How to Grow on Instagram (without focusing on the algorithm)

The popular question on Instagram: How do I grow when the algorithm changes every day? Do I post today? Do I post tomorrow? How many posts do I post? Should I go live on my stories? Should I go live at all? You get the idea.

Our advice: start using the I.R.R formula.

The I in I.R.R stands for interest.

Every time you post, ask yourself this question: “Is this follower going to be interested in this type of content?” When you focus your content back on the audience or client, your whole game will change.

Now, you might be asking yourself, how do I find out what type of content my follower is interested in? First, look at your top 5 posts on Instagram and use the app’s analytics to study what most people will click on and read through. Second, look at your stories. Figure out which stories receive the most views and the type of content that receives most attraction.

The second R in I.R.R stands for recency.

Instagram favors the recent post, so the quick answer is to post daily. Or, as often as you can. I know it can be very overwhelming, but it builds on to the “know, like, and trust” factor for your audience. This can be a little tricky at first, so the hack is to switch on and off between three different things.

You can start by posting on your stories as it is extremely easy and simple to do every day. The beauty of stories is that you can share your post, someone else’s post or even do a boomerang! Keep it simple. Don’t overthink. And make it personable.

The next thing you can do is to post on your feed, like an Instagram reel, and then you can post on IGTV. You can even save the IGTV preview on your feed, so it looks like you’re active every day. But in reality, you’re only posting twice on your feed and every day on your stories.

The third R in I.R.R stands for relationship.

Do your followers interact with you on Instagram? If not, there are two ways that you can force interaction and relationship.

The first aspect is to just engage! Engage with your audience! But when you do, make sure that you engage authentically.

The second aspect is to encourage authentic community. The way you can do this is just by responding to your dms, comments, and stories.

As long as you remember the I.R.R method, you’ll do great! Just follow these three steps and you’ll be tackling the Instagram Algorithm in no time.

Have questions? DM us on Instagram!