17 Instagram Settings YOU need to Change NOW

Summary

This video reveals 17 essential Instagram settings that can significantly impact your growth. Key insights include avoiding the inbuilt scheduling feature, removing ghost followers, using keywords in the Instagram editor, optimizing your account profile, checking account status, and understanding peak posting times. The video emphasizes the importance of using high-quality content, enabling sharing and remixing, training the explore page, and avoiding banned hashtags. It also discusses the benefits and drawbacks of cross-posting on Facebook based on your audience. These tips aim to help you maximize reach and engagement on Instagram.

Takeaways

• 📅 Don't use Instagram's auto-schedule feature for posts, as it may reduce reach; instead, post manually to increase views.
• 👻 Remove ghost followers who don't engage with your content by using the 'flagged for review' accounts feature on Instagram.
• 🔍 Use the in-built editor and add keywords to your posts to potentially increase reach and algorithm recognition.
• 🔄 Check your Instagram account status for any issues that might be restricting your growth or reach.
• 🔑 Enable the 'Suggested Profiles' feature to increase visibility to potential followers.
• 🔍 Optimize your Instagram profile with relevant keywords in the 'Name' field to improve discoverability.
• 🕒 Use Instagram's insights to find the best times to post and aim to post 2 hours before peak audience activity.
• 🎨 Ensure 'Upload at Highest Quality' is enabled in settings to prioritize content quality over upload speed.
• 🔄 Enable 'Sharing and Remixing' settings to encourage content sharing and remixing, which can boost viral potential.
• 📚 Use the Explore page to gather content ideas and train it by interacting with relevant posts.
• 🚫 Use metahashtags.com to check for banned hashtags to avoid affecting your account's reach and standing.
• 🔍 Regularly clear your search history on Instagram to prevent confusing the algorithm and to keep your Explore page relevant.
• 📈 Consider crossposting to Facebook only if it benefits your brand and audience, to avoid confusing the Instagram algorithm.

Q & A

Why should you avoid using the Instagram schedule option?

Using the Instagram schedule option can reduce your reach and views. It's recommended to use the draft feature and post manually for better engagement.

What are ghost followers and how can you deal with them?

Ghost followers are inactive accounts that do not engage with your content. You can use Instagram's new setting to identify and remove these followers to improve your account's performance.

How can you use the Instagram inbuilt editor to increase your reach?

Add keywords related to your audience or content using the text feature in the inbuilt editor, even if the text is minimized. This helps signal to the algorithm what your content is about.

How can you check if your Instagram account is optimized for the algorithm?

Use incognito mode to view your account and see the suggested accounts. If you see competitors or similar accounts, your account is optimized. If not, you need to adjust your optimization strategies.

What is the importance of checking your account status?

Checking your account status can reveal issues that might be restricting your reach. Ensure you have no red flags or exclamation marks in your account status to avoid growth limitations.

How can optimizing your name settings help your Instagram growth?

Including keywords related to your content in your name settings can make your profile more searchable and increase exposure to your target audience.

What feature should you enable to become visible in competitors' suggested accounts?

Enable the suggested account feature by going to edit profile on your desktop and ensuring it is ticked. This makes your profile visible to followers of similar accounts.

Why should you refine your explore page and how can you do it?

Refining your explore page helps you get relevant content ideas. You can do this by marking posts you're interested in and hiding keywords of content you don't want to see.

What is a quick hack for increasing engagement on your Instagram stories?

Using stickers like the heart or face emoji on the right side of your story can encourage viewers to like your post as they scroll through, increasing engagement.

How can banned hashtags affect your Instagram growth and how can you avoid them?

Using banned hashtags can block your reach. To avoid this, use websites like metahashtags.com to check if your hashtags are banned before posting.

Why is it important to clear your search history regularly on Instagram?

Clearing your search history helps prevent confusing the algorithm and keeps your explore page and content suggestions relevant to your growth goals.

When should you consider using Facebook crossposting for your Instagram content?

Use Facebook crossposting if your niche has an active audience on Facebook. Otherwise, it's better to focus solely on Instagram to avoid confusing the algorithm.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Instagram Settings to Boost Your Growth

Discover 17 Instagram settings that can significantly impact your growth. Learn how the author gained 15,000 followers in a month by applying these strategies. The first setting discussed is the Instagram schedule option. Avoid using the inbuilt Instagram scheduler as it can reduce your reach. Instead, use the draft feature and post manually for better results.

05:03

👻 Removing Ghost Followers

Understand the importance of removing ghost followers—accounts that follow you but never engage with your content. Instagram's new feature helps identify these inactive followers, making it easier to clean up your account and improve engagement.

