So what's up with Insta?

Instagram has changed the game. Again. 

Gaining organic reach on Instagram is becoming more and more important as Facebook slowly closes the door on the free ride businesses big and small have enjoyed for so long.

With Zuckerberg's increased focus on removing brands from Facebook to focus on friend and family connection amid security concerns, it seems Instagram’s algorithms are not being spared with new rules coming into effect this month.

Here is the inside scoop on the small things you would never have known are making it harder for your content to get seen.

1. Deleting posts | Make sure you are really committed to content before posting.

2. Archiving posts | The same as deleting posts, the algorithm no longer looks kindly on accounts that withdraw content

3. Caption Editing | Editing the caption too soon after posting, make sure that spell check has been done before posting.

4. Too many hashtags | The new recommendation is between 3 & 5

5. Irrelevant hashtags | In line with the above Instagram’s AI is looking for more targeted hashtags that are relevant to the content. Using hashtags that have millions of posts attached or are not identifiable to the photo are more likely to be flagged as spam.

6. Letters in images | Instagram wants to remain a visual platform and creating images of text isn't going to fly under the radar anymore. Unfortunately, AI may also pick up signs in the background, lettering on shirts etc.

7. Geotagging incorrectly | Adding a geotag to a photo of a location that is not nearby at the time of tagging. This means even if the photo was taken at the location, but you wait until you get home to upload and tag it, you may not achieve the reach you were hoping for.

This is of course by no means a checklist of things not to do, sometimes you have to break the rules to suit your content, your planning, or your strategy. This is simply a guideline of things to avoid doing if you want to gain as much reach as you can with every post.