There’s a lot of fake on social media.  There are folks who hire companies who do either fake bots, or get folks on other platforms to support them by liking posts or commenting on posts at the same time!

Fake Interactions Don’t Count and Instagram makes sure that it doesn’t.

Authenticity and transparency are key to building sustainable engagement on Instagram. Trying to game the system may provide a short term benefit but it is not a recipe for success long-term. In addition Instagram feed ranking is powered by machine learning which is constantly adapting to new patterns in data so we can recognize in authentic activity and make adjustments.

 

Comments no matter how long they are count towards engagement.

Comments are an important engagement indicator for the Instagram algorithm, so it’s a good idea to reply to your comments on a regular basis.

 

Posts are not prioritized by the algorithm in the first 30 minutes as they were previously.

The algorithm will still serve your content to the users who regularly engage with your content, which means it can still gain traction — even after the first 30 minutes of posting. However, you should share your posts when your audience is most engaged. Insights is a great tool to use because it actually tells you WHEN your audience is most active.  The only problem with this is that it does fluctuate weekly, so you need to stay on top of this for this strategy to work.