u/Technical-Run1955

Hi again!

My last post was about Instagram hashtags, and I mentioned briefly how the Instagram algorithm works. Now, I'll explain the algorithm in detail, starting with the example of a 1k followers Instagram account.

When you post something on Instagram, that post is initially shared with the first 10% of your followers. But who are these first 10%?

They are the people who have been following you and interacting with your account from the beginning, such as liking, commenting when the post is live, or replying to your stories.

Now, every post you make has certain parameters. When these parameters are met, the post is further pushed to the next set of followers. This phase is what I call the "initial."

So, what is "initial"?

In simple terms, "initial" represents the average engagement of multiple posts. Here's an example:

Suppose you have 1k followers, and on average, within 10 minutes, you're getting 70 likes and 5 comments. This average is obtained by analyzing the last 10-20 posts.

Why is "initial" so important?

Whenever you make a post on Instagram, if the post fails to surpass the initial engagement, it acts as an instant result of whether or not that content is going to work on Instagram. This is because it reflects the reaction of your audience - the same first 10% of people who love your content. If the post fails to please them, it lacks something. So, for the next time, try to improve.

Continue this process until you manage to increase your initial engagement from, for example, 70 likes to 80-90 likes. That's how you do it.

And that's how I managed to grow from 100 to 360k followers on Instagram.

You should focus on this magical 10-minute data called "initial." I've spent the last 7 years studying the algorithm, and while I don't claim to understand it 100%, I know enough.

I've grown more than 10 accounts from 0-10k during the lockdown and sold them to other people. This is just the tip of the iceberg; there is a lot more to this, and I don't want to bore you. So, I'll cover another topic in another post.

If you want me to cover other topics as well kindly let me know in the comments I'll try my best to provide the information

UPDATE: This post went really viral last time, and I want to do this again and answer questions you guys had.

1. Biggest tip, Biggest Tip, Seriously, the only thing that matters in succeeding in this space is CONSISTENCY. Everyone says this, but no one is consistent; that's why the winners win and losers lose
2. Make your videos really high quality, don't use CapCut, invest in Adobe Premiere, or get a video editor not on Fiverr but on Discord communities ( cheap and better)
3. Don't waste your time on scripts and hooks and finding content, use Socia_Hunt for that, it does everything, and you can train it based on viral content in your niche

I've been managing social for 4+ years and I have never seen so many creators and marketers waste this much time making content that gets absolutely zero traction. The game has completely changed but most people are still running 2021 playbooks and wondering why nothing works. Here's what's actually moving the needle right now. Spent $80k+ testing this across 30+ clients in 2025.

1. Being everywhere is killing you Pick ONE platform and dominate it completely. I know every guru tells you to repurpose across all platforms from day one. They're wrong and their accounts show it. When we focused exclusively on TikTok for our clients, average views went from 1 to 2k up to 20k+. Engagement jumped from 0.8% to 4.2%. Being a nobody on five platforms is not a strategy. It's procrastination with extra steps.

2. Reaction content is the biggest cheat code nobody's talking about Stop making original content from scratch. Have clients react to viral fails and trends in their industry instead. Had a plumber client react to terrible DIY plumbing videos with "here's why this is about to cost you $10k to fix." Most viral video hit 1.2M views. Basic green screen. Zero fancy editing. Zero budget. The algorithm loves this format right now and most creators are completely sleeping on it.

3. Professional looking content is actually hurting you Our best performing videos look like they were filmed in five minutes. Because they were. Raw and unpolished consistently destroys heavily produced content in every niche we've tested. One of our best performing videos ever was shot in a client's car between meetings. Stop hiding behind production quality because you're scared the idea isn't good enough.

4. If you're not posting enough you're invisible We went from 2 to 3 pieces of content per client per week to 10 to 15 by actually using the right tools. Scripting, ideation, research, all of it. I use http://creatorhunt.co/ for the research and trend tracking side because manually finding what's gaining momentum in 30 different niches every week is impossible otherwise. Also use vidIQ for YouTube keyword and search demand data. There's a tool called Tikmatics that catches TikTok format and audio trends before they go mainstream, barely anyone uses it but it's been genuinely useful for timing. Engagement went UP when volume went up. Volume is not the enemy of quality. Laziness is.

5. Your first two seconds are the only seconds that matter Start with controversy or confusion. Not "hey guys, today we're going to talk about..." that is a skip. Start with "you're doing this completely wrong and it's costing you followers every single day." Watch time jumped 40% just from fixing the open. That's it. Nothing else changed. Nobody cares about your perfectly edited carousels or your beautifully designed graphics. Nobody. They care about solving a problem they have right now or being entertained enough to forget they were about to scroll past you. This isn't theory. We see these results consistently across completely different niches. Happy to go deeper on any of it in the comments.