10:04

🔑 The Keyword Trick

Learn a trick to enhance your reach by using Instagram's inbuilt editor to add keywords related to your content. By adding and minimizing these keywords in your posts, you signal to Instagram's algorithm what your content is about, potentially increasing your reach.

15:05

🕵️‍♂️ Is Your Account Optimized?

Find out if your Instagram account is properly optimized by checking the suggested accounts in incognito mode. Seeing similar accounts indicates good optimization, while unrelated suggestions mean you need to optimize further.

🔧 Checking Account Status

Ensure your account is in good standing by checking the account status in settings. Any issues or warnings here could affect your reach, making it essential to resolve them for optimal performance.

🔍 Enhance Your Discoverability

Optimize your profile for searchability by using keywords in your name settings. Ensure your account is easily discoverable by potential followers searching for related content.

🕒 Best Posting Times

Determine the best times to post on Instagram by switching to a Creator account. Use the insights provided to post when your audience is most active, increasing the likelihood of engagement.

📷 Prioritizing Quality

Always upload the highest quality media by enabling the 'upload at highest quality' setting in your app and media settings. High-quality content is crucial for maintaining engagement and respect from your audience.

🔄 Sharing and Remixing

Enable sharing and remixing settings to allow others to share and remix your content. This increases your content's virality and growth potential.

🔄 Training Your Explore Page

Train your explore page to show relevant content ideas by interacting with posts related to your niche. This helps generate ideas and trends specific to your content area.

🚫 Refine Your Explore Page

Refine your explore page by hiding irrelevant keywords through the suggested content settings. This ensures you only see content that matters to your niche and growth.

📈 Trending Topics on Explore Page

Utilize the trending topics on the explore page to create relevant and timely content. This can boost your engagement by aligning with current trends.

❤️ Increase Story Likes

Increase likes on your Instagram stories by strategically placing stickers that encourage interactions. This simple trick can enhance story views and engagement.

🏷️ Avoid Banned Hashtags

Use metahashtags.com to check for banned hashtags before posting. Avoiding banned hashtags ensures your content is not restricted or blocked by Instagram.

🗑️ Clear Search History

Regularly clear your search history to prevent confusing Instagram's algorithm. This helps maintain a clean and relevant explore page tailored to your niche.

📲 Crossposting on Facebook

Consider crossposting on Facebook if your target audience is active there. Otherwise, focus solely on Instagram to avoid confusing the algorithm and diluting your reach.

🔔 Subscribe and Engage

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to subscribe, like, and engage with the content. The host, Alex, emphasizes the importance of these settings for Instagram growth and encourages feedback.

Keywords

💡Instagram schedule option

The Instagram schedule option allows users to create posts and schedule them to be posted later automatically. The video suggests that using this feature can negatively affect your reach and recommends posting manually instead to achieve greater reach and more views.

💡Ghost followers

Ghost followers are followers who never interact or engage with your content, often being bot accounts or inactive users. The video highlights the importance of removing these followers as they can negatively impact your account's performance by signaling to the algorithm that your content is not engaging.

💡Inbuilt editor

Instagram's inbuilt editor refers to the editing tools provided within the app itself. The video recommends using the inbuilt editor for adding keywords to posts as it might help in getting more views, thus leveraging both keyword optimization and the platform’s preference for using its native tools.

💡Account status

Account status is a setting in Instagram that shows whether your account is in good standing. The video advises checking this regularly, as having issues indicated by red marks or exclamation points can restrict your account’s growth and reach, possibly requiring starting a new account or contacting Instagram for resolution.

💡Suggested account feature

The suggested account feature makes your profile visible to followers of similar or competitor accounts. The video emphasizes enabling this feature to increase discoverability and attract more followers who are interested in similar content.

💡Media quality

Media quality refers to the setting that ensures the highest quality uploads of your content. The video stresses the importance of enabling this feature to post high-quality content, which is more likely to engage users and earn respect for your page.

💡Explore page

The Explore page is a section of Instagram where users discover new content. The video suggests using it to get content ideas and ensuring it displays relevant posts by interacting with desired content types and using settings to hide unwanted keywords.

💡Hashtags

Hashtags are keywords or phrases preceded by the '#' symbol, used to categorize content. The video advises checking hashtags for bans using tools like metahashtags.com to avoid using banned hashtags, which can negatively impact reach and engagement.

💡Creator account

A Creator account is a type of Instagram account that provides additional insights and features tailored for content creators. The video recommends switching to a Creator account to access valuable insights such as optimal posting times, which can help maximize engagement.

