Looking for ways to expand your Instagram reach?
This may (or may not) help.
During Instagram’s latest Q&A session, when asked about how they are expanding their reach within the app and the main considerations that are currently taken into account by the algorithm, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, responded:
“What’s more important than watch time or number of likes or comments is submission rate. [and] In general, I think rate is more important than number: submits per reach, likes per reach, comments per reach. But in my experience, submits per reach correlates more with overall reach than anything else, because we aim to help people discover content that their friends want to connect with, and submits is a better indicator of those connections than creativity.”
So the likelihood of people explicitly sharing your post, rather than watch time or other forms of engagement, appears to be the main focus of the IG algorithm right now.
I'm not 100% satisfied with this answer, but if you ask “in my experience?”, you're responsible for the platform, so you should know what factors improve performance.
This advice is a bit different from my recent outline on the shift towards entertainment over engagement, but it has roughly the same emphasis.
Whereas social platforms once valued likes and comments above all else, as they shifted their focus to video and primarily provide entertainment through short clips, they've become more about watch time. You might not comment on every clip of an old TV show that pops up in your Instagram feed, but you probably will watch it.
This shift is most evident today in the realm of social media, moving away from in-stream interactions, which are declining across the board, to how long people can stay watching a video clip.
That's what's driving growth on Facebook and IG, but Mosseri says what they're really prioritizing is share rates, not watch time.
So it's not just about how long you watch, but how likely you are to share the clip to expand your audience even further.
That makes sense, but I think sharing rates will generally be lower compared to overall watch time because people are likely watching a video a lot more than they are forwarding it to others.
But even so, it stands to reason that this would be a strong ranking signal if it means you have a good chance of gaining share.
In fact, I suspect that algorithmic drivers are currently ranked in this order:
- Market share
- Viewing Time
- Comment Rate
- Like rate
While the last two are subject to change, the fact remains that fewer people are posting and commenting, so Meta needs to focus on other elements to maximise engagement.
So how can you increase the sharing of your content?
The focus is on entertainment and what will motivate people to share the clip or post with others.
Of course, this is easier said than done, but what makes others want to share your posts, what stands out to you in this regard, and what makes you feel compelled to forward your clips to others?
Entertainment, evoking an emotional response (mostly joy on Facebook and IG, given Meta’s distance from divisive politics), and giving people something unexpected seem to be key drivers for maximizing IG reach.
