Getting your Instagram profile onto the Explore page is quite a big deal and as you can imagine, many good things start to happen if you manage to pull it off. It’s like striking gold in the sense that there are no guaranteed formulas to make it happen but with enough hard work, some trial and error and a solid social strategy, your odds do tend to improve significantly.
What is the Instagram Explore page?
If you are not aware already, it’s a page on Instagram that shows you photos, videos, stories and products that are handpicked just for you, the user of the app, based on the people you already follow and the posts you like. This is done in an effort to encourage you to like, follow or buy things that the algorithm thinks you might like.
According to Instagram’s blog, the explore page is visited by over 50% of Instagram account users every month. The feed relies on Instagram’s algorithm to show relevant and interesting posts to visitors. The algorithm considers the following:
- Interest
- Relationship
- Timeliness
- Frequency
- Following
- Usage
Instagram decided to update the Explore page in 2019 by adding a helpful navigation bar at the top of the screen to feature shortcuts, making it easier for users to navigate through different interests and topics that they enjoy. Some of the topics include Nature, Travel, Fashion, Home, Food, Beauty, Science and Technology, etc. They also added IGTV and Shopping.
What are the benefits?
Basically, if your Instagram post or story manages to get onto the Explore page, many more people will be exposed to your content, even the ones that don’t follow you. It’s like free advertising in a way. When this does happen, you can expect to see,
- Significantly higher engagement on the post or story that is featured
- New followers (these are people who will take the time to check out your page to see if they like your brand as a whole or not).
- Continuous increased engagement going forward due to new followers
- An increase in conversions (you need to include a call to action on your profile)
Okay, so now that we have dealt with the burning questions, it’s time to move on to the how.
1. Post when the majority of your followers are online
This should always be a consideration, especially if you want to maximise your reach as far as possible, organically speaking.
Timeliness also plays a part here, if your post has just been sent out, the Instagram algorithm will prioritise it and show it to more of your followers. High reach increases your likelihood of high engagement which is the first step in getting onto the Explore page.
2. Learn and adjust accordingly
Look at already high performing posts found on the Explore page in your industry to see what they are doing differently. Your own explore page should provide some insights into how they are getting it right and who their audiences are.
This way you can get a sense of what Instagram’s algorithm favours the most. If you see a post on your Explore page that has nothing to do with your interests whatsoever, the algorithm might be favouring it because of its high engagement.
You can use social listening to analyse and break up all of the elements that make that particular post so favourable in the eyes of the algorithm and apply them in your own way to your posts to see improvement.
3. Study your page’s analytics
Analysing your insights will allow you to identify what is already working and what isn’t. Consider what resonates with your audience the most and continue to do those things as well as change the posts that receive little to no engagement by experimenting with different combinations, using what you know works based on the social listening that you did.
If you can get your audience to leave a like or a comment on a regular basis, the engagement should be enough to start pushing your posts closer and closer towards the Explore page.
4. Make shoppable posts pop
If you are a B2C brand and you aren’t making use of shoppable posts already, you need to start now! This newly added Explore page feature is a true game-changer for everyone who owns a business in the e-commerce market.
This amazing platform recently announced that it will be expanding access to more businesses, with the inclusion of creators who wish to sell their own merchandise. There are just a few guidelines that interested businesses need to agree to follow before they get started.
In order for your product to make it onto the Explore page, your posts need to be flawless, eye-catching and enticing to audiences. Make sure to tag featured products in your posts so that shoppers can easily see the price of items when they tap the screen.
5. Buy an ad
Instagram Explore page ads are now available. Instagram has decided to try a different approach this time by choosing to display the paid ad to a user only after they click on a post or a video that is featured on the Explore page so as not to be overly intrusive.
But be mindful that paying for an ad doesn’t make it that much easier to get the attention of your audience. You still need to put in the effort to make your ad look good and relevant. So while this method may solve your reach problem quickly, it doesn’t fully eliminate all the hard work that is required to catch the attention of your intended audience.
