How Instagram Decides the Content It Shows You

The Instagram algorithm

Getting to understand the algorithms that decide the content that the different social platforms will promote the most has been and will always be one of the great objectives of many users on practically any social platform.

Because if you manage to know what are the criteria or aspects on which they are based, you could “hack” it and thus achieve that your own are the ones that are most seen. Something that, as you may be imagining, would help you grow in terms of views, likes, followers, etc. And that, because of how most monetization systems operate, would translate into more income.

Hence, if something abounds in the network, they are articles that try to decipher the operation of these algorithms or give you advice with what they understand to be the form of “hacker” that set of criteria that they use on every social platform to determine what it is. the content that will be shown more times to other users.

However, focusing on Instagram, until now no one had confirmation about whether they were really correct about what was published about how the algorithm of this network works or not. At least so far, because although it is true that they have not completely dissected it, those responsible for the platform have for the first time given a series of data on how it works.

Here’s how Instagram decides what you’ll see in your feed

As anyone who understands a little about selection criteria and their application in social networks will intuit, the Instagram algorithm is based on “signals” to make the selection of content that will then be shown to other users or, rather, to each one of its users. These “signals” are nothing more than a series of basic points that help determine the content that could be most interesting to you.

According to Adam Mosseri, director of Instagram, the points are as follows. But first get rid of the idea that the platform only takes into account a single algorithm. So there is not just one that should be tried to “hack” to achieve maximum impact within the social network but several that are added to other processes and classifications that end up affecting that end.

However, as we said, these are the four basic points that Instagram uses to determine what you are going to see on the platform:

• Information about the publication . Here is a compilation of information that we could say is basic in any publication made on Instagram. That is, data such as when it was published and the location (if it has that information), the duration if it is a video, the likes it has been able to get, etc. A first criterion that serves as an initial cut-off to determine what might interest you to see
• Information about the person who posted . Secondly, there are all those data that affect the user and could also help to know if its content could be related to you by details such as the user’s age, location, tastes and topics of interest, the interactions it has achieved, etc. That is, if you see a lot of content from a specific user, it may be because they are much more active than others on the platform and that is always something that any network likes.
• Your own activity . Of course, your own activity within Instagram is also important for the content that you are going to see in the future. This happens on any social platform and if you are always looking for things related to the motor world, liking publications with photos where cars appear, etc., the most normal thing is that you see related recommendations and not how to make cake. Japanese cheese. In addition, this also helps to understand what someone with similar interests might like.
• Your history of interaction with other profiles . Finally, your interaction history with other users is also an important piece of information in order to know what to show you in the future. It is not the same to see content and just like to stop and also interact by leaving some kind of comment

With all this information that Instagram is able to collect while you use its platform, it is how they decide what content you are going to see in your feed and also in the stories. But what about the Reels or even the Explore tab that in theory serves to discover new content, many times different from the usual ones.

Well, these sections or types of Instagram content also have their own tricks when deciding what to see from each of them. The usual thing is that what you see are proposals that have been compared with your tastes and habits, so the material can be more related and attractive.

So you should ask yourself what are you doing within the platform so that certain Reels appear more regularly. Although you don’t have to punish yourself either, because if you see some kind of recipe or dance it is because they are also usually the most recurring content published.

Does Instagram silence and limit the reach of certain content?

Finally, in this post published by Mosseri on the platform’s official blog, he also wanted to make it clear that they do not silence or limit the scope of any type of content, but that does not mean that the number of views and reach of each publication will remain the same.

What’s more, an interesting fact that they contribute from Instagram is that most of the followers of a profile will not see everything they share because most users see less than half of their own feed . So, if you are more of a creator than a consumer on Instagram, you should still consider some kind of strategy that will get them to come to see you, to remember you and to look for you rather than waiting for an algorithm to “magically” show you all and each one of the rest of users.

Of course, if we had to give you advice beyond how to hack the algorithm of Instagram or any other social network, it would be that you enjoy doing what you do. That the use of new tools, trends, hashtags, etc., is fine and helps, but if you do not want to burn yourself, nothing better than loving the plot more than the outcome.