6 Instagram strategies that are working for publishers right now

If you’re active on Instagram — or want to be — there are some very specific formats and approaches that are working well today that you should know about.

Things change fast in social media, and Meta often updates its guidelines on what it will use to expose more of your content in its algorithm and pay you more if you’re set up with monetization.

So let’s walk through a few things that are worth knowing:

Carousels are really taking off

I wrote about the value of doing carousels recently because they truly are such a great way of giving readers a different way to consume the key details of your journalism.

But there’s a pretty insane stat from Metricool, a social media management company, that I ran across this week that stopped me in my tracks.

They analyzed more than 24 million Instagram posts and found carousels generated nine times more saves than single-image posts, more than twice the reach and nearly four times the interactions.

I’d make sure carousels are in your social media content mix, especially for those big stories that touch on a variety of topics and guides that have lots of locations.

Use Stories to engage your loyal audience

Instagram says that it’s prioritizing Stories as an important way to grow engagement and monetization.

But you have to do more than simply share a post to your Story. Creating original Stories is going to get more attention from Instagram.

Take advantage of features in Stories like polls and questions. You can also use Stories to bring readers behind the scenes or get their reaction to a local issue.

Reels are still a top product to use

Meta continues to say that video is critical for creators and publishers, so I would make every effort you can to fold video into what you do.

Real people and real footage done in a raw and authentic way will almost always outperform using photos (especially stock) and overly produced content.

Remember that people who see your content may not know much about you or your subject based on how Reels work through the Instagram algorithm, so make sure you bring new viewers into the fold at the beginning of your video.

Shares and DMs matter more than likes

Meta is really prioritizing content that is sent to someone else or saved. So this is a good question to ask when you’re creating social media content: Is this the kind of story that someone might share with a friend?

Not all content is going to fit this, but pick content to post that does and come up with language that encourages that kind of sharing in your headline and caption.

Think about stories like explainers, Q&As, lists and other useful material that someone could act on or learn something from.

Instagram is upgrading original content

Instagram is putting more emphasis on original content and is downgrading content that is reposted. This is the case for posts, Reels and Stories.

Think about things like a post from a local business, user-generated content or a post from a government agency. When that information is worth sharing, look for ways to add original reporting and an original post if you are going to use that content.

Single-image posts aren’t working so well

Single-image posts are becoming a tougher way to get attention on Instagram.

Metricool in the resarch I shared above, found that reach for single-image posts dropped nearly 22% year over year, another sign that publishers should move beyond simply posting a headline graphic or image and expecting it to generate a lot of engagement.

Look for opportunities to turn as many posts as you can into carousels, Reels or other formats I have covered above that give people a reason to engage without immediately leaving the platform.