Decoding the Instagram Algorithm – Part Two – Ranking of Explore section

Previously we had covered how Instagram is ranking content for feed and stories. In this article we talk about the Explore tab. At the bottom it is located at second tab position. Search and explore is integrated. In explore section, Instagram shows us content it chooses while in search we can hunt for something specific. Explore section is a mix of discovery and entertainment. It is completely based on our history, preferences and educated guesses by Instagram.

Whenever anyone of us gets bored, we turn to explore section. Here we let Instagram decide what content it wants to show us. For a content creator however, this section is critical. How can you make your content appear on the explore section of others. How will you entice random strangers to follow your account.

A word of caution – Explore section is not the same as trending, many people confuse between the two. You will get more clarity as you read through the article.

What is Explore

In feed and stories you see content from people whom you follow. While in Explore you see pictures and videos from people whom you don’t follow. t is the tab with the search icon. There is a search bar on top followed by a grid of posts. More and more posts keep showing up as you scroll. 

Explore is important for content creators and brand owners. A well planned and created post will find its way to the explore section of others.

Remember the commenting algorithm we talked about in the previous article. We explained how giveaways are specifically targeted towards the commenting algorithm. In the explore section, the same algorithm comes into play. Here is how.

Case 1 – Checking out explore on your own smartphone

While checking out explore the three main signals which Instagram picks up is which posts you have liked in your feed, commented and saved.

In their blog, Instagram repeatedly lays emphasis on the feature of save and how it ranks content. But how do you encourage someone to save your posts. Only if it contains useful information.

So if you have liked, commented and saved content related to macro insect photography with special interest in Raynox Super Macro snap on. Your explore section will now show you posts from other photographers who have used Raynox macro lens. You might also see photos posted by others using different lenses and finally Instagram might drop in a picture of landscape photography or even a bar to indicate that you have spent a lot of time behind your lens and now time to grab a beer.

So it is mix of educated guesses from Instagram and your activity on feed and stories.

Implication – Encourage or entice people so that they save your posts by including that kind of information in your posts. 

When it comes to sharing, a post is either shared to someone via Instagram messenger or if you find something interesting enough it goes to your story. Again as we have seen in the previous article initially Instagram did not rank content shared in stories as good enough. But soon they found out that too many people were sharing interesting content in their stories, so they have changed their ranking system to cater for it. Copy link also allows sharing to other apps and messengers like WhatsApp.

Implication – Instagram is keeping a close watch on interesting content. For content creators it is now even more important that you just simply don’t make a content for the sake of making but try to make it interesting and appealing and shareable. 

This is specially a challenge for people who aim for one post or more than that every day. After a couple of weeks it just becomes routine content.

Case 2 – How Instagram populates Explore section

With Case 1 clear it becomes easy to understand Case 2. As a brand owner, you want your content to reach your target audience. Explore is the section where you can connect to prospective new followers. What are the interests of your target audience, which posts they like and follow. Just like Instagram you also need to do educated guesses.

Example – Festive season is round the corner and the Snacks and Chaat venture, Bhawan, Delhi is posting content related to sweets since 12 Oct, which is at-least a month prior to Diwali. They are dwelling only upon how tasty and visually appealing their sweets are along with their next level gift wrapping. This is specifically targeting the explore algorithm. 

What are the important signals and how they are ranked

Information about the post

• How popular is a post
• How quickly people are liking, commenting, sharing and saving a post
• These signals matter more in explore than feed

Implication – As soon as you post something on Instagram, the more quickly your followers like and comment, the more chance it has to feature on explore. 

Most of the content you see on explore has likes in the region of 30 to 80 k or even more than a mil. But you also do see posts which have less than 10 likes. 

This signal re-confirms the fact that it does not matter how many followers you have but how quickly they like a post as soon as you post it. Inactive followers are even more harmful. Keep that circle tight and keep posting something regularly to keep them interested.

Your history of interacting with the person who posted

• How much time did you spend on the post?
• Did you read the caption?
• Remember there is a more button to read the captions, did you click it.
• Did you comment or like it?

These signals ensure that when you are surfing through the posts in the explore tab, which posts of a particular person will repeat. 

Your activity

• Which posts you have liked, shared, saved or commented on Explore
• How much time did you spend on each post

Summary

Combining the findings in the first article and the present one these are the conclusions we can draw.

• Keep your follower circle small and active. There are no fixed rules of number of posts or frequency of posting, but make sure you are consistent. Have a plan as to which accounts you are going to follow and engage with them by likes, shares, saves and comments. You will get all these back in return. 
• Your content has to be interesting to your followers. Remove inactive followers. This can be done by clicking on the number of followers on your profile where Instagram will show you least and most interacted with.
• Interesting and captivating content will benefit you the most by increasing the chances of showing up on the Explore section of others. 
• Keep your content captivating and interesting and as they say currently, satisfying. If you are a brand owner, you have to plan a give-away or activity which encourages your followers to comment. But make sure you target the right audience, else they will just lose interest and will see less of your posts.