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How to Beat the Instagram Algorithm in 2023
Instagram are known to make frequent updates to their algorithm with different strategies being favoured by the app, and in turn boosting reach. A wider reach means more eyes on your content which is always going to be something that helps drive traffic, and in turn draw in new followers and potential leads.
So what is new in 2023, and how can we get the algorithm to be on our side? A recent interview with Instagram has given us an insight into exactly what we need to do in order to get the app on side.
Posting
Consistency with posts has always been fundamental to growth not only on Instagram but any similar platform. However where 3-4 posts per week used to be sufficient to keep the app on side, they now want daily posts. You may have experienced the wrath of the algorithm if you have ever taken a break from posting consistent content, so upping the quantity to daily posts is going to make it much harder to stay on top of for brands and creators alike.
Stories
The recommendations for story posts are now up to six stories every day, two in the morning, two around midday, and two in the afternoon.
Editing
We all know that Instagram has been favouring video content for the last year or so, but make sure that your videos are full 16×9 verticals, using square or landscape videos will not do as well.
However, they have now also advised that video content needs to be edited inside the Instagram app itself, using the reels feature. Any video content which has been edited in TikTok (heaven forbid, including the TikTok watermark) will have a direct impact on visibility for the post. This even extends as far as other video editing programs such as CapCut. This could have a serious knock-on effect for creators using video editing software to create their content, especially when the editing features inside Instagram itself are notoriously glitchy and hard to use.
Captions
Hashtags are well know to help boost visibility and have been the key to getting your content featured on the explore page and visible to a wide range of new users as a result. Previously, using around 10-12 hashtags has been common practice – the advice is now to use only three, five max. The focus is instead on captions. Long and detailed captions are needed to help optimise search visibility and will essentially act as your search terms, so make sure the captions are relevant.
Engagement
As always, engaging with your audience is key. Reply to every single comment. You can also encourage engagement with your story posts by using CTA’s and polls.
Summary
So what do we think? If you’re asking us, this seems like an awful lot of criteria and rules to stick to. We are always going to advise that presence on Instagram is important for any brand, with beautifully taken imagery, well written captions and frequent CTA’s to drive traffic and sales. However these updates are going to come as a difficult pill to swallow for creators who are already struggling to keep the algorithm on side. As a result many creators are jumping ship and overall usage on the app is down. It appears Instagram are trying to fix this, but is this the right approach and can everyones favourite photos sharing platform make a proper comeback? Time will tell.