💡Keyword optimization

Keyword optimization involves using relevant keywords in various parts of your Instagram profile and posts to improve discoverability and engagement. The video suggests using keywords in your profile name, in posts using the inbuilt editor, and refining the Explore page content using keywords.

Highlights

Using the Instagram schedule feature can decrease post reach, and manual posting is recommended for better results.

Ghost followers can negatively affect your account's algorithmic performance; Instagram's new setting helps identify and remove them.

Utilizing Instagram's inbuilt editor and adding keywords can signal to the algorithm the content's topic, potentially increasing views.

Checking the 'real how to use Instagram' feature can provide insights into whether your account is optimized for the algorithm.

Ensuring your account status is in good standing is crucial for growth, as issues can restrict reach and may require account resolution or starting anew.

Enabling the suggested account feature makes your profile visible to potential followers interested in similar content.

Optimizing your Instagram name with keywords can improve discoverability and help reach your target audience.

Using Instagram's insights to determine the best posting times can increase audience engagement.

Ensuring high-quality content is uploaded by enabling 'upload at highest quality' in settings to gain more respect and engagement.

Allowing sharing and remixing of your content can increase its viral potential by making it more shareable.

Training your explore page by marking interests helps tailor the content suggestions to your niche.

Refining your explore page through settings by hiding specific keywords can further customize your content feed.

Monitoring trending topics on the explore page can provide content ideas that are currently popular.

Using a 'like' sticker on Instagram stories can artificially boost engagement and views.

Avoiding banned hashtags is crucial for maintaining account health and reach; use websites like metahashtags.com to check.

Regularly clearing your Instagram search history can prevent algorithm confusion and maintain a clean user profile.

Crossposting on Facebook may be beneficial for certain niches but should be considered carefully to avoid algorithm dilution.

