The largest photographic social network in the world revealed one of its most intimate secrets: how it decides to order the publications in the feed (home page) .

Back in March 2022, Instagram decided to stop showing posts in chronological order and began to rely on an algorithm that changed over time, and no one knew exactly what it was about.

For this reason, in this article we are going to reveal how the Instagram algorithm works and how you can take advantage of it to improve your brand’s profile on this network. Look!

The hit trilogy

To order each user’s update feed , Instagram relies on its machine learning : a learning machine that understands what each person likes based on their actions within the network.

This machine learning analyzes three fundamental variables: interest, relationship and novelty . But what exactly is each one about? Let’s see them in detail.🙂

This variable is calculated from the history of each user , that is, according to their “likes”, their comments or the words they have searched for on this social network.

In other words, Instagram takes into account the content that the user liked in the past to determine what they are most interested in seeing now . From there, it analyzes the current content of your contacts and determines what shows you first.

In addition, Instagram is capable of recognizing the content of the photographs , which makes it possible to better identify people’s interest in certain topics.

All this means that:

• The interest goes hand in hand with the behavior that the user has had within the network. This way, your preferred content will rank higher in your feed .
• If a user follows exactly the same people as another user but their level of interest is different (one comments and the other doesn’t, one likes, the other doesn’t), their feed will be different too since Instagram will personalize according to the interests of each one .

Tip 1 : As soon as you receive a comment or a private message, reply to it! In this way, you will add points to appear on the main page of your follower.🙂

Tip 2 : Generate content that you think can get a lot of likes, so you make sure you are in the feed of your followers!

Another of the variables that the Instagram algorithm uses to order the posts in the feed is the relationship that a user has with others, and this is measured from the interaction .

The more comments a user writes on the photos of certain people, or is tagged in them, Instagram will assume that these people are part of their family or friends group , and for this reason it will show their publications first.

For Instagram to include you in this group, we recommend that you:

Tip 1 : Put together posts that generate an interaction with your followers , for example, by asking questions, and in the copy of the publication invite them to respond in the comments.

Tip 2 : Create contests where your followers have to tag their contacts. All of these actions can get you featured on their Instagram feed !

What is new is what has the most weight: the most recent content is the one that, taking into account the other two variables, will rank better in the feed , even if it has not yet been consumed.

Tip 1 : Watch out! It is not about posting anything every 10 minutes in order to have fresh content. Pay attention to the quality of your posts  so that they generate more interaction and measure better in the Instagram algorithm. Yes, the secret is to find the balance!

Tip 2 : Put together a content calendar to organize what day and time you are going to publish according to the audience of your brand. For example, if you analyze Instagram metrics and discover that your posts have more interaction in the afternoon, take advantage of that time of day to get a lot of juice out of it!

With this magical algorithm, different Instagram managers (among them the Product Leader) ensure that the more than 1,000 million active users of the network in the world see 90% of the most relevant publications , thus favoring their user experience.

What other factors define the order of Instagram posts?

In addition to the three variables that we just told you about, there are others (less relevant) that can also determine the ranking of a user’s publications.

If the user opens the Instagram app many times a day, their feed may look more chronological because Instagram tries to show the best content from their last visit.

On the other hand, if the user does not frequent Instagram much, their feed will be ordered purely based on the Instagram algorithm.

Instagram curates content from all the accounts a user follows. This means that the more people or brands you follow, the less content of each of them you will see.

This social network also considers the time that each user spends in the application: if it is a looooong , the user will probably see more posts as they immerse themselves in Instagram. If it is more moderate, you will see the highlights of the algorithm (and only that).

Debunking Instagram Myths

Finally, and to clear up certain doubts that the public has had for some time, those responsible for Instagram ensure that the application:

• It favors neither more nor less those accounts that use stories .
• It does not benefit business accounts over personal ones.
• It does not give more importance to photos than to videos, nor vice versa.

Now that you know how the Instagram algorithm works, it’s time to apply it to your social media strategy.

You can also take the opportunity to apply the latest functionality of Instagram Shopping to increase your online sales, right? Learn more about  how to sell on Instagram in our complete super guide.