also really clever. They know who is trying to cheat the system by using bots or pods, they know who posts regularly, they know who just spams their posts with a thousand hashtags and THEY KNOW who engages with their following. Feels a bit big brothery, eh?
What I am trying to say is yes Instagram is kinda crappy and yes we have all taken to twitter to just complain about it and yes I go through stages where I just loose followers after followers. But the only way to beat the algorithm is actually to ride it- hey if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. So here are my top tips on how I am riding the instagram algorithm and how to make it work in your favour.
– Quit your pod-
I myself was a pod-goer. I was a part of 3 pods and loved how it made me look so popular with lots of people commenting on my posts and I liked engaging with them and I was all in all happy. Until one day I was reading some of the comments and you know what? They were just so generic. They are so totally not relevant and I became very disheartened because none of them were REAL. No one was commenting because they actually liked what I posted, they just commented cause they had to.
Whats more is Instagram is undergoing a bit of construction and new things are coming, one of which is the punishment of pod users. Instagram can see who is using their direct messenger in order to increase their engagement and they can see who’s comments are real and who’s arent. One thing the CEO of insta has actually said is that they are going to punish pod users by putting a block on them. Meaning that if instagram finds you using pods, your posts will not be visible to your followers and your REAL engagement will plummet.
Trust me, the 15 comments you get extra is totally not worth it. Stop cheating the system and sit back, relax and enjoy the real engagement that will follow.
– Stop commenting crap –
Another thing that Instagram is honing in on is people who just comment ‘nice pic’ or ‘cute’ on everyones photos. These kinda comments are a waste of time, useless and actually may start to hinder your instagram experience. Instead, if you do want to comment, comment something thats actually relevant. Read the caption and reply to their questions and ask where that top is from. And even more, be more selective with who’s posts you comment on. You may think that commenting on big accounts will get you noticed, but actually its the smaller accounts that a more important. The ones that will actually reply to you and make conversation. They are what count.
And that’s not just me saying that, its from instagram themselves.
– Stop being so stuck up –
Honestly the worst kind of people on instagram are the ones who just ‘dont have time’ to reply to followers comments. Sure if its something irrelevant and pointless like ‘lovely’, then I usually don’t reply. But if someone asks me where that skirt is from I DAMN WELL TELL THEM WHERE ITS FROM.
I ask my followers questions and answer theirs and thank them and chat to them. Its so much fun creating real engagement with the people who take the time to chat and get to know me. And its amazing the difference you will see in your engagement rate!
– Be more selective with who you follow –
Another thing I notice is accounts following thousands of people in the hope that it will bring up their own follow number. Truth is, that doesn’t work. One issue with following loads of accounts is it kinda confuses the algorithm and shows you thousands of accounts that you don’t really bother about. If you are a lot more selective, your feed will be a lot cleaner.
As well as this, being more selective with your following will result in Instagram favouring your account over others, and showing your pics at the top of peoples feeds.
– Be active –
When I say be active, I don’t just mean, log on for 10 minutes, spam people with comments and then not touch the app for the next 3 hours. I mean be really active. Scroll through feeds, search through the suggested page. Look at who’s liking and commenting on your friends pics. Who are they following? Whats new? Have you refreshed your feed?
What I am saying is there’s more to be active than just commenting on a bunch of photos. Actually spend time on the app. The more you spend time on it, the more you will be rewarded.
So there you have it! Here are the tips I have for riding the instagram algorithm. There’s more to the new algorithm than just complaining and fighting it. I hope your feed grows and you can learn to enjoy the app more.
