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The algorithm has changed. We have a lot to talk about today. Adam Mossery just shared a video series that's gonna break down what the algorithm is looking for when it comes to your content on Instagram. And I'm really excited to dive into this for you guys, dissect it for you, and then give you guys some tips to leave once you're done listening to this episode. This is Call Her Creator, powered by Stan. I'm your host, Kaitlyn Rhodes. Let's get into what's going on over on Instagram. Before we get into it, should we Talk about the TikTok ban? Should we talk about how it kind of has given me anxiety about how we can truly build a business and base all of this stuff on a social media platform that could easily be taken away from us at any time? Yeah, let's talk about that for a second. If you don't have an email list, what is stopping you from putting that together? I started my email list with when I started my business and we've grown to thousands of subscribers, thank God. And it's honestly how I, I sell on Instagram and on Instagram stories, but I truly use my email platform a lot. I think we send like two to three emails a week to segmented audiences. Don't think that just if you, if you sign up for my email list, you're going to get three emails from me a week. No, that's not how it works. We're very specific about the messaging we send and who we send it to. So nobody's getting bombarded with emails. But it is the best way for me to stay conn with my audience. So if you are not building that email list, if you need help building that email list, I do have a free, it's called free Create and launch a digital offer. And what that is is it's got a checklist in there for you to create a freebie that could then attract email subscribers. That's the easiest way to grow your email list. You can also, you know, have just like an email sign up on your stand store or on your website, whatever you want. But the best way to grow that email list is, is by offering something valuable in exchange for their emails. So that's why I have this. Create your own digital offer. It can also be like create your own lead magnet, but it's basically a checklist on how to create a lead magnet, how to host it, and how to start attracting emails that way. So if you need help growing your email list, go check that out on my stand store. Free Create and launch a digital offer is what it's called. And it's going to walk you through everything you need to know to help you build that list so you can stay connected with your followers. Because if a TikTok ban can happen, so can an Instagram ban. And we just need to prep ourselves and make sure that we still have ways to communicate with our audiences. All right, pulling over my computer, because I had to take notes for today, I listened to Adam's video that discussed the algorithm. Change it. I don't want to say changes, because some of the things he talked about are things that have already been established for the algorithm, but I guess to explain it to you to help you understand what you should be posting so that the algorithm favors your content and gets you in front of more people. So if you want to see this video from Adam yourself, you can go to his page. Adam Mossery, he's the CEO of Instagram. But what I'm doing here today is kind of breaking down what he says, because some of you might listen to what he says and say, that was a different language to me. I don't know what he's saying. So from an expert like me who uses Instagram every single day, multiple times a day, I'm going to break it down and easy to digest pieces for you, and then also give you five tips to help you beat the algorithm. Maybe we don't want to beat it, but we want to work with it, right? So that our content gets in front of the right eyes. So I'm going to help you guys do that today. So three signals from the algorithm that Adam outlined. Watch time likes and sends or shares. So let's start with number one. What is watch time? What does it mean? Watch time refers to the total time viewers spend engaging with your content. So if they're scrolling through their feed and they see a post, the algorithm is watching to see how long they stay on that post. If it's a real. They're gonna watch the video. If it's a post that. I mean, it's still measuring how long they're spending on that post. Right. The longer that people stay on your post, the more Instagram recognizes it as engaging and worth promoting. For reels and videos, grabbing attention within the first three seconds is crucial. You will hear me talk about that until I'm dead. You have to catch people's attention within the first three seconds. Whether it's a video, whether it's a post, you better have a good hook with it. This is what helps Determine whether viewers will continue watching or if they're gonna scroll away. You've got three seconds to help them make up their mind. Higher watch times signal to the algorithm that your content is keeping users engaged, boosting its chance to be shown to more people. So at the end of the day, your goal for all of your posts right now should be to keep people on the post as long as possible. So the way I break this down for some people too is this is why I mainly stick to shorter form video, because it kind of helps me beat the algorithm, right? So if I have a 7 second video and I want them to spend like 100% watch time on there, I only need to capture their attention for seven seconds. If it's a 30 second video for that watch time to be completed, either one, they're going to have to watch for the whole 30 seconds or they're at least going to have to get to like 75% of it, which would still be like 20 seconds. So see how that's kind of harder to stay on a post for 20 seconds versus 7 seconds. Now this is probably why you guys see a lot of seven second videos or five second videos going viral. Because people are spending time on them, you're not having to keep their attention for very long. Now I'm not saying to do this all the time because you can only provide so much value in six seconds. Sometimes you do need a 30 second reel, sometimes you do need a 30 second video. But if you want to hack that algorithm and get more engagement and get more watch time, then make your video a little bit shorter. There are times though that I will spend longer on a video and lately I've actually been spending about 12 to 15 seconds because I'm doing more talking videos lately. I feel like they're connecting with my audience, they're getting better views for me and I think it's cuz it's me talking and people recognize me at this point and I have a bigger following. If I was someone just starting out and no one knows who I am, I don't have a following yet. I would probably start with shorter videos first just to like get them used to me and then, you know, start doing those more