In 2024, businesses and brands must remain at the forefront of the constantly changing Instagram landscape. Why? With over 2 billion (with a b) monthly active users and 500 million daily active users, it is the world’s third-largest social media platform, the fourth most-visited website, and the tenth most-searched term on Google. Instagram is where your audience is, but getting lost in the crowd is all too easy.

Understanding how to utilize Instagram and its features to your advantage will keep you from fading into obscurity. Keep reading to discover what happened on Instagram in 2023, how we learned from it, and how to leverage it to grow your business in 2024.

2023’s Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Hashtags

One significant change that you may not have noticed involves the use of hashtags. Before October 2023, posts that included up to 30 hashtags were favored in the algorithm, with the caveat that they were relevant to the post. Now, the Insta algorithm prefers three to five hashtags max. Instead, AI crawls posts, looking for keywords written within the caption. Any hashtags you do use should be attached to the caption (not in the comments) and be even more relevant to the post. 

Videos

While video dominated feeds in 2023 and will continue to do so in 2024, it is now important to do as much video editing as possible within the Instagram app. Avoid editing and creating Reels in other apps like Capcut or even importing them from TikTok. AI can detect where videos were edited, and Reels with a TikTok watermark can cause your Reels to perform poorly. (Hopefully, Instagram updates their in-app editing this year, as its flaws frustrate users.)

Though not a new concept, Instagram prefers vertical videos instead of square or horizontal ones. If you want your Reels to pack a bigger punch, ensure your video dimensions are 9×16! 

Posting Cadence

Late 2023 saw the Instagram algorithm backtrack from favoring fewer weekly posts to boosting the reach of accounts that post daily. It’s 2018 all over again. Daily posting does mean more work, but it also means more overall engagement and reach.

Stories

Another update to Instagram in 2023 involves Stories. Posting 2-5 per day is the sweet spot to maximize the benefits of Stories. Avoid too many Stories a day, which is considered spammy. Too few, or not posting any Stories, makes your account look disengaged. 

Engagement

Engage with engagements to boost engagement. What? Reply to all comments your posts or Reels get, even if they seem like spam. If you get a lot of comments on your posts, reply to as many as you can in the first hour after your post is live. 

New Year, New You (Trends & Changes)

Experts agree that Instagram trends in 2024 will be driven by Gen Z. Their conclusions? Gen Z will prioritize meaningful connections and use social media apps to keep up with their friends and family first and keep up with fashion, music, and tech trends second. 

How they use Instagram will continue to change as well. Gen Z prefers to ‘like’ a person’s Story, send Reels and memes through DMs, and ‘like’ feed posts. Side note: in 2023, Instagram quietly launched a new insight for seeing how many times a post was sent through DM!

Finally, 2024 is Gen Z’s self-improvement era. Their goals of staying healthy, exploring careers, and traveling will drive their Instagram usage. They will be looking for content that supports these goals and provides valuable information for achieving them.

Of course, Gen Z isn’t the only generation on Instagram, though stats show they are the most active group on the app. According to Hootsuite, 85% of Instagram users are younger than 45, and only 2.6% are over 65. Instagram is still the most popular social media platform for Gen Z and millennials, even with all the TikTok hype. Keep reading, and we’ll look at how you can create a content strategy that caters to the right audience for your brand.

Mastering Instagram in ‘24

While all of the information we have just thrown at you may seem overwhelming at first, mastering Instagram in 2024 is all about strategy and, if possible, having a marketing partner (psst, that’s us!) that can devise and implement your strategy, stay on top of 2024 trends, and create content that works for your brand and audience.

Many marketers will say the best way to master Instagram is to understand the algorithm. So, let’s dive in.

The Algorithm – A Quick Guide

Factors influencing what you see on Instagram include:

• Relevance: The algorithm considers your past interactions and preferences to display similar content.
• Engagement: Posts with more likes, comments, and saves are favored and shown to a broader audience.
• Timeliness: Recent posts are prioritized, increasing their visibility.
• Relationship: Your interaction history with content creators influences their posts’ appearance in your feed.
• Frequency: Instagram usage frequency affects the visibility of new posts from your followed accounts.

Clear as mud? Yeah, same. The Insta algorithm we marketers worship is ever-changing, all-knowing, omnipotent, omniscient… okay maybe not, but it is what the app uses to decide what you see most on your feed unless you switch to your “Following” feed. 

The Algorithm + Feed Posts

As a business, knowing what can impact feed post ranking can help you increase engagement and reach. 

Instagram’s algorithm observes all of a user’s actions on the platform, including the posts they engage with and the accounts they interact with, to deliver personalized content. Additionally, the quality of an image or video, the originality of a post, watermarks on images or graphics, violations of Insta’s community guidelines, and reported content can all impact where a post lands in a person’s home feed. Consider these questions while crafting your content and captions:

• Is this post likely to generate likes or comments?
• Does this post offer value worth saving and revisiting?
• Have you included a clear Call to Action (e.g., “Tap the link in my bio”) to encourage profile engagement?

The Algorithm + Reels

How often have we discussed the importance of video on social media? (Answer: the limit does not exist). Hacking the Reels algorithm is significant. 

Like regular feed posts, Instagram prioritizes Reels based on its prediction of what will engage viewers the most, utilizing various signals for content ranking. According to Instagram’s recommendations, brands and creators should aim to craft entertaining, inspiring, or experimental Reels and use creative features such as text, camera effects, or filters.

It’s also essential to avoid sharing low-resolution, blurry, previously posted content, posts with borders, or those repurposed from another application. Reels like this will likely be deprioritized, reducing their visibility across the platform.

Now is an excellent time to remind you to film your videos vertically! 

The Algorithm + Stories

The Instagram Stories algorithm prioritizes content from the accounts users frequently interact with rather than the specific content within a story. The most significant signals the algorithm looks for are:

• Viewing History: How often a user views an account’s stories.
• Engagement History: How frequently a user engages with an account’s stories.
• Closeness: A user’s overall relationship with the story’s author.

Since Stories are short-lived, timeliness isn’t as important for Stories, but it can impact their ranking once a story has been live for 10+ hours. With all that in mind, business accounts should regularly share Instagram Stories – remember, 2-3 per day – that encourage users to engage with the Story, i.e., polls, question stickers, quiz stickers, ‘add yours’ templates, and more.

It’s Simply Strategy

So, with all the info in this blog, you’re ready to get started on your 2024 Instagram strategy, right? We’re with you here, don’t worry. 

Goal

Improve your ranking with the Instagram algorithm and drive more interactions on your content and more eyes on your business.

Plan

Building momentum within your current community can lead to your content being discovered by new audiences. Here are seven effective methods to boost your algorithmic ranking and connect with fresh audiences:

• Regularly post Instagram Reels
• Promote engagement through interactive Instagram Stories stickers
• Foster discussions with captivating captions
• Incorporate relevant hashtags and keywords in your posts
• Encourage followers to include you in their Favorites feed
• Utilize Instagram analytics to identify effective tactics

Implement

First, make sure your business’s Instagram profile is optimized to clearly show your brand identity. Then, pinpoint your target audience demographic. Finally, curate a content calendar. This will include the best times to post, content captions with keywords and hashtags, and high-quality images and videos. 

You don’t have to go it alone.

‘Strategy’ is our first name. We’re pros at it. When you don’t have the resources or manpower to create and implement a consistent digital marketing strategy, we’re happy to step in and partner with you to ensure your business sees social media success. There are plenty of iterations of what a partnership with us looks like. Get in touch with us to see which ones will work best for you in 2024.