Being Successful on Instagram: This is What Instagram Recommends for the Explore Page

If you want your business to succeed on Instagram, it’s important to understand the different features of the platform. The better you know how Instagram works, the more you can use the site to make your business stand out from the pack. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Instagram’s Explore Page.

With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram is without a doubt one of the most important social media platforms for businesses. On Instagram, you can connect directly with your customers, and your brand can be seen by millions of people — especially if you make it to the Explore Page.

Instagram introduced Explore in 2015 as a way for users to discover new creators and brands. On Explore, Instagram shows users accounts that they might be interested in seeing but aren’t following yet. According to Instagram, more than 50% of accounts use Explore every day.

So, getting on Explore gives your business a huge opportunity to be discovered, and it can help you increase your reach and grow your following. But how do you get on the Explore Page, and how can you use the feature to grow your business?

In the following, we’ll look at Instagram’s recommendations for Explore, and show you how to get the most out of the feature for your brand.

Explore: a new way to search — and to be found

Explore is basically a vamped up search function for Instagram. As more and more users joined the platform and started posting, it became increasingly difficult for users to keep up to date with their news feeds. Explore was meant to help users to see and search for the latest trends, hashtags, and posts on the platform.

“The new Explore now surfaces trends as they emerge in real-time, connecting you to events and conversations both near you and around the globe. Through trending Tags and trending Places, you can experience moments like #bonnaroo or #fathersday from every perspective. Rich visual content captures everyone’s unique take — not just what the community is talking about, but also what they’re doing and seeing.” – Instagram

Explore not only allows users to find content by searching for hashtags or places, it also gives businesses a way to be found. This is why Instagram recommends including hashtags and location tags in your posts. By using trending hashtags and tagging places in your posts, you increase your chances of being found on Explore. Including tags in your posts only takes a few minutes, but it can have a big effect in terms of increasing your reach on Instagram.

Curated content

In addition to searching for places and topics, Explore also curates content based on each user’s individual interests. First, Instagram’s algorithm determines what a user might be interested in. This is based on several criteria, such as search history, accounts followed, and tags used. Second, based on these interests, the algorithm then displays selected content on the user’s Explore page. This means that every user’s Explore Page will have different content.

This is very important to know when you are trying to reach new potential customers on Instagram. If you want to appear on people’s Explore Page, it means that you need to understand what your target audience is interested in.

What topics do they like? What hashtags do they follow? Where do they live? And what social causes do they care about? The better you know your target audience, the easier it will be to create content that appeals to them – which ultimately increases your chances of ending up on their Explore Page.

Use the extended features on Explore

Since its launch in 2015, Instagram has added several new tabs to the top of the Explore Page. The new navigation bar now features shortcuts to Instagram’s own IGTV and shopping pages, as well as tabs with different interest topics, such as food, art, and travel. These topics are tailored to a user’s personal interests.

This not only makes it easier for people on Instagram to find posts they are interested in faster; it also opens up new possibilities for businesses. For instance, it makes it easier to reach your target audience by tailoring your posts to your target audience’s specific interests.

For a clothing brand, for example, it makes sense to create interesting fashion content that users that are interested in fashion can then discover through the “fashion” filter in their Explore navigation tab. If your content is captivating, you will be able to stand out more and get new users interested in your brand.

Especially for smaller businesses or for brands with a niche market, the new navigation tabs can offer an advantage, since their posts will automatically be sorted by content. As a result, Explore allows interested users to find your business’s posts much more quickly. In other words, with Explore, it’s easier to target a niche audience on Instagram. You should definitely take advantage of this!

Focus on video content and shopping

Instagram recommends creating appealing, immersive visual content to catch users’ attention on Explore. This makes sense because on Explore, users only see images—but no text or tags. So, users are most likely to tap on whichever images capture their interest the most. IGTV posts have a slight advantage in the Explore feed because the first few seconds of the videos are shown. And since they are video clips surrounded by still images, they stand out more.

Instagram also points out that IGTV and shopping are now featured more prominently on Explore. It therefore makes sense for your business to focus on creating more content for these two platforms. Since Instagram is pushing both channels, creating shopping posts and videos for IGTV will increase your chances of being seen by new users on Explore.

Especially with shopping posts, you have an additional advantage on Explore; not only will people be able to discover your brand and check out your products, but they also might end up making a purchase. So, getting on Explore can increase your sales.

Stories on Explore

Instagram also recommends that brands create stories to increase their visibility on Explore. Since over 500 million people use Stories every day, Instagram has decided to also include Stories on the Explore feed.

“In the same way that Explore recommends posts based on topics you’re interested in, the grid will now provide you with personalized Stories recommendations.” – Instagram

Stories are very popular with Instagram users, and they allow businesses to post short, fun, and engaging content to connect on a more personal level with their followers. Therefore, even without Explore, it makes sense for brands to upload stories. The fact that stories can reach even more people because they can end up on Explore is all the more reason to focus on them.

And creating stories doesn’t even have to be a lot of extra work! Just use a planning tool to create, edit, and schedule your stories. Storrito, for example, is a free web tool that allows you to schedule stories on Instagram, even in bulk. You can even work on a post with multiple users, from any device. Storrito makes creating and planning stories for Instagram a lot easier.

Get started with Storrito now, and grow your business on Instagram!