Do you promote your business on Instagram? Good news! Last month, Instagram announced that they were bringing the chronological feed back along with a ‘Favourites’ feed option too. But the ‘normal’ algorithm based feed remains the default option. For sellers, we also offer Instagram shipping solutions to make sending orders easier!

 

What’s New?

Insta will now have three feed options:

• Home - the algorithm feed we’ve known since 2016
• Following - this is Instagram’s original chronological feed
• Favourites - you can curate your Favourites feed by choosing up to 50 accounts you want to see most and Instagram will prioritise content from those accounts

To change feed preferences, just click the Instagram logo in the top-left corner and choose one of the options from the drop down menu.

Instagram’s algorithm has been criticised for favouring influencers, bringing up too many ads, and Facebook even found it to be toxic for mental health, especially in young people. While the algorithm-dictated feed will still be the default setting, some think the chronological feed is a step back in the right direction.

Instagram have also said the ‘Home’ feed isn’t staying the same, and will be working on improving algorithms so it works even better to bring up the content you want to see based on your interests and cookies. This is why you might be seeing posts from people you don’t even follow on your Home feed.

But what does all this mean for you and your business?

 

Using Instagram’s Home Feed for Business

If Instagram’s algorithm updates actually do give accounts more chance of visibility, then producing good quality content means that your business posts could feature on the homepages of users that don’t even follow you.

This opens up the opportunity for you to reach more people.

Businesses have criticised Instagram before because generally the more time you spend on the platform, the more Instagram will promote your posts. But it just isn’t possible for most small businesses to spend so much time on their social media.

Businesses have criticised Instagram before because generally the more time you spend on the platform, the more Instagram will promote your posts. But it just isn’t possible for most small businesses to spend so much time on their social media.

 

 

Using Instagram’s Following Feed for Business

Anyone who works in social media marketing will remember that back in the day there used to be ‘good’ times to post on Instagram and times where less people were online.

The Following feed means that you can work on the basis of when you post rather than how often. Obviously that just means your posts have a higher chance of being seen, but you still need to post good quality content to get people to engage.

You should be cautious that your followers might not have their feeds set to the chronological version. As with most marketing efforts, open communication with your customers to understand how they consume your content always works best in helping you understand how to market your products best.

 

 

Using Instagram's Favourites Feed for Business

If you can get into your followers' Favourites, you're onto an immediate winner. Users only get 50 favourites so if they choose your business, either they’re very loyal or your posts are so good they want to see them consistently.

The reality is most people won’t change their ‘Favourites’ group too often, favouring posts from family and friends. But as most every day people don’t post consistently, if you do post consistently, you’ll still likely show up where it counts.

A lot of people also won’t use their full 50 favourites, which means what shows up after they’re all updated on their favourite accounts will be algorithm based too.

 

 

How to Get Your Instagram Business Account Seen

Encouraging your followers to add you to their ‘Favourites’ is one way you can try and get a prime spot on their Instagram feed. You could run a competition or giveaway where customers can enter by sending a screenshot of them adding your account to their ‘Favourites’.

Obviously, they could just remove your account from their Favourites afterwards, but if your content is appealing they might not. And who doesn’t love a giveaway?

Hubspot found that brands that used contest marketing gained 34% new fans per campaign.

At the end of the day, you can’t choose which Instagram feed your followers will choose but overall good quality content will always win over posting often or trying to post at certain times. Algorithms and social media are ever-changing so it’s important to create branded content that is consistently appealing, helpful and engaging than it is to try and play the social media system!

If you use Instagram for your business and haven’t set up your Instagram shop yet, we explain how to use Instagram Shoppable here.

And if you ship parcels as part of your business, be sure to take a look at Parcel2Go’s services - we offer the cheapest parcel delivery in the UK from only £2.34 inc VAT! Just enter the measurements of your usual parcels into our free quote tool and find out how much you could save on business delivery.