← Build Your Tribe | Grow Your Business with Social Media
Build Your Tribe | Grow Your Business with Social Media
The BRAND NEW Instagram Algorithm | Direct From Instagram CEO - 853
00:21:54
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There are four big changes coming to the Instagram algorithm, and these updates have been revealed by Instagram's CEO himself in today's episode. I'm going to share with you exactly what those algorithm updates are, how you can take advantage of them, and how they're going to affect you. If you want to grow and make more money on Instagram, if you are someone who wants to build a brand or business on Instagram, if you are trying to gain more followers, go viral, get more views and make more money on Instagram, then you're in the right place. Because here on the build, you'd try podcast. I upload a new episode every single week with the latest tips, strategies and algorithm updates so you can make the most out of Instagram in the least amount of time possible. So please just take a quick second right now to double check that you are in fact subscribed to the show. And with that, let's get into today's episode. The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, who, yes, was interviewed by me earlier this year on this channel, recently revealed that Instagram has now surpassed 3 billion monthly active users. Which is absolutely insane when you think about the fact that There are only 8 billion people on on the planet. And even more insane when you think about the fact that There are almost 2 billion people who are blocked from accessing Instagram currently. At the time of recording this, Russia, China, North Korea, and a handful of other countries have blocked Instagram access completely in their countries. If you add up all of their populations, it's just below 2 billion. And so really, when you do the math, Instagram is used by about 50% of all people on the planet every single month. And then when you think about how much of the global population is made up of babies and little kids who don't have access to Instagram yet, it starts to become apparent that, yeah, pretty much everyone is on Instagram. And so I want to start with a word of encouragement, which is, even though Instagram and social media as a whole feels oversaturated, it feels like you can't break out. It feels like you can't grow. That is absolutely not the case. In order to grow to the 3 billion monthly active users, Mark Adam Moziri said that there were three driving factors that have contributed the most to Instagram's growth. And he said those three factors are messaging reels and recommendations. In my conversation with him earlier this year, I complimented him on direct messages. And I said that I think it's Instagram's strong suit. It's a feature that Instagram has figured out better than any other platform. And the adoption or the use of direct messages on Instagram far exceeds the use of DMs on other platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Twitter. In fact, over the last year or so, Adam Mozeri is on record of saying that there is more content shared in via direct message every single day than there is content shared on the feed. Which means to say it another way, more people are sending reels and sending posts back and forth in the DMs every single day than they are posting to their feed. One of the most obvious changes on Instagram over the last decade or so is that when you scroll through your feed, you're not really seeing your friends and family members content anymore. I Remember back in 2014 you would open up Instagram and there was nothing in your feed besides your friends and family and all of their posts from the last few hours. But now you scroll through your feed and unless I'm seeing one of my mom's posts, I'm not really seeing posts from my family and friends. Now my feed is filled with recommendations and the place where we connect with our friends and family on Instagram is primarily in the direct messages. But what does this mean for you as someone who wants to grow on Instagram? It means that you want to be creating the kinds of posts that that are going to get shared. Your goal with almost every post you make. If your goal is to grow and go viral and get more views and followers should be creating content that is worthy of being sent from one person to another. Now that's not the purpose of today's episode. I've done an entire episode in the past about creating shareworthy content. It includes examples and my five step formula for creating shareworthy posts. So I'll link that up. But the TLDR of it is that shares are unequivocally the best form of engagement on Instagram. And they're how you get more views, they're how you go viral, and they're how you get more followers. Also, just a few weeks ago, I put out an episode on what I believe is the most underrated and underused tool on all of Instagram for people who want to increase their engagement, get more views and make more sales. It's called DM Automation. And admittedly it's probably our worst performing episode in the last few months because it's something that doesn't sound that sexy, it doesn't sound that appealing. But. But I want you to consider the Fact that the head of Instagram himself chose to list messaging direct messaging as the number one driver of their platform's growth. And that is an episode that lets you take advantage of DMs and use them to their maximum power, unlike anything else. So I'm going to encourage you to check that out, because if you're not already using DM automation, you're trying to grow on Instagram with one or maybe even two hands and tied behind your back. Of course, no shocker here. The second driver of Instagram's growth is reels. That makes sense. Reels make up the majority of feed content being shared. Reels reach more people than any other kinds of content, and reels reach more non followers than any other kinds of posts. So of course it makes sense that reels short form videos are a driving force behind Instagram's growth. And then the third and final factor is recommendations. Recommendations are basically posts that the algorithm shows you from people who you don't follow. And these are recommended posts based off what the algorithm thinks you would be interested in. Now, in just a moment, I'm going to talk more about that whole thanks thing because