Shedding More Light on How Instagram Works: 9 Ways to Build Virality into your Product

Shedding More Light on How Instagram Works: 9 Ways to Build Virality into your Product

In today's digital age, understanding how social media platforms work and how to make your product go viral is crucial for success. Two platforms that have gained immense popularity are Instagram and LinkedIn. In this article, we will shed more light on how Instagram works and explore nine actionable ways to build virality into your product.

Instagram, with its vast user base, has revolutionized the way we share and consume visual content. However, there are several misconceptions about how the platform operates. Instagram does not have a single algorithm overseeing what users see on their feeds. Instead, it uses a variety of algorithms, classifiers, and processes tailored to different parts of the app, such as Feed, Stories, and Explore.

When it comes to the Feed, Instagram prioritizes posts based on what users care about the most. The platform takes into account various signals, including information about the post, the person who posted it, your activity, and your history of interacting with someone. The five interactions that Instagram closely monitors in the Feed are spending time on a post, commenting on it, liking it, saving it, and tapping on the profile photo. The more likely you are to take these actions, the higher up the post will appear in your Feed.

Explore, on the other hand, is designed to help users discover new content. Instagram predicts your interests based on signals such as likes, saves, and shares. In Explore, the platform focuses on information about the post, your history of interacting with the person who posted it, your activity, and information about the person who posted. By understanding these signals, Instagram aims to provide users with content that aligns with their preferences.

Now that we have a better understanding of how Instagram works, let's explore nine ways to build virality into your product:

1. Two-Sided Reward: Create an incentive for users to invite their friends and for their friends to accept the invite. This two-sided reward system encourages users to spread the word about your product, increasing its reach.

2. Appeal to Vanity: Tap into users' sense of vanity and competitiveness by exposing metrics that they can drive up. LinkedIn successfully implemented this strategy by prominently displaying the number of connections on user profiles, incentivizing users to invite more people to connect with them.

3. Collaboration: Build your product around collaboration or communication between coworkers. Such products inherently have viral potential as they encourage users to invite others to join in the collaboration.

4. Embeds: Enable others to embed your product into their websites. This not only increases your product's visibility but also allows users to share it with their website visitors, potentially generating more interest and engagement.

5. Artifacts Shared on Social: If your product generates uniquely interesting content, encourage users to share it on their social networks. Pinterest, for example, allowed users to pin items from the web and share them on Facebook, leading to a chain of discoveries and increased engagement.

6. Artifacts Shared via Messaging: If your product generates artifacts or URLs that are expected to be shared via messaging, leverage this behavior to spread the word about your product. Encourage users to share interesting content or information with their friends, creating a viral loop.

7. Signatures: Incorporate your product's signature or branding into the artifacts it generates. Adding a watermark or logo to images or videos can help users identify where they were created and potentially pique their curiosity, leading to further exploration of your product.

8. First Message sent on Existing Messaging Platform: Leverage existing messaging platforms to introduce your product. Consider sending the first message on platforms like WhatsApp or Messenger to spark interest and encourage users to explore what your product has to offer.

9. Highly Visible Hardware: If your product is a hardware device, make it highly visible. Think about products like Square or the outdoor Nest Cam, which catch people's attention and generate curiosity, leading to organic word-of-mouth promotion.

In conclusion, understanding how platforms like Instagram work and implementing strategies to build virality into your product are vital in today's digital landscape. By leveraging the unique features and algorithms of social media platforms, you can increase your product's reach and engagement. Incorporate the nine actionable strategies mentioned above to drive growth and make your product go viral.

Actionable advice:

1. Create a two-sided reward system to encourage users to invite their friends and expand your product's reach.
2. Appeal to users' sense of vanity and competitiveness by exposing metrics they can drive up, making them more invested in your product.
3. Leverage messaging platforms and social sharing to spread the word about your product and encourage users to share it with their networks.