I know what you’re thinking — again? The Instagram algorithm has changed again?

Yes. It has.

But once you know and understand what has changed, you will know what you need to alter in your Instagram strategy to maximize your growth and success on the platform.

I will also take this moment to say if your property doesn’t have an Instagram account or you have one but you don’t use it regularly — you need to!

Why does a change in Instagram’s algorithm matter for your multifamily property?

I understand if you’re wondering why how the algorithm works matters for your apartment. 

On the surface, the algorithm update can seem like a change for “influencers” to worry about, but it’s something property managers and marketers should take into consideration as well. 

Let’s say your apartment’s Instagram has 1,000 followers but each post only receives 10 likes and maybe a comment here or there. This might seem even more puzzling with the fact that the average user spends over an hour each day on the app. 

Is this because you share bad content? Likely not. 

It’s because most of your audience isn’t even seeing your posts in their feed. 

Paying attention to the changes in what Instagram values and adjusting your strategy accordingly can increase the number of your followers that actually see your posts. 

This means more eyes on your upcoming lease deals, open units, new amenities, property updates, and so on. 

The 2020 Instagram Algorithm Update

From the moment Instagram got rid of chronological order for the feed and replaced it with an algorithm that attempts to predict what posts you most want to see based on your behaviors, it has been “likes” and “comments” that Instagram placed the most value on. Depending on what types of posts and what accounts you interacted with the most, that’s what Instagram showed you first and more frequently on your feed. 

With this recent update, interaction is still key, but the type of interaction that Instagram views as the most valuable has changed.

It has switched from likes and comments to post saves and story shares. 

This is important to note because a user saving a post and/or sharing a post to their story happens much more rarely than a user liking or commenting on a post. This is because a user needs a reason to complete one of these two actions; such as the post had relevant information they wanted to be able to reference at a later date or it was relatable and they wanted to share it with their friends. 

A user can like and comment on every post easily, but not save or share it. 

In case you are unfamiliar with all the options underneath each Instagram post, the paper airplane allows a user to share that specific post to their story and the bookmark on the right allows the user to save the post to their private cache. 

In summary, post saves and shares are harder to garner, but when you do, that communicates to Instagram that your audience likes your posts and therefore Instagram will show your posts to your audience more frequently. 

Small changes multifamily properties should make to their Instagram strategy to increase exposure

Let me ease your worries, this change in the Instagram algorithm doesn’t mean you have to change your entire strategy. Most likely there are just a few extra posts you can be sharing that are geared specifically to be saved or shared by your audience. 

To help, I’m listing some of the ideas my team and I have brainstormed for our clients. 

Post ideas to increase post saves: 

• Weekly amenity access hours
• Monthly event calendar for the property
• Monthly event calendar for the surrounding area or city
• Giveaways
• Specials local restaurants are having
• Workout routines that can be completed in your property’s gym
• Easy recipes for the average demographic of your residents
• Apartment decor DIYs
  
  

Post ideas to increase story shares:

• Apartment-themed memes
• Animal pictures
• Aesthetic apartment decor
• Apartment-themed “this or that” 
• Amenity crossword 
• Unit feature word search
• Fun facts about the surrounding area
  
  

I recommend you aim to publish one to two posts each week that are geared to encourage either saves or shares. 

If you can get a few saves or shares on a regular basis, Instagram will begin to show your posts more regularly to your followers. Over time, you will see how your engagement, such as comments and link clicks, increases.