Recently, instagram has added a new update in the application, that let’s you customize instagram feed so that you will only see those posts that you wanted to see or those posts related to that topic that you like.
Generally, instagram uses their own specialized Algorithm for showing posts in the feed and suggestions. As the facebook and instagram belongs to the same company, so overall they use almost same algorithm. Almost all social media platforms have their algorithm that decides which content would be better for what audience. Let’s understand the whole algorithm and see how to customize the feed.
How the algorithm works
Generally algorithm is somewhat that works as a robot which is responsible for deciding the content, for example which post should be shown to which audience. It’s main work is to find relativeness of the content to the audience. There are certain factors which are the key functions of the algorithm. These factors are like location, their likes, their dislikes, the accounts that the audience follow, etc.
Location is one of the factor of the algorithm that uses to show the content to the audience. Those posts or contents that are related to the specific location, are usually shown to related people. This factor is also relevant for showing ads to the users. If you went to a place on a picnic then you may noticed that the ads of the restaurant or a visiting place in that area will be shown often to you.
And that’s the reason why this application requests us permission for location information. Just like ads, the same algorithm is used by posts. When we add some posts to instagram feed, they also ask us for the location of the post i. e. where it is created or which location does it belongs to, etc. However this is optional.
Another factor is the likes. Instagram shows us the those post related to the posts that we frequently hit like. If you like posts related to astrology, then instagram will show you those posts related to that topic. Instagram’s algorithm captures everything that you do on instagram. It helps them to show you most relevant ads.
Another important factor about the algorithm is the accounts that you follow. In the explore feed of the Instagram, it shows the posts related to the accounts that you follow as well as the posts that you like.
How to customize Instagram feed
There are two ways through which you can customize the feed. The way that I’m going to tell is very simple.
- Open instagram app.
- Tap on Instagram label at the top left corner.
- Select favorites.
- Now at top right corner, select the icon.
- Here select the accounts that you want to add into your favorites list.
This is how you can customize your instagram feed by adding your favorite accounts to the your favorite list. Let’s talk about the another way. Usually according to instagram’s algorithm it will show you those topic related posts that you frequently like and the accounts that you follow. If you are not seeing the posts of some creators then go to their profile and hit likes on about 5 to 10 of their posts. Then you will start seeing posts of that creator.
As you can justify which topic related posts that you want to see, you can also justify how your profile grid looks. You can do this by pinning posts in your posts grid. If you still have any doubts related to this topic, then feel free to leave a comment below. You can subscribe to to newsletter to get regular updates.