The Instagram Algorithm has changed again – whats going on?

Let’s talk about the Instagram algorithm.

Last week, Mike and I sat down and did a full review of the Wanderlicious account for everything we posted in the last year. We looked at every single viral reel of ours (we looked at reels that got 300k or more views). There was around 55 of them, so that means I had on average 1 a week. We generally have an understanding of what works well on our account. But things are maybe changing? If you’re interested in this, maybe let me know and I’ll see what I can share from that deep dive!

The Instagram Algorithm in 2024

If you haven’t heard, the Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri has given some recent updates on the Instagram algorithm and if you don’t follow him, you probably should.

Every week Adam Mosseri gives you opportunities to ask questions and he also shares tips on changes that are happening to the Instagram Algorithm and it’s actually super handy to be aware of.

About three weeks ago, Mosseri said he was going to make it easier for smaller Creators to be seen on Instagram because larger Creators seem to get more and attention. I liked this, I thought it was a good thing when I heard it.

Smaller creators historically haven’t gotten their fair share of reach on Instagram, and we want to change that. So we’re making some changes to how we rank recommendations to give smaller creators a better chance of breaking through. We are rolling this out slowly but hope smaller creators start to see the benefits over the coming months.

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram

I fully remember what it was like to be a small creator.

It can be really hard disheartening and challenging especially if you’re posting for a year and barely any of your post gets seen, so I thought great this Instagram is a very good thing. I fully posted for an entire year without anything really happening – I didn’t give up because I have enjoyed travel photography, and now videography too! (This is why it’s important that you only blog about stuff you actually enjoy).

But now I’m not entirely sure if these changes are a good thing.

Two weeks ago, the Instagram algorithm changed and it’s definitely not better for larger Creators and I’m not sure if it’s better for smaller Creators either! .

Instagram has a history of copying what TikTok does.

I’m under the impression with the new algorithm changes it’s showing a lot of your posts to people that aren’t actually your audience first. It’s starting to show your videos to people that don’t follow you first.

The problem is is if Instagram tries to become TikTok then they’re direct competitors from each other and I’m not sure this is the best thing. Yes it’s great if your content gets seen by an external audience but a lot of my content is only partially being seen by my current audience.

So it begs the question, does actually having a following matter if your audience doesn’t see your reels?

I posted this a few weeks ago. Here’s some of the responses, now this could be a temporary dip!

Maybe it’s gone back up!

This doesn’t seem to apply for photos as much. META confirmed with me – photos are mostly for your followers, reels are for followers and an external audience. There are exceptions to this rule, but it’s a generalisation across the platform.

If you can remember I had a meeting with META (the company that runs Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp) and they set up the Creator Programme.

They invited people to speak to creator managers who would give you lots of tips and advice on how to beat the Instagram algorithm. I published a full guide on the meeting I had – have a look at the Instagram algorithm summary.

I felt it was only fair this was given to me for free and I intend to share it with you free too. I think this guide is still relevant for all the tips on the Instagram algorithm.

I have historically created reels that I think my audience are interested in for example hidden gems, road trip ideas, places you can’t miss, photography tips, travel entertainment etc. but things that used to typically do super well with my audience aren’t being shown to them – my reels get shown to random people, and then sometimes later by my followers.

I actually think this is going to make it harder for videos to go viral.

When we did the analysis on my Instagram account and worked out every viral video we’ve had in the last year. We had a total of 54 viral videos (a viral video is something we classed as over 300,000 views or more) equates to viral video per week.

So it’s safe to say I feel like I understand my audience and what they want to see and what kind of hidden gems they might be interested in. My content hasn’t really changed and it basically now means that every single video needs to be viral worthy or it’s very unlikely to get seen.

So what’s the solution?

It’s time to start building up your community. Community is EVERYTHING, and it can’t be understated.

You can’t rely on the changes to the Instagram algorithm. There’s more things you can do below, but let’s talk about community for a sec.

How does one build up a community? Well. It’s easier than said than done.

But honestly, it’s time to go back to the basics. Social media is about connections. I’m travelling with ONE person full time (Mikeyyy), but I feel very connected to many people because I’m sharing travel tips constantly, and I get 1000 more tips back. I’m always having great conversations with many of you and I’m really pleased with the community I’ve built!

Start having more meaningful conversations online. Interesting ideas. Align yourself with other people that have the same interests as you.

If you’re a Swiftie, share your favourite songs, favourite memorabilia, Swiftie memory.

