Over the past weekend I travelled to Vidcon Australia which was being hosted at the Melbourne Convention Centre. I was sent there by my workplace Koala to attend the industry panels so I could learn more about how to create meaningful, and impacting ads. But one of the best takeaways from the panels were what I learnt from a creator’s standpoint. So without further ado, here is what I learnt about Instagram, and being a creator:
Will Instagram ever bring back chronological order?
No. Jackson Williams, the Strategic Partnerships, and Emerging Talent Manager at Instagram hosted an Instagram Workshop, and outwardly stated that chronological order will never return to Instagram.
Why?
Because the way the posts are ranked, and shown have actually increased post engagement by 50% as the posts shown to you earlier are algorithmically more in tune to your interests.
How does Instagram rank posts in the algorithm?
Instagram ranks posts according to 3 factors: Visibility, Reach, Engagement.
Pretty much, if you keep checking someone’s account, and even if you don’t engage with their posts, Instagram will keep showing their posts to you because you’ve shown interest. If a creator has a lot of followers, their posts are pushed to the top. And of course, if you engage with someone’s posts a lot, you’ll see their posts more often.
You are also shown different posts depending on how often you’ve been using the app! So if you regularly scroll through Instagram, you will be shown only really new posts that you haven’t seen or engaged with. But if you only go on the app every few days, that’s when you’ll start seeing posts from a few seconds to a few days ago.
Is shadow banning real/Am I being shadow banned?
Jackson Williams had a good chuckle over this one, and stated that shadow banning is 100% not real.
For those who don't know what shadow banning apparently is, it is the hiding of your posts by Instagram after you've done actions they don't approve of: exceeding 350 likes per hour, follow/unfollowing account growth method (yuck, don't do this), using bots, and using banned hashtags.
But as stated, shadow banning has been confirmed by Instagram's representative Jackson Williams that it doesn't exist. Like, at all.
Does the type of account you have impact your engagement?
No. There is no preference of business, or personal accounts in terms of how your posts are ranked. However, I do recommend all creators to have a business account as you have access to your Business Analytics which enables you to provide brands, and agencies your audience demographics.
Is branded content ranked worse?
No. If you have a brand listed as a partner, or use the #ad #spon #sponsored hashtags, you will not be penalised in your post ranking.
What’s the best way to keep your account safe from hackers?
Two step authentication all the way! Currently it is set to only have a code sent via mobile phone, but they are rolling out email authentication as well. This means it requires 2 steps: the password, and a code, to log in.
I hope this helps!