You + the Algorithm: an enemies to lovers story

 

In my last blog post, we talked about how to identify your target audience. Once you’ve identified who you are trying to reach and what kind of content will attract them, it’s time to dig into how to use the Instagram algorithm to get that content in front of them.

 

I recently worked with a debut romance author struggling to find her target audience.

 

We did a deep audit of her content and found that she was not using her stories as effectively as possible. Because she hadn’t optimized her story content for her dream community, her viewers were clicking and swiping through it.

 

From what we know about the algorithm, the lack of interaction with her stories meant banished content that dropped to the bottom of her audience’s story feeds. 

 

So we dug deep into her target audience and what kinds of stories they would find engaging. She started posting thoughtful content that gave her community a deeper look into who she was, her author journey, and what her books were all about.

 

Her ideal followers began to engage with her stories, and the algorithm bumped them back up in her viewers’ story feeds. The result? Her audience became more invested in her journey, book sales increased, and her overall content engagement went up.

 

The Algorithm + Target Audience 

 

As you can see, knowing your target audience is the first step. (If you need some help identifying them, this blog post digs deeper into that.) The second step is understanding the algorithm.

 

When you take what you know about your ideal bookish community and fuse it with an understanding of how the multiple Instagram algorithms work (yep, there is more than one!), you end up with a clear path to reaching your people. 

 

You know, the ones who follow, engage, repost, read your books, share your content, and sing your praises to their bookish friends. 

 

Wait, There’s More Than One Algorithm?

 

Has the algorithm ever felt like a confusing, ever-changing mystery to you? 

 

When your bookstagram or authorgram starts to feel like screaming into the IG void, it’s easy to view the algorithm as your enemy. 

 

I know firsthand the ever changing algorithms can feel very frustrating. (reach has dropped across the board in Q1 2024)

 

But the truth is that when you understand how the algorithm(s) works and know how to put that knowledge to work for you, it can become a great ally. 

 

So, if you’ve been hating on the Instagram algorithm, prepare for your very own enemies-to-lovers story because I think that’s about to change.

 

The first thing you should know is that Instagram has several different algorithms, and they each function in a slightly different way.

 

There is one algorithm for feed posts and stories, one for the explore page, and one for reels. 

 

The idea is that Meta wants every user to get a highly personalized experience on the app.

 

This is good news for you because a deep understanding of your target audience will help you get your content in front of the right people at the right time.

 

So let’s take a peak behind the scenes into how these algorithms work. 

 

What Factors Do The Instagram Algorithms Look At?

 

The Instagram algorithm (with its sub-algorithms) is highly intuitive. To understand how to use it to attract your ideal viewers, it’s helpful to first understand how it’s analyzing your IG activity. 

 

Here’s an overview of what types of factors IG looks at to determine what you see. Keep in mind, these factors weigh in a bit differently for stories and feed, reels, and the explore page. 

 

Post Information And Popularity

The popularity of a post is mostly determined in terms of likes. But there are other minor details tracked here across all the algorithms, such as post timing, duration (in the case of reels), and location (if any). 

 

Likes, comments, and saves are an even bigger deal for the explore page algorithm than for the feed and stories algorithm. (As you can tell by that one time you binged Taylor Swift reels, and they stuck around forever after that… just me?)

 

Post popularity data is factored in a bit differently with the reels algorithm because (as you’ve noticed when making them) there is a lot going on in a reel. So, this metric tracks details such as audio tracks and playtime, as well as popularity. 

 

All these elements are used to rank content on the explore page appropriately and get them in front of an audience IG believes will be the most interested in them. 

 

This means that your content will likely be seen by viewers who will love it. (ie. your target audience)

 

Information About The User Who Posted The Content 

To get a sense of how intriguing an IG account (or user) might be to you, Instagram considers signals like how often other people have interacted with their content in recent weeks.  

