The new Instagram Algorithm.....

The New Instagram Algorithm is here. This is how it works!

Instagram gave tech reporters a complete rundown on how their new algorithm works. Transparency about interfacing with the user community of brands and image creators being the main focus. After revealing a few highlights last year this time they gave in-depth insight about the way their system organizes content to the users advantage.

There are three elements which are crucial within the system which are :

Interest

Predicting if users are interested in and interact with each post is a primary feature of the algorithm. With it comes the new image recognition functionality in the tool which registers the frequency of unique user engagement with visual content of the same category.

Timeliness

When users saw a lot of dated content in their feeds they were really disappointed. Instagram improved the algorithm and gave users the option to update their feed in the new update which they released in march of 2018.

Relationship

The connection to the maker of the post is crucial, which depends on whether they tagged eachother or were tagged by a mutual connection. Or otherwise responded to posts, tags and direct messages.

Facebook has the functionality in place to search for certain objects due their image-recognition tool and they keep getting better at it.

Reaching a target audience with a post will demand a whole new approach from marketers. Three important markers from the brief were:

• There is no going back to the chronological timeline.

• Depending on user behavior either images or video posts will appear in your feed.

• To make sure other users won't see a bulk of your content at one point in time, content of other users will appear intermittently and there won't be any sanctions for posting to much at the same time.

Another interesting feature Instagram has added are the content channels. Which by means of visual recognition selects content and categorizes images accordingly.

Even though an algorithm feed was the last thing users wanted, on the contrary they feared losing grip of their feed, user data proved otherwise.

Instagram’s new algorithm provides an engaged time increase of their total user base from around 21 minutes spent per day to 24 minutes per day, Let’s not forget it has 800 million active users. Which means monetizing those users with ads is a huge opportunity.

Data shows that in the age group of people under 25 this is even 32 minutes per day on average.

Even though there are still many improvements needed, Instagram as well as Facebook are implementing comparable visual tools. Due to its focus on visual content Instagram is an ideal platform for image search.

Since Image search is already rooted in the algorithm. The improved Explore display set up categorizes content in topic channels.

By being excellent at analyzing signals of human interaction and visual recognition, algorithms will continue to impact the way content presents itself to us. They are exponentially improving their capacities of reading user behavior to the benefit of the users. Even if some users dislike what algorithms show you, the figures are crystal clear.

Therefore it is the next logical step for other platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn to create algorithms which resemble the one Instagram uses.