How to dramatically increase reach and engagement on Instagram

The introduction of the algorithmic feed has seriously hit the reach and engagement of many users on Instagram. Even big bloggers are complaining that posts are getting far fewer likes and comments than they used to.

Instagram has complex feed generation algorithms, and Facebook does not share how they work. Still, marketers figure out algorithms from their own experience or from a few tips from Facebook.

Post content regularly

If you start posting much less often, the reach may drop: this is how the social network algorithm works. Post new content regularly and don't disappear for a few days.

Communicate Actively

At a minimum, courtesy will work: if you regularly comment on your friends' posts, they will respond to you in the same way. Ask questions, leave compliments, reply to Stories and send funny photos to your friends in direct.

Tell stories

Yes, first of all, everyone is interested in the image. However, you can keep the interest of the audience with the help of stories, the original style of presentation of materials and humor.

Posts with long texts show good results. The audience responds to such records. Concentrate not on describing the problem, but on solving it, then you will receive positive comments.

Use call to action

Ask questions to the audience, try to bring up interesting but easy-to-discuss topics: childhood memories, favorite food, plans for the summer.

Post Stories

The exact ranking factors for content on Instagram are unknown, but according to some assumptions based on the speeches of the developers, regular posting of Stories has a positive effect on your account.

...and use them to promote content

Unlike posts in your account, subscribers will probably see your Story. Bloggers are already using this: they announce a new post with an intriguing caption and an offer to go to the account.

Abandon the gallery format

Users have noticed that posts consisting of several photos fail in the feed and collect 30-50% fewer reactions.

Determine the right time to post

Instagram algorithms keep track of how many reactions a post has received immediately after publication, and based on this determine whether it is considered interesting and whether to show it higher in the feed.

If you post a photo late at night, it will surely fail in the feed. To get the most out of it, focus not on your own impressions, but on statistics.

You can track activity by time of day using the service's internal statistics. And if you need to get data for a long time period or for a competitor's account, use . So you can analyze any account on Instagram.

What should be the engagement on Instagram?

A couple of years ago, an account was considered conditionally successful, where the number of likes was 10% of the number of subscribers. Now the situation has changed: small accounts have an average higher ER than large ones.