Transcripts

here is 17 Instagram settings that if

you're not using or don't know about it

will be affecting your growth I made a

new account and used these strategies

and gain 15,000 followers in the first

month by making sure I understood and

applied all of these settings they are

in no order whether you're zero

followers 50,000 followers or 2 million

followers you can start using them today

let's jump into number one the Instagram

schedule option we would all love to be

using the inbuilt Instagram schedule

which allows us to create our posts

schedule them and post it later

automatically but the issue is is that

this stops you getting reach I've tested

this spoken to tons of people and every

time we use it the reach never really

goes far you're set yes and more often

than not we see a decline in views

instead what I recommend is using the

draft feature and actually posting

manually right now the best thing to do

is to post manually obviously if you

need to post at a certain time then just

prepare your caption earlier prepare all

the elements earlier and just go and

spend 2 minutes and actually post that

content trust me the reach will be far

greater and you'll be getting more views

do not use the schedule in Instagram and

don't allow it to automatically post for

you have you heard of ghost followers so

these are followers that follow you

which never interact or engage with your

content useless

essentially telling the algorithm that

they don't like your content now often

these can be bot accounts dead accounts

and it's a pain to get rid of them but

Instagram have released a new setting

which we all need to be aware of and be

using all we need to do is go to our

followers so on your profile press your

followers and at the top you'll see

creators and flagged accounts the

flagged for review accounts are the ones

that you probably need to get rid of

sometimes there might be some mistakes

but I would suggest especially if your

account is pretty small to get rid of

these dead followers as they're not

helping you at all and this is a really

good feature that Instagram have

introduced as before we'd have to do it

manually check each account whereas now

Instagram is basically telling us who's

not useful next up is the keyword trick

editing screen now Instagram and most

other platforms love it when you use

their inbuilt editors but most of us are

editing outside Instagram we're using

platforms like canva cap cut Adobe After

Effects wherever it might be and we want

to be using those cuz they're better but

here's a trick that you can do and is

going to help you get more views and

everything now let's say I've got a

video right here you know it's already

been edited I'm simply go to post it

here's what I want you to do instead I

want you to press next once you're on

this screen right here where you see all

the icons at the top what I want you to

do is to actually press the text button

at the top and start putting in key

words either related to your audience or

what the video is about so for example

you know this video right here is about

nature so I'm going to go up there and

I'm going to type in nature and what I'm

going to do is actually really minimize

that bit of text I'm going to do the

same again I'm going to do plant you

know if my audience was like you know

nature lovers I could type that in but

essentially what we're doing is we're

telling the algorithm that this is the

content you know this is nature content

plant content but we're also using the

inbuilt editor and you know this is

speculative but some people think by

using the editor you get pushed out more

so we're basically you know tackling two

birds with one stone by using the

keywords and also using the editor and I

recommend especially if you're you know

under 100,000 followers to try using

this sometimes and you could see an

increased amount of reach definitely

start applying this every time you post

a real how to use Instagram so it tells

you whether your account is optimized

properly and the algorithm understands

your Niche do you know who I am what you

need to do is go on your computer or

your phone and go on incognito mode go

onto your account and you should see the

suggested accounts button press it now

here is the trick or the Insight if you

are seeing competitors or accounts that

are very simil similar to yours then

your account is optimized if you are

seeing random celebrities or football

teams or completely different

accounts yes sorry where am I then the

algorithm does not understand who to

show your content to or what your page

is about and you need to optimize it

further I will be going more into

optimization techniques using settings

Etc later on in the video so stay tuned

for that but this is a clear indicator

to whether the algorithm understands who

we are the next one is account status

now everything in this video is super

super useful but if you have an issue

with your account anything you apply you

could create the best rule in the world

but it probably won't get any views to

check your account status is simple go

to your settings scroll right to the

bottom near where the logout button is

and you should see account status once

you're there if your account is in good

standing you should see three ticks if

you have any red or any exclamation

marks you need to look into that as this

could be restricting your growth

restricting your reach and it might be

worth starting a new account or getting

in touch with Instagram to see you know

what is going on here so make sure you

would check your account status as I

want you to be able to apply everything

else in this video and actually utilize

it today if you don't have this setting

on then I don't know what you're doing

you need to enable the suggested account

feature essentially your profile becomes

visible to people or to followers of

your competitors or accounts are similar

to you so the exact same way I showed

earlier on the video you will then

appear in other people's suggested

accounts to do this it's simple go onto

your desktop log into your Instagram go

to edit profile and just make sure that

this is ticked welcome to

discoverability your name settings now

this is something that I see a lot of

people not using properly we need to

optimize our account Instagram is

prioritizing accounts which are

searchable which actually appear in

people's search feeds optimizing your

profile is critical for Reaching Your

Potential audience and for extra

exposure now many people get confused

with this and your username or your

handle is different to your name so in

settings or where you can change your

profile you'll see username and you'll

see name your username is your handle so

if your account is you know Nike then

you're at the Nike account now here's

the difference your username cool put

that as your brand put that as your

business put that as your name but in

your name you need to put your brand or

name whatever it is also you need to add

keywords so if you look at some of the

bigals like vog for example you know

they've put their name but they've also

put business and motiv ation because

this is the style of content that they

create anytime anyone types in business

or motivation they will appear on the

feed so guys if you are a gardener if

you make nature content then put some

keywords in your name and become more

discoverable this setting is super super

useful and a lot of us are not using

this properly so start today posting

times if you're confused about when is

the best time for you to post then let

Instagram tell now for this you need to

have a Creator account to do this it's

simple navigate to settings press

business and controls as you scroll down

you will see Switch Account types button

press that button and switch over to the

Creator once this is done you will

unlock a bunch of insights and one of

them will be posting times or basically

it will tell you when your audience is

most active and my recommendation for

this is to post 2 hour was before that

peak time if Instagram is telling you

that everyone is online at 6:00 p.m.