 

This helps the algorithms find high-quality content from a wide range of users. So if you needed another reminder of why engagement is so vital to growing your community, here it is.

 

While the popularity of an account and its content is an important factor in determining where a video is ranked on your reels page, the reels algorithm works to give everyone an equal chance to find their audience. 

 

That means even new or less popular accounts have a chance at being featured.

 

Information About The Viewer

This is where IG looks at how many posts you (as the viewer) have liked, commented on, saved, and/or shared recently and what types of content you typically engage with.

 

The explore page algorithm (as seen with the Taylor Swift reels example) takes a good long look at content you’ve interacted with in the past. 

 

And, (just like you do with a new reader) it very enthusiastically finds similar content to share and recommend. 

 

For the reels algorithm, this metric considers reels you’ve interacted with recently to get a better understanding of the content that might be relevant to you. So, like the explore page, the more you interact with reels, the more that algorithm understands your taste.

 

Interaction History

Finally, we have Interaction History, which IG looks at to determine your general interest in seeing content from a specific user. This is based on signals like whether or not you comment on their posts and vice versa. 

 

This also factors into the reels, and explore page algorithms. Even though the content there may not be from people you follow if you’ve ever interacted with their content before, the odds are, you’ll be seeing them around again.

 

If this all feels a bit dystopian, don’t worry—the algorithm isn’t stalking you (or is it?) Either way, in this case, it’s (mostly) a good thing.

 

A Note About The Explore Page And Reels

Clicking over to the explore or reels page is like going on a mini adventure from the safety of your own bed, sofa, back yard, place of work, or kid’s school concert (no judgment). 

 

Essentially they are great places to go when you want to find new people to follow or content that you’ll be interested in.

 

As you know, reels are one of the easiest ways to reach new people on IG. This is because, the reels algorithm supposedly works to give everyone an equal chance to find their audience. 

 

So don’t worry if you have a smaller or newer account. Posting reels will give you a chance to reach a wider audience.

 

Another cool thing that the reels algorithm does specifically is predict how likely a viewer is to watch the reel until the end and then engage with it. 

 

It also looks at audio clips and how likely a viewer is to visit that audio page. This is one reason why choosing the right audio for your reels is somewhat important in attracting viewers with similar tastes.

 

IG Algorithm Cheat Sheet

 

Let’s break it down one more time.

 

There are three IG algorithms: one for stories and feed, one for reels, and one for the explore page.

 

These three algorithms look at four different categories of data to determine what content a user is most likely to interact with. 

 

These four factors are: 

 

• Post info and popularity (likes, comments, post time, location, shares, audio clips, reel length…)
• Information about the user who posted the content (mainly looks at how often other users interact with their content.)
• Information about the viewer (measures content they’ve interacted with in the past and what type of content they are most likely to interact with in the future)
• Interaction history (tracks interactions between two users to determine where their content will rank on each other’s feeds)

 

Attract Your Ideal Bookstagram Community Using The IG Algorithm

 

I know that is a lot of info, so let’s recap takeaways. 

 

The IG sub-algorithms track how long each user spends looking at different types of posts (stories, feed, reels…), and what ones they comment on, save, like, or visit the profile for. 

 

These algorithms look at data such as likes, comments, posting time, audio tracks, playtime, location, saves, specific interactions, and more.

 

With this information, they predict how likely a user is to interact with future posts. IG then curates a stream of content specifically based on what that user is most likely to find enjoyable and engage with. 

 

This is why it is important that you know exactly who your target audience is, what they are looking for, and what they are most likely to interact with.

 

Because when you have that in mind, paired with a knowledge of the metrics IG is using to populate their feeds, stories, explore pages, and reels, you can create content that is as curated to them as the Instagram algorithm is to their viewing habits. 

 

If you want to go deeper, Bookstagram 101 dives into identifying and attracting your target audience, using the algorithm, building an engaged community, monetizing your account, and a whole lot more to help you build the bookish IG of your dreams.