Back in 2019, your Instagram feed was a big deal. Fast forward to 2022, social media pros are wondering: Are feed posts even relevant?
How prioritizing Instagram reels has affected the Instagram feed
First of all, there has been a huge decline in engagement since Instagram has prioritized Instagram reels over feed posts.
Since reels have taken the driver’s seat, feed posts are no longer really relevant and have decreased in engagement as reels become more prominent within Instagram. According to Later’s engagement analysis, feed post engagement went down by 44% once reels were introduced in 2020.
How the algorithm works for reels vs feed posts
Instagram prioritizes reach for reels over feed posts – that means, Instagram shows reels to more individual people than it shows feed posts. Here’s how the algorithm ranks reels vs. feed posts to determine which post type will get the most reach:
How Instagram ranks reels:
- Your activity
- Your interaction history
- Information about the post
- Information about the author
How Instagram ranks feed posts:
- Information about the post
- Information about the author
- Your activity
- Your interaction history
What does this mean? The rankings on Instagram are summarized below. Remember that other factors may also affect whether your followers notice your reel or feed post.
1. Activity
Posting various times during the week is key for keeping your account engaged, as this is where the engagement strategy comes in. Responding, liking, comments and interacting with other brands and Instagram users is a way to show Instagram you’re active.
2. Interaction history
Interactions with different accounts, likes, comments, mentions and tags all contribute to how your engagement will increase. The more accounts you interact with on Instagram, the more likely your account will be talked about, resulting in more engagement and followers.
3. Information about the post
This would include your video description, hashtags, audio, captions, geotags and account tags. The more information you can give about your reel the better, that way Instagram’s advanced AI can access your content and feed it into the algorithm.
4. Information about the author
All your information provided will help Instagram gauge whether Instagram users will be interested in your posts.
The key lesson? People are largely served reels based on their activity and participation. Specifically, this involves actions on reels. The so-called “information” of your profile and post is where relevance for in-feed posts begins.
What happens if you ONLY post reels?
So what happens if you only post Instagram reels? Only posting Instagram reels can have a major impact on your Instagram growth and engagement, though there are a lot of factors that come into play when completely removing feed posts from your Instagram strategy.
The takeaway
Although it seems like it might make more sense to only post reels, there are plenty of reasons to keep feed posts in the mix.
Sometimes, engagement-focused feed posts receive more engagement than Reels, and some types of content like business updates still have a place on the feed, but most businesses and creators should be prioritizing Reels and keeping feed posts to a minimum.
If you are interested in learning more about converting to a more “reels-based” Instagram feed, Learn more about what we offer when it comes to reels and customizable packages!
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