Social Media should be making up a relatively substantial proportion of your marketing budget, at least in time if not in hard cash. Although it is unlikely that more traditional marketing methods will ever stop being used, social media is the future and the quicker your company truly embrace it the better.

Have you ever wondered why when you open your app, some Instagram posters always seem to be higher than others? A friends post is at the top of your feed, despite it being hours, or sometimes even days, old?

Instagram started out organising their feed in a standard reverse-chronological order. However, after their 2017 update they now show you ‘what you want to see’.

There are 3 simple criteria they use to judge this:

1) Speed of Engagement

Obviously, Instagram tries to promote posts with high engagement, that is likes, comments, shares, etc. Therefore, it ranks them higher than others. However, Instagram now also judges a post on how quickly people engage with it.

If your post garners a lot of engagement quickly, the Instagram algorithm assumes that this post is high quality, and will, therefore, assume other users will find it engaging too. So in order to ensure your content spreads, you want people to engage and you want them to engage fast.

2) Length of Engagement

he Instagram algorithm also tracks the amount of time each individual spends viewing a post. Unfortunately, as the poster, you will never know how long people spend viewing your content.

However, what you do know is that people spend longer on videos with longer captions than a caption-less photo. This is why videos, boomerangs, and slideshow posts are key because these will all increase the time your followers spend on your post.

3) Frequency of Engagement

As I mentioned at the start of this article, you will have noticed how if you always like a close friend’s content, it is often at the top of your feed even days later. This is because Instagram shows you more of the accounts you regularly engage with.

This means that even if users haven’t been on Instagram recently, they will see backdated posts Instagram believe are relevant to them. This can work to your advantage as it means your posts have a longer lifespan. It should also act as a further incentive to ensure your post quality is a high as possible.

For more information on how to use Instagram for B2B marketing, click here.