Recently Instagram users have been struggling to find out how to grow Instagram reach in light of this new algorithm, which, in a way, limits reach. But the great news is that Instagram rewards new content, connections, and formats for businesses. This is the reason why it is crucial that, as a business, you keep rolling outposts that are relevant and new.
It is somewhat easy to understand and implement ways around how to grow reach on Instagram. Even so, a lot of businesses strive to do so because of the new, upgraded, and complex algorithm that Instagram utilises to select posts that will be shown to users. So, to boost organic reach on Instagram, knowing and decoding this algorithm is important.
There definitely are things that you can do to make ups bigger and those downs smaller.
Make Sure that you are Using the Features Correctly
This is a big one. There are plenty of subtleties to this which can massively increase or decrease your reach depending on how you do it. One great trick is when posting content you have to maximise the amount of early engagement that you get so that Instagram algorithm pushes it out to a lot more people.
One thing that a lot of people do to increase their reach is that they will share their content to their story as soon as they post it. The issue with this is often really boring by simply sharing an image or reel to your story. It doesn’t really build any excitement. Most times people just skip through unless it’s like a carousel that’s got a really interesting thumbnail and makes people want to click on it and find out what it is all about. Otherwise they can just get everything from their story, move on, they don’t engage with that and it actually doesn’t help you. As people don’t react to it so strongly Instagram limits its reach.
Instead what you have to do is build up a little bit of response for this piece of content to ask people questions that someone relates to the piece of content and make use of all the features available on Instagram.
Consistently Post Instagram Stories
Constantly adding to your stories helps to grow and maintain your active audience. Gaps in posting new stories can cause audience erosion. Try to keep the fire burning. If audiences aren’t on your top viewer list, then they are probably on someone else’s.
The time span of a post is at most two or three days. The Post is filtered out of both the Home and Explore Feeds after that. Stories actually last for only 24 hours but, by comparison, they are way too easy to produce.
You absolutely need to show up for your community consistently if you want to increase your reach on Instagram Stories.
Use Location and Daily Stickers
Stickers in Instagram stories look way more cute and fun, but they are much more than you see. They make a huge impact on the amount of reach your Instagram stories will receive.
So, try to use a location tag (maybe at your favourite coffee spot!) or a customised daily sticker like the cry-face coffee mug for Monday or whenever you can. This is going to give you the chance to be featured in the Location and Daily stories in the explore tab.
Post at the best time for engagement
You need to study the time zone in which your users are placed so that your stories can be seen by maximum people. Thus, posting at a particular time in the time zones most is appropriate for your target audience. In other words, you need to sort out your post timings as per to the time zones where you have your maximum customers.
The other thing to keep in mind is to post when the engagement is the highest on Instagram. This actually falls between 8 am and 9 am. Instagram stories can be seen and followed every day of the week. Therefore, it is more important to understand the time of the day when the traffic is maximum, other than the day of the week, to post your feed/story.
· Ensure that your stories have a start, middle, and end to it
You will have to make a content plan for your Instagram stories. Whatever you plan to deliver to your target audience, it must have a beginning, middle, and end. If you want to share stories about your business, you can:
- Focus on customer testimonials and stories
- Add behind-the-scene content from special events and trips
- Post a story based on a day in the life of your business or staff.
- Share special announcements to make sure your stories click well with your viewers
- Feature your brand values by showcasing community service or outreach activities untaken by you for your business
Final thoughts
Instagram Stories take a very important position on the Instagram app above the feed. This enables you to stay on top of your followers’ feed and snatch more of their attention. If your followers regularly view your Stories, it will even help your Instagram posts rank higher on their feeds.