Are you a digital media marketer? If so, Instagram has to be your top preference. With plenty of brands spread over Instagram, where each unique shares content, it becomes essential for you to learn how to increase your reach.
And that is where the Instagram Explore page comes into the picture. Getting featured on the explore page is a sure shot to increase the visibility of your posts significantly. It creates a trending effect and acquires automatic Instagram likes that instantly boost engagement in a short period. Regrettably, there is no perfect way to get on to this page. But with some effort, you could increase the opportunities for your posts to reach the explore page.
What is an Instagram Explore Page?
The Instagram explore page is the one where Instagram garners content from the users. Every user would see multiple contents on the explore page, and it depends on the posts they like and the users they follow. In simple terms, it is a set of posts that Instagram believes you may be interested in.
The website UseViral has stated that above 50% of users make use of the Instagram explore page. That counts a massive number of people. The platform has over a billion users, which means 500 million users actively check the Explore page.
Yet, how does Instagram determine which post to appear on the page? The Instagram algorithm determines it, and it considers factors likes,
- Posts liked by the people you follow
- Posts with higher engagement
- Those posts from profiles are similar to the ones you already follow.
Instagram revamped its Explore page in the middle of this year. Filters have been added at the top of the page to find specific content that they will enjoy. They also pegged IGTV and Shop as the first two filters to appear. Following that are topic-specific channels, and Instagram has begun to roll out Stories on the Explore page for some accounts.
Benefits of Getting Featured On the Explore Page
By now, it should be evident that getting featured on the Explore page has one obvious benefit: more people will view your content. That, in turn, can provide you with a slew of other advantages:
- Higher people can now see your content, which means more engagement on the post highlighted on the Explore page.
- There is a rise in followers because individuals who see your profile on the Explore page may decide to follow you if you like what you have to say.
- Because of the new followers, there will be more engagement on all future posts.
- More conversions with effective CTAs.
How to Get Onto The Explore Page On Instagram?
1. Make a Post When People are Online
Post when your followers are most active is one of the best Instagram suggestions you will ever hear. Because Instagram’s algorithm promotes timeliness as one of the causes for posts to get noticed, and this is excellent advice.
It means that if your post is entirely new, it will appear in your followers’ feeds. You will get higher engagement if you time your posts to coincide with when your followers are most active, which is crucial for getting your posts onto the Explore page.
Thankfully determining when the followers are active is not a challenging task. When you have an Instagram business account, you could step over to the audience area to see when your audience is highly active by the hour and by day. Also, you could employ a social media management platform that offers you these analytics.
2. Identify the Type of Content that your Target Audience Enjoys
It is not just enough to post while your audience is online to make a successful post. You must also ensure that you are sharing content that is both entertaining and valuable. As this is the time you would garner the most significant engagement, your posts are more likely to get featured on the Explore Page of Instagram.
Keep an eye on the type of posts that generate the highest engagement. Is it true that your target audience is more interested in videos than in pictures? Is it true they prefer carousel posts the most? Or Do they like humorous or motivational content? If you could answer these questions, you would have enough knowledge to create the best type of content for your audience at the best times. And that ensures that your posts are well-received.
It is also made a lot easier by Instagram’s native analytics tool. Depending on metrics like reach, interactions, and impressions, you could filter the best performing posts or stories in Insights under the posts section. If you tend to notice a pattern here, great! You may use this information to create compelling posts for your business. Also, remember adopting a social media management platform would give you comparable insights into your postings and engagement.
3. Learn from Posts that are on Explore Page
A strategy that could work best is to check for posts that appear already on Instagram’s Explore page. If you are following Instagram profiles or engaging with posts in your niche, your explore page would display lots of content that the Instagram algorithm gives importance to. The type of content your potential audience would love to watch. If you encounter a post on Instagram’s Explore page that is irrelevant to your niche, the possibilities are the posts have high engagement rates. Bear in mind; you could get to learn something from all of the posts on the Explore page. Have a close look at them, and then try to implement those elements in your posts.
4. Make use of IGTV and Shoppable Posts
A widely accepted fact is that video content performs the best across every other social media platform. Hence it is no wonder that Instagram is giving high importance to the IGTV format. Instagram has also set up an IGTV academy in London to use most IGTV features for its content creators.
The IGTV format has a separate area on the Explore page; it could work well and clipped at the top right corner. Crafting IGTv content could be a good idea for your brand, as it is certain that the Instagram algorithm would give more importance to such type of content in the upcoming years.
Like IGTV, shoppable posts, clipped at the top of the Explore page. Suppose you are a business-to-customer firm, then it is mainly for your business. There are plenty of competitions for these kinds of posts from various brands. Therefore you have to make sure you create excellent posts and share their ideas for acquiring high engagement.
5. Use Hashtags and Location Tags
Hashtags and location tags are practical tools on the platform. Using these tags ensures your posts get noticed by more people on Instagram, which means you would reach people not part of your following. Also, use tags that are relevant to your posts to avoid spamming the content. While using tags, you could significantly increase the engagement rates for your posts, and therefore you would increase your chance of getting featured on the Explore page.
Use these tricks to drive high engagement for your posts and ultimately get featured on the Instagram Explore page.
Author Bio
Mary Kyle is a content developer and marketing manager who works at Snaphappen. She has written more trending articles on social media and has a handful of experience in delivering engaging content.
Categories: Social Media Talk Stuff