educational, longer videos. Another caveat to that is if you're doing like a tutorial or you're teaching someone how to do something, of course you might need to take longer to do that. And so if you're a fresh account and you want to be known for your tutorials and you want to actually show things that don't. Course, take your time with your video. Don't. This is not me saying to only do short video. This is just me saying be picky with how long you spend on your videos. The next algorithm signal is likes. And I've noticed this too. I've been looking around, doing my research at posts lately, and, like, I'll see a video with like a million views and it's actually really funny. Love it. And I'll just look at the engagement on it. And I'm seeing like 1200 likes and maybe 300 comments. And I think that's just everywhere. People are commenting less and less right now. Even if I see a video and I love it, sometimes I don't want to say anything. Sometimes I just like it. And does that mean me not commenting? Does that mean I didn't like it as much? No. Like, I just laughed at. I think her name is Mandy. She makes the funniest videos. I just laughed at one of her videos and watched it several times and I just liked it. I didn't comment on it. So I guess what I'm trying to say here is likes are definitely holding more weight than comments, and he explicitly said it in the video. So likes act as a clear indicator of audience interest and appreciation, particularly, particularly among your followers. Instagram prioritizes content that receives more likes because it suggests your existing audience finds it valuable or relatable for posts aimed at your current followers, which is called connected content, which we'll talk about in a little bit. Likes are the primary metric influencing reach. So what that means is for your current followers, as long as you can get them to like your content, that's a good sign to the algorithm. So you don't have to focus on comments, just get them to like it. Get them to tap when followers engage with your post by liking it, Instagram is more likely to show it to a greater percentage of your audience. I'll talk about what connected and unconnected content is in a minute. Let me go to the third algorithm signal first. The third one is sends or shares, which last summer Instagram had sends as their number one algorithm signal, which is funny that it's changed now. Like the number one is watch time. Sins are when you share something with someone, you send it in the dm, you send it to a friend. What that means is you're sending this private content, you're forwarding it in a direct message. You're tagging someone because it means something to you. This metric is especially important for reaching new audiences. Unconnected content they say when people send your content, it signals to Instagram that the post has broader appeal beyond your immediate followers. This increases the likelihood of Instagram amplifying your content through the Explore page, or recommendations introducing it to users who aren't yet following you. So let's talk about connected content and unconnected content. There's two different audiences. The first one is connected content that's your followers. Likes are the most important sign for them. The more likes your post receives from your followers, the more likely the Instagram algorithm is going to show it to others within your existing audience. This is because like suggest relatability, relevance, or it resonates with your followers. The other type of content is the unconnected content. That's your new audience. So think like connected content. They're connected to you. They're your followers. Unconnected. They're a new audience. They're not connected to you. Sins carry more weight for content being shown to new users. When your content is shared, it demonstrates broader appeal and relevance outside of your follower base, prompting Instagram to showcase it through the Explore or other discovery features. So hopefully you guys are kind of understanding the difference between the two. What you can do with this information is that you can tailor your content strategy to either deepen engagement with your current audience or you can focus on growth by creating shareworthy posts. Right. So if your content is getting a lot of likes, that's good for your current audience. But if your content is getting a lot of shares, then that means the algorithm is probably going to keep sharing it to more and more people. Hopefully that makes sense and helps you kind of visualize all of this. Now, notice that when they're talking about the ranking system with the algorithm, comments weren't mentioned, which I was very surprised on. So I have some intel on that and what I think about that. Mossery has clarified that Instagram's ranking system focuses more on signals like likes, shares, saves, and watch time rather than comments. This means that the platform doesn't prioritize posts with the highest comments, which I'm very surprised by because I feel like it takes more out of you to write a comment than to share it. The share button is one button. The like button's one button. But commenting, you're spending more time on that post. It doesn't make sense. But here's the other side of that. Comments may indirectly influence the performance. Why is that? Because while they're not being explicitly prioritized by the algorithm, you gotta think that people this is increasing their watch time on your post. If they're sitting there on your post writing a comment, right? So that's gonna make them sit there and watch your content. More posts that spark discussions might keep users engaged longer on the platform. If someone spends extra time reading or responding to a comment on a post, of course that's going to increase their total time spent. Makes sense, right? Makes sense. Another note here why I think that comments might not be a priority is that it could be Meta's strategy to deprioritize comment heavy post as to mitigate the spread of division or like controversial content that tends to generate a high volume of comments. So kind of like not necessarily a political thing, but maybe they're not putting as much weight on comments because if you think about it like, controversial content typically will get a lot of people commenting. I know this like when a reel goes viral for me, like super viral, like over a million views, the comments start getting dark, man, they start getting a little scary. People are being mean. And so maybe by not giving explicit weight to comments, Meta is trying to shift the focus more to like, positive, engaging and enjoyable content. And for that I would be grateful and I would appreciate that. So maybe that's why comments aren't as heavy right now. We don't know. Maybe Adam will talk about it more. The thing is, Adam said that this is a new video series, so he's going