Instagram Algorithms

The Dutch Blend Academy

When somebody asked me the other day “how did you start” I could not really give them an
answer. To be honest, I cannot remember the exact reason why I finally decided to create my
own Instagram page.
I do remember joking with my boyfriend about how we should create a page and I suppose
at some point you just go ahead and do it. I started by taking and posting pictures. When I
look back at some of those first pictures I think "holy sh**” whatever made me post those on
my timeline. Nothing about these pictures is right! Fortunately for me, Instagram has a
delete option which was used a lot by me at first. □
The funny thing is that I can clearly remember the reasons why I was initially reluctant to
start my own page. Such as having absolutely no idea where to start or seeing other
Instagram accounts which I thought were so much better than anything I could do. “Just look
at those pictures”, there is no way I can do anything like that.
Sounds familiar? Everybody has their own preferences when it comes to creating the perfect
feed. Of course, some pictures are better or worse than others. There are times when I see
pictures which make me feel embarrassed for the person who took it. “Please guys, why?”
But let’s be honest, some people are just incredibly good at what they do. If you continuously
compare yourself with top photographers who take pictures for a living, you quickly lose
confidence so I decided to stop doing this. I simply do my best to take a great picture. That’s
it!
I know that I will never win any awards for my pictures but then, this is not the main reason
for most people to create an Instagram page. As long as you do your best, you will
automatically improve with time. Just like all those other things on which you spend time and
energy. You learn as you go along.
Having said all that, I obviously hope that you guys like my pictures on Dutch Blend
(@dutch.blend), ha ha! I am not yet hundred percent happy with every picture but I think I
am moving in the right direction. Not bad for someone with a MSc in Forensic Science, is it? I
know, that’s got nothing to do with photography or Instagram whatsoever. In fact, my thesis
was about bankruptcy fraud.

The point I’m trying to make is that it does not matter how good you think you are or not. Just
start and persevere because those that persevere always achieve more than those who give
up.
I have to admit that I sometimes feel a little bit embarrassed when I see that someone with
lots of amazing pictures only has 1000 followers whilst Dutch blend has 115,000 followers with,
well...let’s say reasonably good pictures.
On the other hand, it must mean that there are things which seem to be more important
than great pictures or being photogenic to be a success on Instagram. This is good news for a
large group of Instagrammers, including myself.
But what exactly are those “things”? Unfortunately, I cannot give a simple answer to that
question and nor can anyone else. If somebody tries to tell you otherwise, I suggest that you
run! The truth is that nobody knows for sure. There is more than one way to become a
success on Instagram. And don’t forget that these things change all the time as well. It’s
enough to drive you up the wall!
I can only share with you what I think I know and how I see Instagram, i.e. my perspective of
Instagram. And what is this based on? Umm, by spending more time on Instagram than is
good for me. I call it “Trial and error”. Again, lots of people may disagree with me, so I advise
you to read this, absorb it and then do what you want with it!
The story really starts years ago when Internet had just been invented or rather, was made
available to the general public. Something which was initially used only by (secret)
government groups and scientists for the easy exchange of information became accessible to
the general public. The world wide web was a fact! Many people remember how exciting
email was at first. Wow, how useful! A new communication method which was quick,
convenient and efficient. We quickly discovered that working with one inbox also had its
downsides as, like with everything that is new and has a lot of potential, it was quickly used
by people who knew how to exploit this. It did not take long before huge numbers of
spammers started to collect email lists of people they had never met or spoken to solely in
order to bother these people (via their email addresses) with unwanted advertising.
Something had to be done about this and a solution was found in the spam folder! All
relevant emails went into your inbox and unwanted emails went into the spam folder.
Sounds simple and logical enough, doesn’t it?
Logical yes, simple, not really.... Because how does an email provider such as Hotmail or
Gmail decide which emails you do and do not want to receive in your inbox? This led them to
come up with certain clever criteria to decide whether an email ends up in your inbox or
spam folder based on the content (words in the email), email addresses from senders,
subjects and a variety of other factors.
An email containing the word "sex" means that it automatically ends up in your spam folder.
If the word “important” is part of the subject line, it is assumed to be an important email
which has a lot more chance to be delivered to your inbox.
We call these criteria which determine where emails from certain senders (email address
from sender) end up algorithms.
Although algorithms definitely help to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak, they
will always just be bits of computer language. This means it can never be foolproof, i.e. things
can always go wrong. Some spam mails will still be delivered to your inbox whilst important
emails end up in your spam folder (hugely annoying!! as you all know this is something that
also happens sometimes with the Dutch Blend Newsletter).
The main question therefore is: Why do some spam mails end up in your inbox whilst
important emails go to your spam folder? The answer is algorithms (or the types of
algorithms in this case) are a set criteria or multiple sets of criteria which determine or
predict a certain outcome. In other words: if you know what these criteria are, you can
influence them and when you can influence these criteria...yup, you can affect the outcome.
And this is what you want to do!
When spam mails are delivered to your inbox, the spammer probably has influenced the
criteria to make the algorithms assume that it was an important email. How? Umm, if we
look at the example of spam mails with the word “sex”, it is likely that the spammer has
removed all the words sex from the mail and replaced them with “small pictures or photos”
which contain the word “sex”. Algorithms still find it more difficult to read words in pictures
than words written in text. Perhaps the spammer added lots of words to the email which you
would normally expect in an ordinary email, such as “important”, “password”, “your login
information” etc. These are all words which would make an algorithm assume that you have
just created a new account for an online shop and that this email is probably important. End
result: the email is delivered to your inbox.
I don’t think it needs much explanation now for you to understand how an important email
can end up in your spam folder. All you have to do is switch the above example around. As a
non-spammer you may have added certain words to your email which accidently makes it
look like spam, such as “money”, “wealth”, “rich”. It goes without saying that I have
simplified my explanations somewhat. The algorithms from the email provider are so much
more complicated than simply checking the words you use in your email. An example: I
generally manage to make sure that the dutch.blend squad mails are delivered to your inbox
but, unfortunately, that does not always happen. I’m working on that!

They also look at things such as the server (IP address = computer location) you use for
sending emails, email addresses, engagement, spam complaints and so on. But I hope you
get the gist. If you know the rules, you can influence the outcome, exactly the way you want
to!
What has this got to do with Instagram? Everything!!
First it was email, then Google (who appears at the top of the search results and who
doesn’t), then Facebook and now Instagram. All of these use algorithms, criteria to
determine certain outcomes. And although it may not seem so at first, there are a lot of
common criteria within the various algorithms.
Which email gets delivered to an inbox and which ends up in the spam folder? -> Which post
appears on your followers’ timeline and which one is not shown?

Do you like what you read and would you like to read the full Instagram Algorithms Guide?

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