How to Fix An Instagram Reach Drop and Get Your Posts Seen
Are you noticing an Instagram reach drop lately, with fewer people seeing your posts? Particularly if you use Instagram to communicate with your customers, this can be a disaster! Instagram’s algorithm might not be showing your content to as many people, due to recent changes to its algorithm. Read on to find out how you can beat the algorithm and get your post in front of your audience.
What is the Instagram Algorithm Like in 2023?
Instagram’s algorithm, the artificial intelligence that determines which posts get seen by whom, has undergone some changes recently, particularly as Instagram continues to put a lot of emphasis on Reels. Instagram announced its priorities in 2023 as: “Inspire people to be creative,” “Help people discover things they love,” “Spark connections between people,” and its algorithm will put those priorities into practice. As these changes take effect, you may be noticing an Instagram reach drop where your posts are not getting shown to as many users, and engagement could be dropping too!
To better understand why Instagram isn’t prioritizing your posts to your followers, you need to know the main factors that can affect the content that users see.
The Instagram Algorithm’s Ranking Factors
While Instagram’s AI-powered algorithm can seem mysterious, there are some key factors known to go into its decision-making. Essentially, this involves evaluating the account posting the content, the user who will potentially engage with the content, and the relationship between that user and the account. The relevancy of the content to the user is taken into account, based on their history on the app. Remember that the algorithm wants to serve users content that they will enjoy, so its estimate of how interested the user will be in your content is a major consideration. When evaluating your account, the algorithm looks at your follower count and how frequently you post. The combination of these factors helps the algorithm decide whether to show your post to a given user, and, fortunately, they can be translated into advice for how to make the algorithm favor your content.
Actionable Tips To Get Your Post Seen and Fix Your Instagram Reach Drop
If you’re struggling to get your followers to see your content, here are some helpful tips.
- Post consistently. Set a consistent but realistic schedule that you can actually keep. Often it is much more important to post on a consistent schedule than to post many times a week.
- Keep up with the trends. Instagram favors content that plays into trends, so consider using a trending audio in your Reel. This makes it more likely that the algorithm will show your content to more people. As a bonus, using a trending sound makes it more likely that a user who hears that audio on another Reel will look for more Reels featuring it and find yours.
- Use Reels features to show your creativity. You can use the features built into Reels, such as filters and camera effects, to make your Reel really shine.
- Schedule posts when your audience is the most active. You can find out by checking out your Instagram Insights.
- Use relevant and niche hashtags to show Instagram what your post is about. Don’t use just any popular hashtags; make sure they are relevant to your content and your audience.
- Pay attention to community guidelines. This should go without saying, but if your post breaks Instagram’s rules, the algorithm won’t want to show it to users.
- Write long captions to better utilize Instagram’s SEO. If you think of Instagram as a search engine, you can use SEO keywords to get your content in front of users.
Using these tips, you’ll have a better chance of your content getting shown in users’ feeds or Explore pages, potentially fixing or avoiding an Instagram reach drop. Now, are those users engaging with your posts?
Going Beyond Reach: What About Engagement?
Engagement (users interacting with your post by commenting, liking, and sharing) is also a very important set of metrics for you to keep an eye on. Are you seeing a drop in engagement recently? There are a number of actions you can take to improve the situation.
In order to get users’ attention amid a sea of content, you have to reach out to them. One way to do this is by adding stickers to your Instagram Stories. The ”Add Yours” sticker and the question stickers are great ways to encourage users to interact with your content. For example, you could ask users to submit their best first date story or give you a recommendation for a local coffee shop.
Another way to raise your engagement is to include a call to action in your post. For example, you end your post caption by asking users a question to answer in the comments below. Your users will want to contribute to the conversation by commenting, boosting your engagement.
Post carousels. Carousels (posts with multiple images you can swipe to) tend to get shown to users multiple times, giving users more chances to engage with them.
Other strategies to get user engagement include creating graphics that users can’t help but share, hosting a giveaway of something relevant to your niche to draw in your fans, and using the collaboration feature to get your posts in front of your collaborators’ audience as well as your own.
Remember to keep an eye on engagement metrics, like Shares and Comments, in your Insights to see what kind of content is getting engagement, and then make more of it!
To summarize, monitor your Insights to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to your reach and engagement. Post content that adds value for your niche, and make sure to interact with your audience on a regular basis; engage with your audience and they will engage with you.
Want to avoid an Instagram reach drop and get your audience engaging with your content? Online Optimism can help!
When you run a business, you may not have the time to put all of this advice into practice, to create and publish content consistently and promote it in a way that increases its reach and engagement. That’s where Online Optimism comes in. Our social media team understands the Instagram algorithm and can help your business grow on Instagram and beyond. Learn more about our social media services and contact us to get started today!
