In a time where nearly everyone wants to promote their personal and professional brands, utilizing social media has become a necessity. However, it’s impossible to promote your brand if no one is seeing your content, which is one of the most common complaints about Instagram because of their ever-changing algorithm. The goal of any social media algorithm is designed to keep users on the app for as long as possible by delivering users content that they believe will be interesting and engaging to the user. Social media apps base this on a variety of metrics -  including your previous searches, accounts you follow, content you share and many other tracked insights. With this in mind, here are some tips to beat the Instagram algorithm and give your brand the most exposure:

Make sure your content aligns with your brand

Whether you are an influencer, a business, or simply a person that enjoys Instagram, your content should be cohesive to your brand. It would be nearly impossible to find your audience if you were trying to find an audience to show off your new fashion line, but all you posted photos of were cats and travel, for example. People tend to follow brands that maintain cohesive content, so it’s incredibly important to establish your brand identity and stay true to it.

Encourage engagement

Getting people to engage with your content is one of the best ways to get the algorithm to work for you. Ask your followers questions in your captions to encourage commenting. When you post a story add a poll or question sticker to encourage followers to interact with the content. If you are a brand that advertises or sells stuff, do a giveaway where people have to comment or like to enter. There are tons of great ways to engage with your followers such as using hashtags or locations to draw in people who are searching for similar posts..

Focus on quality control

Posting content is great, but if the quality of your content isn’t consistent people won’t want to continue following your page. Ask yourself: is this post engaging, inspiring, entertaining, or informative? Viewers don’t engage with content that isn’t relevant or interesting to them. Stay inspired by looking at what’s trending or searching for new ideas on Pinterest.  

Establish relationships with others

This can be as simple as responding to comments and direct messages, liking others’ stories, or commenting on people’s posts. The more you interact with your followers the more likely they are to return the favor because you have already established a relationship with them. If Instagram sees that you are very active with others, they are more likely to boost your content. Plus, getting to meet and engage with new brands is what makes social media fun!

Schedule posts for when your audience is most active

This can vary between brands depending on your audience, but most data tracking sites agree that in 2022 the best time to post during the week is from 8-11 a.m. and on weekends from 5-8 p.m. This can vary depending on the audience, but there are apps such as HootSuite and Sprout Social that can track your followers' habits for you. In addition to posting at the most beneficial time, be sure that you are posting quality content consistently. Your followers want to see your content, but be mindful that if you only post very rarely your content won’t be pushed as much and your followers might not get to see it.

There are tons of techniques to help boost your Instagram and beat the algorithm! Happy posting!