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Current Algorithm Trends — March, 2024

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Things NOT to do:

1. Don’t expect hashtags to get your reels viral. You can use 3-5 hashtags that are extremely specific to your
content and niche. But it will only work as keywords so it might get you a couple of views from “Search
results” i.e. if anyone searches for those keywords in the search bar.
NOTE: If you’re a LOCAL business, then use local hashtags, it can help you.

2. Don’t use weird SEO keyword stuffing tricks. Even that wont help your reels get viral. Hiding keywords in the
video is really stupid! You can fill the caption with relevant keywords though, it might help the algorithm to
categorize your content.

3. NEVER enter an engagement group. It will kill your account! You will never be able to build a community that
way. Just the fake engagement.

4. Likes and comments are a by product. You will get those if your content is good and Instagram knows that. So,
the algorithm doesnt prioritize that. So don’t expect your content to get viral if you optimize it for likes and
comments.

Things to do:

1. ‘SHARES’ is the best metric to optimize your content for. After creating multiple viral reels for myself and my
clients, I have noticed this one metric to be an important factor in determining whether your reel is gonna get
viral or not. So you really need to know your audience very well, and create reels that they find relatable to
drive more and more shares.

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 2. ‘SAVES’ is another very important metric. It tells the algorithm that your content is extremely valuable for your
viewers, so the algo tends to push your content to similar “NON FOLLOWER” audiences. If you know your
audience’s problems and dreams results, you can use this insight to provide genuine solutions to them and get
saves → VIRAL!

3. ‘AVG WATCH TIME’ is the one metric that most people dont know about. After studying the data of 100s of
recent viral reels, it is evident that this one metric alone can turn your reels into MEGA WINNERS. I have
noticed that if your avg watch time is greater than 60-65% of your reel length, IG keeps pushing it to new
audiences. But this DOES NOT mean that you can exploit this metric by creating 1-2 second reels. The algo is
very smart. It’s true that shorter reels [7-12 sec] can help but if you want to go above 10M, then you must learn
to retain the watch time of mid length reels as well [15-25 sec]. You can do this by following:

a. Curiosity evoking scripts.

b. Visual story telling.

c. Using mini hooks in your scripts.

d. Giveaway something very valuable towards the end of the video but announce it in the beginning.

Growing on IG is NOT luck. Keep using the right strategies and keep experimenting till you get it right. Good
luck! 👍

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