to keep showing up for us and explaining all of this. And when he does, I'll always be here to kind of break it down for you guys in. In simpler terms. But it. It sounds like they're trying to just figure out the right thing to look at. I know they want TikTok's algorithm so bad. There's been rumors that Meta bought TikTok. I don't know if that's true or not. I get into red and I start reading stuff and I. I don't know if it's true or not, but it sounds like Instagram still hasn't perfected the algorithm and the signals that affect that. So anyways, with all of this, I have some tips to help you maximize your performance on the app for 2025. So five tips. The first one's gonna be focusing on that shareable content. I say it over and over again, but focus on posts that spark curiosity, provide value, or they entertain content that your audience will want to send to friends or colleagues. An example for this could be like how to reels, quick tips, relatable humor. I love posting those or trends with like a universal appeal, right? Like more generic than. Than more specified. My reels that typically go viral are the relatable humor type reels if that gives you any insight. So if you're a funny person or if you can think of some type of even if it's crude humor or dark humor that relates to your industry, try testing it out. And if you want to test it without your current followers seeing it, post it as a trial reel and let it go out to non followers and just see how it performs. Tip number two Optimize for watch time. Hook your viewers in and those first three seconds. Use good captions, bold text and engaging voiceover. Whatever it takes to get that first three seconds zoomed in on them. Keep your reels and videos engaging with storytelling, maybe transitions. If you need a couple of hook ideas on my profile right now I am sharing visual hook ideas. There's two videos on my profile that have been pretty recent videos so I I do think you should go watch those. It's not all about just the text hook that you put at the top of your video, but it's also the visual hook. How are you hooking them in with your video? And then there's also the captions hook. You gotta make sure that your caption those first. That first line, it needs to hook them in too. So it needs to be good. Take your time on that stuff. Next tip I have for y'all. Encourage likes. Give a clear call to action like hey, if you like this post, please double tap hey, if you agree with this, click the like button. Like tell them what to do. You don't necessarily have to say it in the video, but maybe you put that as like a text CT at the end of the reel or end of the carousel or maybe you put it in the caption. Whatever it is, test it. You're gonna have to test that. Sometimes that can come off a little spammy by saying like hey, like this post if you if you resonated with it. So thinking of ways to say that more naturally, we might need to go to ChatGPT and ask like hey, what are some ways to get people to like my content without explicitly saying like this post and then see what ChatGPT gives you. Tip number four use SEO friendly captions and hashtags. I'm still a big fan of SEO. When we are working on content here at the agency for all of our clients, those captions have to explain what's going on in the reel or the carousel. The carousel or the reel needs to have keywords that the algorithm can read it, but it's Very important to make sure that your content can be read by the algorithm so that it can understand and send it to relevant people, bigger audience that is going to be attracted to your content. So that is very important to understand. I actually have a SEO podcast episode. I don't know what episode it is. I feel like it was in the earlier stages. So maybe like maybe within the first 20 episodes of Call Her Creator, there's a SEO specific SEO episode and it is very detailed on what SEO means for Instagram, how to implement into your strategy all that jazz. It's super duper valuable. So go back and listen to that. Tip number five. Engage with your followers through the dms, through the comments, reply to every comment that you get. DM people with thoughtful messages, respond to people. This helps you build a stronger community, stronger connections. I highly, highly suggest. We just started implementing a stronger engagement strategy over on my Call Her Creator account and I'm noticing the growth tick up a little bit from doing that because in the beginning of that account I also had my main account, the Kaitlyn Rhodes. So it was a lot for me to handle both accounts. But now I've got one of my assistants, Alex, helping me manage that and engage with people and we're seeing better results over there. So make sure somebody is home talking to people, replying to people, all that jazz. You can also, if you want to be strategic with your engagement, use keywords or call to actions when you're replying to people and engaging with them. So like there's something that's called like the double dip. So like maybe someone comments on your post and then if you go back and reply to that comment, that's double dipping. You want to ask them a question so that they comment again. That would be triple dipping. But make sure you're, you're fostering those conversations with people, basically. One thing I want y'all to know is that there's gonna be a ton of myths out there, there's gonna be a ton of misconceptions, people spreading rumors on inst about how the algorithm works. At the end of the day, if you really want to understand it, make sure that you're following Adam Mossery. Make sure there's a creator's account on Instagram that you can also follow and they're going to tell us the real deal as far as, you know, algorithm hacks and myths and all that stuff. And you can also follow me, the Kaitlyn Rhodes over on Instagram. I try to stay pretty fact driven with my content. I, my, my degree is actually in journalism, so I know all about fact checking. So don't listen to everything you see on the Internet. Don't don't believe it all. Make sure you're getting credible sources is what I'm trying to say. So just to summarize, for today's episode, focus on creating content optimized for watch time likes and shares. Tailor your strategy depending on whether you're reaching followers that you have now or unconnected audiences. The new the new followers. What I would love for you guys to do is send me a DM with any questions that you might have about the algorithm. I would love to do more research on all this. I can dedicate an episode part two on the algorithm changes or the what the algorithm is favoring. If there's specific questions you have, please feel free to reach out to me. If you liked this episode, please download call her creator so you get alerted each week with a new episode. Love to have you guys here. Love this community and I will see you next week.