then start to post around 4p thank be

later let me try this out prioritizing

quality now if you're posting rules on

Instagram you want to be able to post

high quality if your content is low

quality people are going to engage with

that way less and respect your page way

less what you need to do is go to

settings and activity which will be on

the top right of your profile then go

down to your app and media in your app

and media you will see media quality you

need to make sure upload at highest

quality is turned on there are people

who have this turned off and you know

what happens is you will post sometimes

and Instagram will prioritize the

posting the speed Etc and not the

quality make sure this is turned on and

make sure that you are posting the

highest quality content humanly possible

for you so you get more respect so many

of of you don't have this on now I've

actually seen accounts which have this

turned off this simple sharing and

remixing settings if you are trying to

grow your account you need to give

people the option to remix your content

share the content you know for it to

actually go viral go on to settings and

press sharing and remixing and turn all

of these on you want to make sure it

looks something like this any which say

no turn it on going viral is about

sharability people can't share your

content people can't remix it you're

really damaging your potential growth

training your explore page to give you

content ideas if you are not doing this

then your account is not optimized and

not in the right settings to show you

how to actually grow your account the

best place to come up with ideas for

your content or for reals for anything

is from the explore page the explore

page can literally feed you that

information here's what I want you to to

do go on to your explore Page by

pressing the magnifying glass once

you're there let's say that you are a

skincare brand but you go on to your

explore page and you are seeing football

cricket videos about photography videos

about growing your Instagram account

this is not the right content for you

you should be doing this on a personal

account which you're not trying to grow

if we're trying to grow we need to use

our explore page properly what you need

to do is pull over the post press it and

simply press the three dots and press

interested what is happening here is you

are telling the algorithm the explore

page that you want to see more of this

content this is essential and if you

look at my food page right here my food

page is full of food videos so anytime I

need ideas for what food is trending for

you know potentially captions hashtags

whatever it might be I can simply go to

my explore page and I will get

everything do this right now now you

tried the next one is in settings and

it's refining your explore page without

even actually going on your explore page

now what you want to do is go to

settings then to suggested content and

then what you can do is input specific

keywords that you want to hide from your

page so for example if there is certain

stuff that keeps appearing and you don't

want to see that anymore you can simply

go to there type in those keywords and

it will go now this shows us the

importance of keywords simply by typing

in keywords I won't see that content

again this shows us how important

keywords off for the whole growth of

your account let's move over to the next

one on the topic of explore page it also

tells us at all times what is currently

trending but not how you might think now

you probably are thinking right now how

have I never noticed this well go on to

the explore page go on to search and you

will see a bunch of trending topics

right at the top like it'll tell you I

don't know Kim Kardashian is trending

right now or loads of different things

you know healthy meals Etc this is super

super useful it's a setting that

Instagram is literally telling us what

is popular right now listen to me and

sometimes in certain niches you know for

example if you're in the food Niche and

it's telling you that healthy meals are

training right now that could be

something that you can jump on or create

content for which is going to help you

get pushed more so definitely keep an

eye on there as sometimes it will just

guide you to a particular topic even if

you make motivational reals stories you

know they might might be something that

is trending that you can make a story

about and that will go super viral this

is a quick hack for your stories now

simply on your story so let's say I'm

going to pose this nature story right

here I'm going to go to next and then

press stickers which is right here I'm

going to press this sticker right here

this love heart one or this um face

emoji what I'm going to do is I'm going

to put this onto the right side so I'm

going to literally just drag that there

what will happen is as people scroll to

the next story they will actually like

it and you are basically you know

forcing them to like your post and you

know getting likes on your stories will

get more people to view your story so

this is a little trick for anyone who

needs a story to get more views I

wouldn't recommend doing it all the time

and obviously you can play around with

it you know with different ones but I

would recommend just doing the H or

something like that and yeah people will

start liking it more so this is this

neat little trick for stories it

wouldn't be an Instagram video if I

didn't speak about hashtags now now this

is a bonus tip for everyone one of the

big things with hashtags nowadays is

which prevents us from growing or blocks

our reach is when we use banned hashtags

this is what I want you to do if you are

using hashtags to use this website right

here I am listening metahash tags.com

what I want you to do is every time you

post some hashtags especially if you've

not used those hashtags before to go to

the bad has hashtags put in your

hashtags and it will tell you whether

those hashtags are clean or if they're

banned if they're banned your account

will get affected so this is super super

useful just to make sure that your

account stays in good standing but also

that each post every time you make

content that it actually gets pushed Out

imagine you know putting all that effort

into creating content your captions

everything and then you get blocked or

you know it prevents you from getting

shown to others just because you've used

a band hashtag use this website to check

whether any hashtags you use are ban

refining your search we all spend time

on Instagram and we all spend time

searching for things but if we're trying

to grow our account and we search we

search it can confuse the algorithm and

then the explore page and so forth what

I recommend doing is refining and

cleaning your search history often what

you need to do is tap your profile icon

open up the menu select your activity

and go to recent searches and then you

simply clear all I would recommend doing

this every few weeks or every week just

to keep things ticking to keep things

clean and for without clogging too much

information to the algorithm do this and

thank me later crossposting on Facebook

now this is one of the more

controversial settings on Instagram

right now in one of my previous videos I

said don't use it and I still stand by

that but let's say you are in a niche

which potentially is more on Facebook so

if for example you have an older kind of

clientele and you think that they'll be

very active on Facebook then it might be

worth you crossposting just to get that

additional exposure but if you are in a

niche which you know you are

prioritizing on Instagram then it's

better to just focus on Instagram and

not really confuse the algorithm further

only use Facebook crossposting if you

think it's actually going to benefit

your brand otherwise just turn it off to

turn it on you go to settings

crossposting and then turn on recommend

rules on Facebook it's that simple but

be very smart and think about whether

it's going to benefit your brand or not

my name is Alex and I hope this video

has helped you please make sure to

subscribe and like the video for the

algorithm and let me know if any of

these settings surprise you or if you

have any questions these are all

settings that are super super important

and most of us are neglecting my name is

Alex let's go Ro