Once upon a time, Instagram didn’t even exist. It is now 2019 and the thriving platform has nearly 1 billion users! For business professionals, it has become the perfect platform to strengthen their brand awareness by connecting them with potential customers while also connecting with their existing ones.
Instagram began growing at a fast rate and the social media platform soon realized their users were becoming frustrated when they couldn’t keep up with the posts from their favorite accounts. This soon led to the new algorithm that chooses which content to show to whom and when. Understanding how to make this algorithm work for you is a great way to gain an edge on your competitors!
So how does it work, you ask?
When Instagram first broke news of their new algorithm, there was a lot of confusion and many people were worried that their engagement rates would drop and the platform would be less user friendly…which luckily has not been the case!
To shed some further light on how their newsfeed would choose to display photos, they released the following statement: “The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post.”
It sounds simple enough, but in the real estate industry, if you want to get ahead on Instagram, you need to work the algorithm, not against it!
The algorithm rewards posts with high engagement, so the more likes and comments your post receives, the more people will see it. In short, every engagement you get triggers the snowball effect!
The algorithm rewards users who post more frequently to Instagram stories. It is a great way to keep your most loyal followers engaged without cluttering up your actual page.
The more that a user interacts with your Instagram stories, the more likely your posts will show up in their feed.
The algorithm likes when you interact with your followers (comment on their posts, share their content, etc.)
The algorithm looks at how quickly people engage with your content (the faster, the better!)
The algorithm calculates how long people view your post for. Since videos take longer to view than images, you can get more total publicity by posting videos! The reverse is also true though, long boring videos that no one watches could hurt your results. A trick to keep people’s eyeballs on your media longer is to use a clever caption, even the extra 3 seconds it takes someone to read it can help!
Quality over Quantity!
The more stories you post, the better.
Go LIVE!
Run a contest-the idea is to increase engagement and brand awareness!
Offer free advice and have your followers comment on your post with questions.
Use popular hashtags, especially trending ones in your local community.
The best times to post on Instagram are weekday evenings!
Is Instagram not your thing? There is an app where you can schedule out your posts. Depending on your target audience, try to schedule your most important posts for when most of your audience will be online. Click here to learn more about this app!
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