that's another massive Instagram update that has recently taken place. But essentially the algorithm is constantly trying to figure out what you're into and then show you posts that align with that interest. One area of Instagram where Adam Mozeri admits they have kind of fallen behind TikTok and they are actively working to improve, is what you could consider the speed of the algorithm. Think about it this way. If you're scrolling on TikTok and you watch a three minute long video about raising a puppy, well then it's very likely that within your next 10 videos on TikTok, maybe even your next five videos, maybe even the very next video, you're going to see more content about raising puppies on Instagram. If I was to watch an entire reel about raising puppies, it's not very likely that within my next 10 or even my next 20 or 30 reels that I see that is going to be more content about training puppies. Basically, the TikTok algorithm is really, really good at figuring out what you are interested in right this second and then serving up that kind of content to you. That's one of the reasons that TikTok is so addicting. But Instagram is working on improving these capabilities themselves. They're working on speeding up the process at which the algorithm learns what your interests are. Now, of course, this begs the question, how does that impact me as a brand or business owner, well, it impacts you very, very positively because the playing field has never been more level. The Instagram algorithm cares a lot less about how many followers you have or how many people followed you in the past. It cares about, is your content relevant to any given audience? If your content is engaging, if it's relevant, if it's captivating, if it's share worthy, then it will be recommended to the people who want to see it. But the only way that the algorithm can know whom to show your content to is if you have a clear niche. If every single one of your posts is about a different topic, different interests, well, then it's going to be very hard for the algorithm to know, oh, hey, this account, this account is all about puppy training videos. And thus we should show this account's posts to people who are interested in puppy training videos. If you post one reel, that is a puppy training video, one reel about your hike this weekend, or one reel about your date night selfie, one reel about your vacation that you just went on, then you're going to confuse the algorithm. And when you confuse, you lose. So one of the foundational pieces. If you want to get recommended more often on Instagram and take advantage of this new algorithm where followers don't matter as much, then you need to have a niche. Because without it, the algorithm doesn't know where to place you. In response to messaging reels and recommendations being such a driving factor of Instagram's growth, they're going to be reorganizing the layout of the Instagram app very soon. Now, I've gotten to sneak preview what this is going to look like, and I'm going to let you know right now you're going to be very confused. At first. There's going to be like a week or so where you're like, wait, where's the button for this? How do I access DMs? How do I post a reel? It's going to be a little bit confusing, but it's not worse. It's just different. And of course, change is going to be something that we know we're oftentimes going to be averse to and we're not going to want. But pretty soon, Instagram is going to be rolling out new app layouts that emphasizes messaging reels and recommendations. And all of this led Adam Mozeri to make the announcement that there is going to be a new customizable algorithm, an algorithm that you control. For the first time in the history of Instagram, we are now going to have A direct say in the kinds of things that are recommended and shown to us. On the Reels tab, the homepage and the Explore page, this is being tested and rolled out immediately. So while you might not have access to it yet, theoretically everyone on Instagram should have access to it sooner or later. And what it's going to allow you to do is tell the algorithm, I want to see more of this, I want to see less of this. To access this new customizable your algorithm, you can either go to your Instagram settings or you can view a reel, any reel on the Reels page and then tap on the settings icon in the upper right hand corner. When you tap on that up at the top of the screen, it will show you three things that Instagram has decided that you are extra interested in recently. Kind of like your three favorite things to consume over the last few days or weeks. And then below that you'll see a collection of other interests that the algorithm has predicted or decided that you are interested in. That list is totally customizable. So if you see something on that list that you're actually not into, you can remove it from that list. If there's something that you are into or you want to get into, you want to be shown more content about that isn't on that list, well, then you can add it. It appears that everything on this list is either a one to two word category of content. Basically, these are different niches on Instagram. And so again, like I said earlier, as a brand or business owner, the more that you post about one thing, the more you niche down, the more you allow Instagram to say, yup, you are the go to person for soccer highlights. Yup, you are a great outdoor cook. Yup, you are a great puppy trainer. And then when people add one of those terms that relates to your account to their algorithm, they will be more likely to see your content. This is great news for anyone with a relatively small following or anyone who's been struggling to grow on Instagram, because theoretically these changes and this new customizable algorithm should, like I said earlier, level the playing field a little bit more and allow these smaller creators to break out. It doesn't mean that big creators are going to be handcuffed. It just means that they're not going to get as much progress. Preferential treatment. Of course, having followers still matters. Of course, the more followers you have, the bigger pool of people Instagram and the algorithm can consider showing your content to, because they do prefer to show your content to your followers rather than just new people. So it is still beneficial to have followers. It's