Interests, timing, & interaction; these are not only the keys to feeling the love in real life.
They’re also feeling the love (and likes!) when using social media marketing on Instagram.
Lately, “algorithm” has been and become a bad word in the world’s courting with the social site. Just like with potential suitors on our Bumbles and Tinders, we all want to see content we’d actually be interested in, and have our content seen, on Instagram.
Using a combination of user details and ever-changing algorithms, both dating and social networking apps make promises of showing you results catered to the likeliness of your interests and desires, with select-relevant options ranking highest on your feeds or front pages.
Yet, we curse both, flicking and swiping past the duds, the ads, the bots and the completely mismatched content. If you’re a brand, your current and potential customers doing the same. So how can we make sure your content is at least getting a first date with those thumbs?
Believe it or not, you can apply the same rules friends and parents give for online dating.
Have Mutual Interests
One of the major assumptions in social lives and social media is that only the most popular make it to the top of the list; the most liked, the most talked to. WRONG!
Interests, not popularity, make for more relevant connections in life and on Instagram. If there’s a certain niche (or content genre) that peaks the interest of you or your target demographic, like food, your local sports team or fashion, these are the things more likely to be brought to the forefront online or offline, regardless of how many other people like(d) it.
Timing is Everything
Even with mutual interest in place, no matter how cleaned up and well-engaging you or your content are, your potential date (consumer) still has to be looking at the right time, so let’s make sure you’re showing up.
If they’ve logged in at 9PM last night while watching Riverdale, and then again on their lunch break the next day, they’re seeing two re-ordered sets of viewing options.
At 9PM, they would have seen relevancy-ordered content posted previous to that moment and then at noon, they’d be seeing relevancy-ordered content again, but new content posted since 9pm, arranged algorithmically. If it was your suitor piece posted before 9pm and they didn’t happen to see it that night, they’re even more unlikely to see it come that lunch break.
Timing of and between visits is crucial, so it’s important to know when your target market is tapping in, so monitor those graphs in your app insights. (Requires a business profile)
Say Something
Remember being young and secretly crushing on someone, and then the quickest response of anyone’s friends was, “so just go talk to them.” Some of us just sighed and assumed the other person didn’t even know we existed and kept talking to those just already in our circles, and now the same thing is applying to our content.
No matter how many people we meet or network with in real life, we as people have a tendency to gravitate toward going back and talking to those already closest or most interactive with us; the BFFs, the MVPs, the moms and dads, biological or otherwise. Instagram has a similar social structure; no matter how many accounts you tap “Follow” on, it still wants to show you the most relevant content from accounts you show interactive interest in through likes, story watching, searching, commenting and DMing.
Talking to someone in real life can show you care and doing any of the above on Instagram shows that algorithm you’re at least interested, in some capacity, in what they have to say or show.
This is why engagement of your target demographic is so important, especially when they haven’t talked to you first.
If you don’t tap them on the shoulder (IG heart) and drop a nice comment, someone else will, and they’ll be the ones ranking higher in mind and in feed.
With the latest algorithm, relevancy ranking has caused a significant decrease in use of the search function, meaning people are finding what they want, or close to it, in their feeds. What this means for you is: Don’t make people have to search to find you, because they likely won’t try.
Want help with your social (media) relationships? Give us a buzz.