Some of you often ask me ” Alex, but in what order are the users who view our Instagram Stories listed?”.
Interesting question.
We’ve all noticed a bit that, by publishing a story and observing who is viewing it, we find the same names on top of corn or menos.
Time passes, more users, but in first and second place we always find a bit ‘the same people.
Maybe you also asked yourself “What is the order of the visualizations of the IG Stories?”.
Today we examine this topic starting from the principle that the order of the views of the Instagram Stories has a complex and secret algorithm.
How does Instagram classify your story views?
Menlo Park is quite reserved on this aspect, it doesn’t reveal who is checking your profile or by what criteria it places them at the top of the list of views of your Stories.
Not even the Coca-Cola recipe is so secret!
According to Julian Gutman, Product Lead at Instagram Home, the people you see at the top of your follower list are the people you have the most engagement with.
The authoritative The Verge interviewed him about it (watch the video) and Mr. Gutman explained how they classify the people who watch your Stories.
In summary:
- They take into account your general activity towards your followers.
- Instagram’s algorithm first recognizes the people you interact with regularly, then places them at the top of your list of story viewers, because it knows that those are the accounts you are most interested in.
- The Instagram algorithm ranks your IG Stories viewers “based on your activity and the people you are closest to”.
- When you check who has looked at your Stories, the people you see at the top of your list are determined by two factors: your interactions with other accounts and the frequency with which you log in to see who has seen your story.
- If you check in regularly to see who saw your Stories, you will notice that several accounts have been displayed at the top of the list since you last checked.
- This is because if you check the list several times, the Instagram algorithm tries to show you a new group of people.
All clear Mr. Gutman, we have understood how Instagram classifies the viewers of our Stories, but how does the algorithm know with whom we are interacting?
I can think of Orwell.
Your Instagram feed is influenced by the photos you like and the stories you look at.
Around last June, Instagram had officially declared how the new algorithm worked. In fact, the algorithm had already changed a month before, slowly driving us crazy!
According to TechCrunch the main goal of Instagram is to:
- help you to see the contents of your “friends and family”, as it considers this group closer to you;
- Instagram’s algorithm tries to predict which posts are most important to you and uses three main factors to determine it: interest, timeliness and relationship.
How to self-adjust the algorithm
Got it, but at this point one wonders, “Yes, okay, but how does this algorithm affect who appears at the top of my list of Stories views?”
How does the algorithm work Instagram Stories
Mr. Gutman (always in the interview) explained that it depends on who seems to be closest to you based on your interactions. The algorithm adjusts as follows: your interactions with profiles, posts and other account histories decide the order in which your views appear.
At the top of your list are those with whom you “interact” the most.
All right, Mr. Gutman, but what do you mean by interaction?
Interaction – Mr. Gutman answers – is a complex matter, composed of many different elements. There are many actions that are classified as “interaction”: simple actions, such as visiting an account profile, as well as likes and comments on posts in someone’s feeds and stories.
In practice, even if you don’t notice the level of interaction you have with an account, the algorithm can capture every touch and scroll to bring to the top of your list of IG Stories the people you consider most important.
Let’s take an example
If, for example, you look at the Stories of a certain Influencer every day, you will find them at the beginning of the Stories Feed every day.
Excuse me Mr. Gutman, what does it mean when the accounts I’ve never looked at before appear at the top of the list or at the beginning of my feed?
It’s likely to depend on Instagram’s “timeliness” factor which aims to prioritize recent posts, so it’s less likely that “old” posts will appear, even if they come from your favorite profile.
He does this to show you what’s new, interesting and fresh since you last used the App.
It’s normal to see more and more people looking at your story during the course of the day: changing the profiles at the top of your list is the way Instagram shows you “what’s new around here” since you last looked at us.
Does Facebook have anything to do with it?
Another factor that could influence the way Instagram classifies your list of views of Stories, are your connections on Facebook, Instagram’s parent company.
So Facebook has something to do with it: your connections and interactions on Facebook influence who ends up at the top of the list in your list of IG Stories views.