not like Instagram is going to start punishing people who have a lot of followers. But this is a change that is super helpful and could be very, very beneficial for anyone with a smaller account and all of that. Everything I just listed is just the first algorithm update directly from Adam Mosseri. Algorithm update number two pertains to something that we haven't talked about today, which is your Instagram stories. For the last two to three years, Instagram stories have been boosted. You've been getting more story views, the less stories you post, all the way down to just one story. In fact, it's that knowledge that has informed my STD strategy. Some of you have heard of my STD strategy, and yes, I know it has a funny name, but The S in STD strategy is the word single. Single meaning 1. Meaning if you post just one Instagram story, that's how you get the most views. That is how you maximize your story views. And it's been this way for about two to three years. Well, Instagram says that they have caught on. They figured it out. And according to Adam Mozeri, it's something that they have fixed. In fact, in a recent caption from Adam Mosseri, he says, and I quote, creators were seeing less reach with stories after posting lots of stories in the same day, and now they've changed the stories algorithm. So what does that mean for you as someone who probably wants to get the most views possible on their stories? Well, honestly, still follow the STD formula. While the single is going to be less impactful than in the past, it's still going to be more beneficial than posting multiple stories. Basically, what's happened is that the discrepancy between posting one story or posting more than one story has been more balanced. In the past, if you posted one story, you'd get a ton of views, and as soon as you posted a second or third story, it would go like way down. Now it's just going to be more level. It's not like now if you post one story, you're going to get very little views, but if you post three or four or more, then your views are going to go up. That's not necessarily the case. It's just that a single story is not going to be disproportionately rewarded compared to having multiple stories posted. So in order to get maximum story views, I would still recommend following the STD strategy, which we've done an entire episode on in the past. But the TLDR of it is that S stands for single, T stands for text heavy, and D stands for DM Automation. Remember earlier I talked to you about DM Automation? I told you we did an entire episode on it just a few weeks ago. DM Automation is one of the best ways to boost your story views. And it has reliably been working this way for about five or six years now. And it makes sense. Instagram views direct messages as one of the driving features for their growth. Instagram wants to emphasize and reward people who are getting more DMs and sending more DMs. And so by using DM Automation on your Instagram stories, that's how you get the most possible views. All right, algorithm update number three. And again, all of these have come directly from Adam Mozeri, and this one pertains to trial reels. On one of his recent Instagram stories, Adam Mozeri said, and I quote, don't try to use trial reels to pummel the same content over and over and over. Now, before you cancel me, before you get mad at me, for the last eight months, I have been telling you that trial reels were a cheat code. Trial reels were a way that you could post multiple of the same reel over and over again and with basically little to no drawback, reach new people and grow your audience. I've also been telling you that we need to take advantage of this while we can, because pretty quickly Instagram is going to catch on to how we are all. And when I say we, I mean us who are trying to grow our following. Us marketers, us business owners, they're going to catch on to how we are using it, and they're going to limit it, they're going to change it or they're going to take it away. And I was right. That has now happened. The first change to trial reels is that there are now caps on how many you can post per day. Unfortunately, there's not a universal cap, so I can't say that everyone can only post 10 a day. Some accounts don't have a cap. Some accounts can post 25 a day. Some accounts can post 20. Some accounts can only post five trial reels per day. My account is one of those. If I try to post more than five trial reels per day, Instagram blocks me from posting anymore. When I try to post more than five trial reels per day, Instagram says, whoa, whoa, whoa, we won't let you post any more trial reels for 24 hours. But I know some people who have tried to post more than five in a day and they've received a restriction from posting trial reels for the next 30 days. So now, as a general recommendation, I recommend posting no more and no less than five trial reels per day. But that's not the only update to trial reels that has recently taken place. Adam Mozeri, on his recent Instagram stories, like I mentioned, talked about duplicate trial reels where you're posting the exact same trial reel over and over and over again. And he said that is something that is a spam vector, meaning that Instagram recognizes that as spammy content. And now Instagram is going to throttle your views if you are participating in this practice. Basically, you can't just copy and paste the exact same reel over and over again and expect to get views. That was something that had worked for the last eight months, and it was a really easy way for us brands and content creators and business owners to get our reels out there to more people without having to do much more work. But admittedly, it is somewhat spammy and a lot of people have been using it in a very spammy way, posting literally hundreds of trial reels of the exact same trial reel every single day over and over again. And so Instagram has decided to put these limitations in place. So what you should do now, besides just the quantity of five per day, is each of those five need to have some sort of variation. And specifically the variation needs to be non minimal. It needs to be somewhat substantial. It can't just be one minor change in your hook, or rewording the text on the screen, or putting new background music or new trending audio on your reel, or just rewriting your caption, none of that will be