Are you wanting to improve your engagement on Instagram? As the platform has grown it is getting trickier, whether that’s choosing what to post, when to post, or even if it's better to post it as a story or on your feed. Don’t worry though, we have you covered! This blog will give you all of our best Instagram tips and tricks and look into if Instagram Stories or Feed works better.
Instagram’s Algorithm
Trends will change and be created overnight, which means you need to be reactive and up to date with the latest trends to ensure you are jumping on them at their prime. Whether it’s a meme, a new dance or a challenge you should try to get involved.
Instagram has said that saves, views, shares, comments and likes; how your followers interact with your account are very important for their algorithm. Basically, Instagram will show and promote content that has had the most engagement. So encourage your followers to like, comment or even share, keeping your audience engaged and the algorithm will show your content more.
Changes of functionality
Like any app or social media, Instagram will have a number of updates and functionality changes throughout the year. It’s important to ensure that you are on top of your updates to ensure you can fully utilise these features, even understanding them beforehand can massively help you adapt and use them well.
For example, recently Stories has had a range of new designs and fonts, meaning there are more ways and options to display your content. You should always aim to incorporate new features into your socials, no matter how small. Not only will your stories look more creative and engaging, but the Instagram algorithm might pick it up too!
The Growth of Instagram Stories
The popularity of Instagram Stories has skyrocketed! Where a feed post will stay on the platform indefinitely, a story will only be available to view for 24 hours, meaning that people have an urgency to view them as they will disappear. This is a great opportunity for you to share your authentic content on your stories, in fact, over 50 percent of Instagram users use stories daily.
Are Feed Photos Old News?
Feed photos are the OG of Instagram, they are now most likely used to discover new brands that align with people’s own interests. This is because hashtags make it easy to find and reach new audiences, and the quality of the feed will get them to follow.
What content works best for each?
Firstly, content that you want to stay up forever works best on your feed; although you can put stories in highlights, they aren’t as easily seen and discovered by your followers. Ensure the content on your feed is visually pleasing and organised so it adds value to your business.
However, stories offer a more temporary approach and are typically much better for engagement; you can add polls and question boxes to each one!
Realistically, a successful account should be using both, putting a balance of more professional, informative content on the feed, and raw, more informal content on stories. This will lead to you reaching new people, getting better engagement and so much more out of your Instagram account.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog, click here to check out the rest of our posts to learn more about everything social!
