Increase your Instagram reach with these 3 simple tips

Your popularity on Instagram is tied to your reach first, not your content. Why? Because even if you have the best content in the world, if no one sees it, did you even post it? You can increase your Instagram reach by consistently adopting a few of Instagram’s features.

Why your Instagram reach might be low

These are a few of the reasons why you should be concerned about your reach. It’s easy to get discouraged and assume that no one cares about your content. You can remind yourself daily that you’ve done the work; you deserve love for it! Don’t worry too much, we will look at ways you can increase your Instagram reach in this article.

Three reasons your content might not be shown to your followers as much as it did before include:

• If you haven’t posted on Instagram in a while
• You’ve posted content that doesn’t interest your audience
• You haven’t interacted with your followers

How to increase your Instagram reach

1. Post Instagram Reels once a day

Post Instagram Reels once a day to ensure your Instagram posts are seen by as many people as possible.

Instagram Reels are a way to post multiple images at once. This is different from a slideshow, so they must be posted as separate images.

They are uploaded through the Instagram app, and can include as many photos as you want within the five-minute time limit.

Instagram Reels are a new feature to Instagram, and Instagram is increasing the reach of content through this feature to encourage adoption.

The photos included in your Instagram Reel will be featured on your profile, and a link to a page with all the photos will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube like it does with any regular content.

2. Post 3-5 Instagram Stories each day, with one being interactive

Instagram Stories are used by over 500 million people each day and over 85% of Instagram users view content posted as part of Instagram Stories.

Even if you aren’t crowd-sourcing data for the next big decision you want to make, involving your audience increases your engagement. Engagement is one of the key factors to increase your Instagram reach.

Stickers are cute but they don’t get the user to do anything. Include a poll or a question and answer to encourage users to take an action. Instagram sees engagement as a factor of interest by your audience, so any action taken tells Instagram that people are paying attention to your content and are interested in what you are sharing.

Pro tip

Don’t post all of your Instagram Stories back-to-back. Post one, then wait a few hours and posted another and repeat this pattern. Each time you post an Instagram Story, your icon moves further towards the front of the sequence of Stories in a user’s app.

If a user views all of your stories back-to-back, that’s one Story open. If the viewer opens your Story five times in one day, that’s 500% more interest in Instagram’s eyes. Posting multiple times over a longer period of time will increase the chances of a new open rather than one open that leads to a bulk-browse.

3. Use Instagram Live to talk about your newly posted content

Spend five minutes on Instagram Live each time you post something new to your main content feed.

The amount of time during which the Live feature is visible will depend on your followers’ settings and what they have selected for notifications.

But Instagram Live content always appears before Instagram Stories. That means that if you are live, you shown to all of your followers, regardless of if your Instagram Story is prioritised as part of their algorithm. This can lead to the reactivation of followers that are not served your content anymore.

If they open your Instagram Live, it increases your chances of your Instagram Stories and Instagram feed content being served higher in their algorithm.

You can use Instagram Live to talk about what you posted – whether that’s what settings you used for your photo, what pencils you used to make your sketch, anecdotes about the content you posted… the opportunities are endless.

The key to increase your Instagram reach is to be consistent. Do this for long enough and you should increase your Instagram reach slowly over time.