enough to count as a new reel. If you want Instagram to view your two trial reels as two separate reels that are distinguishable from each other and thus give you the appropriate and deserved views on both of those trial reels. There needs to be a difference between the two. There needs to be a somewhat substantial difference between the two. And specifically, what Instagram and the algorithm is looking at is what is on the screen. So the actual visual content for the first six or seven seconds. So if that means that you have to re edit your hook, do it. If that means you have to refilm your hook, do it. If that means that you have to completely change the audio and rework things, maybe it's the same idea or you're teaching the same general topics in your reel, but it's refilmed or it's got a new edit to the hook. That's pretty much the only way that you're going to be able to get by with posting the same content multiple times in your trial reels. And no, it doesn't reset every day. I've had some people ask me since this news has dropped, well, if I post a reel on Monday, can I post the exact same thing on Tuesday? No. Once you posted a single time as a trial reel, Instagram will look at all of your future trial reels indefinitely and compare them to that one to make sure that it's not a word for word duplicate. Now, before we move on to the fourth and final algorithm update, I do want to clarify. This does not pertain to your feed posts or your normal reels. This only pertains to trial reels. I spoke with Instagram staff directly about this update and they informed me that if you have a reel that you posted to your feed and you want to post it again, they wouldn't recommend posting it again the next day or the next week. But once it's been a week or so, you are free to repost or I should say re upload your own content multiple times. No, you do not have to delete the original. No, you don't have to change anything.
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You.
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No, you do not have to note that this is something that you have previously posted. If you posted something in, let's say, July and you wanted to post it again a second time, exact duplicate, in September, you are free to do so as long as it's to your normal feed as a normal reel and not a trial reel. And finally, last but not least, the fourth algorithm update that you need to be aware of moving forward is that Instagram has added a new benefit to Meta Verified. Meta Verified is the program where you can pay a monthly fee to get the blue check mark on your account. My personal opinion is that it's something that I would recommend. Not necessarily because the features they give you are all that helpful, with the exception of the one I'm about to name, but because when I see an account with a blue check mark, I think this is someone who takes Instagram seriously. This isn't a spammer, this isn't a bot. This is their real account. And this is someone who cares about growing on Instagram. This is someone who cares about their business. They care enough to pay the monthly fee. In addition to the monthly fee, you also get impersonation protection. You get a private one on one chat with Instagram customer service, and you get Some small, minor additional benefits. But now Instagram is going to give you a boost to your SEO if you are meta verified. Specifically, they said that if you are meta verified, your handle, your Instagram profile will show up at the top of Instagram search results. So if there are 1700 Joe Smiths on Instagram, but three of them are verified Joe Smith, 17 Joe Smith number one, and then Joe Smith underscore, Underscore official. Those are the three verified Joe Smiths. Those three are going to show up at the top. So again, I recommend meta verified. It's something that I think is helpful. And now you are going to get a direct boost to your search engine optimization by showing up at the top of Instagram searches. You see can if you are meta verified. One final algorithm update that I wanted to let you know about is actually a YouTube algorithm update with a new YouTube feature. Some of you may have noticed I actually got a comment on one of my videos last week asking me, what the heck is this? Down below you're going to see a button that says hype. It's a new feature, part of the new YouTube algorithm where if you find a video really good, you think it's just better than the rest. You can like it, but hyping it specifically boosts it to more people. It's kind of like a way to tell the YouTube algorithm, hey, this video is really good. Push it out to more people. And so I know that I had some people hyping my last video without me even asking. I want to ask you if you enjoyed today's episode, if you learned something new, if you think that more brands and business owners should hear this news about these algorithm updates, I want to ask you to hit that hype button. I think that that would be pretty awesome and I think that hyping this would be an awesome way to help do that. I also want to say thank you so much for being here today and I'll see you next week.
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Morning, Zoe. Got donuts.
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Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?
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Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T Mobile commercial like you. Teach me, Saldana.
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C
Oh, no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at T Mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.
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B
Wow, impressive. Let me try. T Mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network.
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A
Nice.
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Jeffrey, you heard them.
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T Mobile is the best place to.
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Get the new iPhone 17 Pro on.
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Us with eligible traded in any condition. So what are we having for launch?
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Dude, my work here is done.
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