If you love photography tips, start thinking outside the box on how you want to share that with your community, so that they check in on your account EVERY DAY.

Be one of the reasons why people click onto Instagram, because they’re super keen to learn about your next update, or your next trip!

Do videos need to go viral?

Honestly, no they dont. There are many creators that I know that produce ‘non-viral’ videos, but make videos that are deeply aesthetically pleasing, artistic, beautiful.
They get jobs and work through their quality of photographs & videography.

I know creators that make videos that provide helpful tips, or tell stories, so people follow along and are invested in that space.

I also know other creators that have created a safe space for women to solo travel or go hiking together. Solo women will specifically go to THAT INSTAGRAM PAGE to find when the next group trip is for weekends away. They don’t have many viral videos, but they do have 20k+ of women that are every day checking in – that’s better than temporarily going viral, in my opinion, because you’ve created a community of people that are invested.

things you can do to boost your IG

Instagram Algorithm Basics

Firstly, have you read my free guide on the Instagram algorithm? Those are the basics, and I keep seeing people posting things/hashtags that are no longer relevant or seriously limiting the reach of your post. Like posting 30 hashtags (stop doing this). Read the full guide!

Have your own voice & style

Having your own voice and style is so important. I see a lot of creators without a clear style/voice/tone – and I think that can be confusing for a follower. Sometimes people I follow pop up on my stories and I can’t tell who it is. I can’t identify why I followed this person. This is a clear no no for me!

This doesn’t mean showing your face on your IG all the time, but your account needs to have a theme or style. Some people always start their stories with the same cup of tea, the same colour theme / same colour text, the same view out their window… whatever it is, people have to recognise you, otherwise you have no community and people can very quickly disassociate from whatever you’re doing.

Threads

You need to be on Threads. Creators have been told by Meta that you need to be on Threads. How true this is, I’m not sure, but I’ve heard it a lot, and I believe it.

What’s Threads, you might ask?

It’s essentially Instagram’s version of Twitter (now X).

I actually quite like Threads now, at first it was a bit chaotic, but all of your followers from Instagram are imported, so all the same people that follow you on IG are on Threads too (you have the option of not doing this if you don’t want). It’s the same community.

You need to be building on that. I would advise sharing things that aren’t on your Instagram, so people have a different reason to follow over there. Share behind the scenes, ideas, funny anecdotes.

Follow Adam Mosseri on there too for good updates!

Instagram Stories

I have a full guide to Instagram stories which I sell for £20, I did some trial and error with improving story views over 6-8 months. Stories are a really important way to connect with your community – I strongly recommend this being part of your IG strategy if you’re interested in pushing towards a full time creator.

Longer form content

This hasn’t been confirmed officially (anywhere that I’ve seen), but I have seen screenshots from other creators where Instagram has encouraged posting longer form content.

What’s long form content?

Apparently, 30 seconds or more for IG.

It was a coincidence that I had just posted some long form content – I had 2 videos over a minute long go viral (they were both around 70 seconds long, to be exact). 6 million views and 1.9 million views. Now, yes, the destinations were interesting, and (hopefully) I added value with my videos, but I wondered if they were also given a push, what with it being a longer video.

Some of my long form content does super well, some of it does average, but at the end of the day, all of my reels get saves, and I know that I’m helping some people make travel choices, and that’s a win for me!

Other recent IG updates

Repost Accounts that steal content

99.9% of us are sick of accounts that steal our content. It’s EXTREMELY frustrating. Companies need to start paying for content, they can’t simply steal photos and videos. It’s why I add ‘copyright’ to all of my posts (even though by default, all my photography is copyrighted, because I took it).

I see a lot of my photography and videography being used to promote other accounts or other brands which is simply not ok.

It drives me crazy, and I know lots of other creators hate it too. We’ve been complaining about it for years, and they’ve finally done something about it!

Instagram is now identifying ‘aggregator accounts’ (repost accounts). Every time an aggregator account reposts your photos and videos, Instagram will find your original video and replace the reach with it.

I posted about some major changes to ranking that will affect both craters and aggregators this morning: we’ve started to replace a post that we’re recommending with the original one, if we can find it, and we are going to stop recommending posts from aggregators over the next few months. We doing plan to demote posts from any aggregators you follow.

Adam Mosseri

That’s it from me! Did you find this helpful? Is there anything I missed? Let me know and I’ll keep up to date 🙂

Have a look at my other social media tips whilst you’re here!