“The key to social media growth isn’t about gaming the system; it’s about understanding the system.”
Gary Vaynerchuk (Entrepreneur and Social Media Expert)
We all are well aware of the impact of social media in today’s era. From individuals to businesses, it can be a bridge to success for everyone, and one of the major components in building this bridge is the ‘followers’. But, how to expand your audience and build a strong following on Instagram? Is there a magic formula or a golden key for it?
Well, no magic formula or golden key but, understanding Instagram’s algorithm can stimulate your follower growth.
In this guide, I’ll take you through four elements that significantly affect follower growth, so stick to the end if you want to learn about features that can help you observe evident growth in your Instagram following.
Engagement Metrics
Before starting with engagement metrics, let me first clarify what exactly engagement on Instagram means. Suppose I am scrolling on Instagram and come across a post from one of my favorite creators, I like that post, leave a comment on it, and share it with my friends, all these interactions that I had with the post basically refer to engagement.
These likes, comments, and sharing actions from me will signal to the Instagram algorithm that ‘that specific’ post is getting a good response from the audience, this will lead to Instagram promoting that post among a wider audience through explore pages and this will ultimately boost followers of that creator. So we can say that Instagram values engagement and high engagement co relates to follower growth.
FUN FACT Instagram is the 10th most searched term worldwide, with a whopping 338 million searches a month.
Relevance and Interests
Have you ever noticed that the more you interact with certain kinds of posts, the more they start to show up on your Explore page? Have you wondered how that happens? Let me explain it to you with the help of an example. If I regularly interact with baking videos on my Instagram, it will signal to the algorithm that posts related to baking interest me and are relevant to me, and more such reels will pop into my feed.
So, if you want to reach and get recognized by specific groups, I would suggest you figure out what kind of content interests them and is relevant to them and start making quality content around it. This will help you reach your target audience with more ease and effectiveness.
Consistency and Activity
It is no secret that the accounts that post regularly and stay consistent are more favored by Instagram than those that post occasionally or do not engage much with the audience. Let me share with you three ways in which staying consistent can boost your follower growth.
It is no rocket science that if you stay consistent and post regularly, there will be more opportunities for you to interact and engage with your audience, this will not only help you build a loyal fan base but will also increase the visibility of your account because as I mentioned earlier, more engagement = more opportunities to reach a wider audience.
If you post and engage with your audience regularly, the chances of you getting prioritized by the algorithm also significantly increase, and it will start suggesting your posts to non-followers who engage with similar kinds of content, increasing your organic reach.
It can also help you build momentum and increase the number of profile visits on your account, which eventually leads to more followers.
Hashtags and Explore Page
To help you understand how hashtags work, let’s do a comparison. Suppose there are two content creators, and both post similar types of content. The major difference in their posts is that one always puts relevant hashtags on his post and the other does not. Who do you think will be more visible to the targeted audience and will be favored by the algorithm?
You are right if you guessed the one who puts hashtags. Putting hashtags sorts out and categorizes your content, giving the algorithm an idea of the audience you want to reach, hence it starts recommending your posts to the intended audience.
Not only that, but it also helps increase your discoverability and visibility. It becomes much easier for your target audience to discover you, with the explore page playing a significant part in it.
If you use appropriate hashtags on your post, the chances of your post appearing on the explore page of the people who do not follow you yet but are interested in content similar to yours increases.
DO YOU KNOW? The number of daily active Instagram users worldwide surpassed 2 million users in 2021 and has been on the increase since the past decade. However, In 2024, it declined by 4 million as compared to 2023.
Conclusion
I hope the four points we discussed in this article helped you understand how the Instagram algorithm works and how you can increase your reach by understanding it.
To sum it all up in a few lines, consistently posting quality content, with appropriate and relevant hashtags can help you land on the explore page of your targeted audience, this will increase your visibility and have a significant impact on your account engagement, all ultimately leading to a following boost. Wrapping this article up, I would like to share a quote from Hootsuite (a social media management platform), “Social media algorithms reward engagement, so the more likes, comments, shares, and interactions your posts get, the more they’ll be shown to others.”
