Book mentioned in the video: Instagram algorithm guide
Today we wanna talk about the instagram algorithm and it’s absurdity.
In 2021, many saw their reach and engagement drop. Bigger pages often times felt this drop way more significantly than smaller ones.
We went from 40k impressions per post to 5k over night. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not complaining, 5k is good! If we could pull that off on our personal accounts, we’d be extremely grateful.
It is quite a significant drop tho. So we began testing.
Weeks passed and we finally noticed something: When we closed the app right after posting, we often times received more engagement. HOW WEIRD IS THAT?
Surely there must be a good reason for that to happen so we started thinking and testing more…
Why Instagram wants you to behave like an asshole
You know those people, that make themselves “rare” and don’t talk to someone just because they think they will become more interesting that way? Disgusting right?!
Apparently Instagram wants some users to be that kind of person. Especially those that normally hang out on the app daily for at least an hour. This is not fully confirmed but especially some bigger accounts (over 5k) noticed this.
When you post and directly close the app, Instagram will send you a notification saying “Someone liked your post” or “Someone commented!”
Why do you think they do that? Right, they wanna bring you back! They want you to stay in the app refreshing that activity feed for that next dopamine hit when someone likes your post. The main focus is making you addicted and keeping you on the app. So of course they’ll spam dopamine triggers in form of notifications to get you back onto the app.
Instagrams main focus is making you addicted and keeping you on the app.
And what happens when you swipe the notification away? Of course they’ll send another one. And another one. But here is the important part: What do they have to do in order to keep sending you notifications? In order to show the notification that someone liked your post, someone actually has to like it. So Instagram might push your post to more people to deliver more notifications.
Instagram might push your post to more people to keep sending you notifications.
Conclusion – closing the app is a win either way
Next time you post, try directly closing the app and swipe away every notification you get. Don’t open the app for the next two hours!
Try this a few times. Maybe it’ll make a difference for you, maybe not. It certainly did for us. And if it doesn’t make a difference regarding engagement you atleast did something for your mental health by closing the app.
Get the Insta algorithm guide: click here
Cheers! Maja & Alex | bitesandtickles
