The chronological feed is back! We all asked for it and now it’s here! 

After soft-launching the reformed format in December 2021, Instagram has officially launched its algorithm-free, chronological feed option to all users – so there’ll be no more wondering why you’re being fed an Oporto’s ad when you suggest to your co-worker to get burgers for lunch. 

This new feature grants users’ more autonomy and personalisation for their media consumption but what does this change mean for small businesses? Read more to find out…

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The dual launch actually includes two new feed display options, allowing users to control their content display either through their following or favourites. Both of these formats are in chronological order with absolutely zero algorithmic influences! 

What is favourites?

Favourites is a new feature and display the latest posts from accounts that you’ve added to your favourite’s list. There’s a lot of freedom and agency with this, with space for up to 50 accounts, meaning users can really prioritise the content they’d like to consume. 

This change means big things for small businesses as they no longer have to compete with the noise of larger profiles and their content will be prioritised to users that resonate with them and want to hear from them. 

The downside to this change, however, is that the strategy of your posts must be on-point, as your reach will purely be organic with no algorithmic boosts. 

How do we achieve this? 

The first thing you need to do is figure out when your following is online, so you gain the highest traction and engagement. For this, we’ll bring you back to our last blog on Navigating Meta Analytics. 

If you have a business page, natively on Instagram, click the Insights tab and total followers button. This will give you a complete run-down of your follower-growth journey, the top geographical locations of your followers, their age and gender AND most importantly, their most active times by the hour, daily. 

It’s hard to believe these data sets are completely free and accessible as you can really pinpoint the most successful release times for your content as well as streamline your focus to suit your target demographics.  

Mirroring what was mentioned in our last blog, you can also assess which content types are most attributable to these trends as well as if these metrics are in relation to your followers or non-followers. 

For our mock-up, we’ve indicated we’d like to see results from the last 30 days but meta’s analytics grants you pre-set ranges from the ‘last 7 days all the way through to the ‘last 90 days.’ What’s even handier is you can now manually select any time period using their calendar feature – this allows you to directly cross-reference your content types and their correlating reach, traction and engagement.

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Meta’s analytics are definitely worth exploring and if you’re a small business without an expendable income for ad spend, it is an invaluable tool to leverage your organic reach and really cut-through. 

On that note, to really maximise your results, there is still a need to lean into Instagram faves like Reels as they will still be prioritised and aid discovery for new users as well as those that don’t opt into the chronological feed. 

As always, if you have any questions, book a complimentary chat with our team!