Instagram has become an effective marketing tool that more and more companies are using for targeted marketing activities. However, many social media managers and online marketers make many mistakes when dealing with Instagram, which significantly limit the range and thus almost negate the benefit. It is important to use the Instagram algorithm in a targeted manner and to your own advantage. We show you which five facts you need to know about the algorithm and how you can benefit from this knowledge.
The impact of text, images and CTA’s
With the possibility of call-to-action interactions in the Instagram postings, the possibilities for targeted marketing have been significantly expanded. But in order to be really successful and to be noticed by the Instagram algorithm, it is important to find the right combination of image, text and CTA . And this is where many companies and marketing experts fail, since every social medium is subject to different laws.
With Instagram, the most important thing is to generate reactions from users on Instagram themselves. This means that images and text must be the focus. The users must therefore necessarily want to react to them. Now the real problem begins. Because the way the CTA is addressed must suit your followers and motivate them in a targeted manner. From a size of 1,000 impressions, you should interact particularly carefully and actually check the CTA’s via A/B tests in order to ensure as many reactions as possible. The algorithm quickly recognizes which CTA’s are relevant and important and will push and promote your postings accordingly.
How relevant are interactions/engagement?
To evaluate the impact of the interactions, we must first talk about the visibility of the posts on Instagram. When you compose a new post on Instagram, it initially appears to about 10 percent of your followers. So if your page has 10,000 followers, the post will only show up to 1,000 of them. The reactions of the users on your post are now of vital importance. Because within the next hour as many users as possible have to support the post with likes or comments. In this case, the post will also be shown to the remaining 90 percent of your followers. However, if the posting does not trigger a reaction, then it will not be displayed at all. It is therefore important to design the postings in such a way that they call for immediate interactions if possible. Otherwise, the Instagram algorithm will make the post disappear into Nirvana.
But not only the reactions of your followers play an important role. Your direct reactions to the likes and comments also have an enormous impact on the visibility of your postings . The faster you react and the more you respond to your followers, the higher the posting will be rated by the algorithm. You can therefore also specifically influence the visibility if you remain active after posting.
Caution: While emojis may be a good way to react to users, the algorithm doesn’t count them as a reaction. Comments with less than four words are no longer recorded and should therefore also be avoided . Rather make the answer a little more detailed, but benefit from the algorithm and its effects.
Also Read: Instagram For Business: Learn How To Get The Most Out Of It
How important is the interaction time?
As mentioned above, the first hour after posting is probably the most important. Because Instagram can definitely be described as a fleeting medium that benefits from its liveliness and fast pace. For this reason, as many likes and comments as possible must be generated in the first hour in order to increase the reach of the posting to all followers. If this does not succeed, the posting can be written off, since it only reached 10 percent of the target group. It is simply not worth investing energy in a posting that is more than an hour old. The only exception occurs when the corresponding interaction has been achieved and the posting is therefore visible to all followers.
Which hashtags work best and how should hashtags be used optimally?
Hashtags are particularly important for the Instagram algorithm and ensure that the reach of a post can be improved over the long term. For a long time it was customary to place the hashtags in the first comment. However, this is not a good idea, as in such a case they will no longer be recorded and processed by the algorithm. The hashtags belong directly in the posting, since only then can they be processed.
It can be seen again and again that social media managers and online marketers use ready-made sets of hashtags, which they place under every post. While this is convenient and may seem sensible, real reach cannot be achieved with these hashtags. It is much more effective and effective to develop hashtags for each post that really reflect the content of the post. Although this means a not inconsiderable amount of additional work when creating postings, it gives them a significantly greater reach and thus more potential as a marketing measure.
What type of content works best?
Even if images and videos are still the core element of Instagram, the Instagram algorithm prefers stories above all. It is therefore particularly important for companies to use the Stories feature regularly, as this is exactly what Instagram wants and rewards. Because the stories are displayed much more frequently and therefore appear in the newsfeed of your own followers much more regularly. In addition, Instagram always shows first the stories of profiles with which the user interacts regularly. Yet another reason to regularly become active in your own comments and thus respond to your own followers. The better the customer work with a posting, the greater the chance of having your own stories at the top of the news feedto show up.
Basically, the following applies: If you interact a lot with your users, set suitable hashtags and, above all, publish stories regularly, you can increase the potential of your postings as a marketing tool in the long term and thus increase the effective reach.