Instagram is unanimously considered one of the best platforms for advertising businesses by a lot of experienced marketers. Although among the top five choices in the advertising world (behind Facebook and WeChat), a lot has changed about Instagram in the last few years.

These recent changes in Instagram’s feed algorithm have made a lot of users struggle with poor organic reach on Instagram. In this post, we’re going to learn about how Instagram’s algorithm works and how you can use it to create engaging pages with significant organic traffic.

How To Analyze Instagram Algorithm 

The primary purpose of constantly changing Instagram algorithms is not to keep you away from information by hiding some posts. On the contrary, it’s aim is to show you the Instagram images created by people you care about the most.

Instagram engineers continuously work towards giving the best experience to users with the exponential growth of content production on the platform. Their purpose is to show you the most valuable posts based on your previous activity. 

Irrespective of your physical location, they continuously try to make sure that you know what your family, friends, favorite artists, or influencers are doing by allowing you to have a custom-made feed. Understanding the basics of Instagram engagement is an essential step in analyzing constantly changing Instagram algorithms.

Instagram engagement refers to the process of how the user interacts with the content you publish on Instagram. Determining your Instagram engagement rate is a measure of how well your brand can connect with its audience.

Necessarily a brand’s engagement rate fluctuates as Instagram’s algorithm is always changing. Among some of the useful metrics, your brand can analyze to measure and increase engagement rate on Instagram are-

Reach

It is the total number of unique views your Instagram posts and stories have.

Impressions

It is the total number of times all your Instagram posts and your Stories are seen.

Profile Visits

Profile visits are the number of times a user visited your Instagram profile.

Website Clicks

These are the number of times your Instagram account’s website link is clicked, causing a user to leave Instagram and visit your website.

Likes

The number of times Instagram users have clicked on the heart underneath your post.

Comments

These are the number of times that Instagram users have written something below your post, including when they tag a friend.

Followers

The followers’ growth rate can be calculated by dividing the number of followers acquired in a specific period by the previous number of followers and multiplying the same by 100.

Tips for increasing Instagram engagement

With an ultra-smart algorithm and several brands competing for people’s attention, it’s not easy to increase Instagram engagement. Yet there are ways (discussed below) that you can use to level-up your Instagram strategy and increase Instagram engagement.

Keep Track of Time

Timing is all about making sure that your followers see your posts. Instagram Insights allows you to see when your followers are online. This data helps you identify the days of the week and the specific time of the day when most of the followers are on Instagram.

This allows you to schedule your content strategically at peak times. For example, if the data reflects that your target audience uses Instagram most on Sunday evenings, it is best to schedule your content then as it is the time when your audience is online.

Explore the Range of Instagram Video Formats

Video generates much more engagement on average than another post. Instagram understands the importance of videos and offers a range of video options for marketers to deploy.

Right from your Instagram Stories that can mash up stills and videos into a single one to standalone videos best suited for long-form features, make sure to capitalize on the strengths of each video format. An online free video editor is a great tool that allows you to offer authentic, behind-the-scenes stories to your followers for enhanced Instagram engagement.

Know your Audience

Always track your audience metrics using Instagram Insights. You can use Instagram Insights to find data about your followers. This allows you to understand their profile better so you can come up with targeted content that’s relevant to them.

It is crucial that rather than try to appeal to a broader general audience on Instagram, you work with the targeted audience you have and serve their needs. This is the reason why smaller accounts taking more care to communicate with their following earns more engagement as compared to much larger accounts.

Actively Engage with Your Followers

Instagram is a popular social media platform that should be used to communicate with your followers and engage with other users/brands. Make sure to respond to the direct messages sent by your followers and reply to their questions or comments.

Engaging in the conversation on Instagram allows you to understand your followers, how well they connect with your brand and their perspective on your brand.

Focus on Instagram Video Posts for More Comments and Better Engagement

Almost 80% of all Instagram users follow a business and are primed to encounter brands among photos of their friends and influencers they follow.

However, unlike earlier, now we have a whole range of content type formats, including videos, paid ads, Instagram Stories, and even IGTV, and with that comes useful apps like Instagram video editors.

Videos are specially considered important for Instagram marketing as more than half of consumers prefer brands having video content for them to consume. The instagram video editor for android is an ideal tool that allows you to edit your clips and post engaging videos for better user engagement.

Bottom Line

Analyzing Instagram algorithms and getting Instagram engagement is becoming more critical than ever. Participation is, in fact, one of the essential metrics Instagram uses to determine where your content shows up in your followers’ feeds.

When your followers consistently like and comment on your posts, Instagram sees it as an indication that they want to see more of your content, and hence your posts will become prioritized in their feed.