How do you get top post on instagram

4 Ways to Get Your Post Featured

Getting featured in the trending Instagram hashtags is a big deal. Like getting featured on the Explore Page, it can results in a huge network effect that essentially makes your post go viral on Instagram!

But how do you actually get featured in the trending Instagram hashtags? And what factors does Instagram care about when selecting which posts to feature? Fear not, in the following guide, we explain everything you need to know about trending Instagram hashtags and how to get featured as a “top post.” Let’s go:

What are Trending Instagram Hashtags?

If you’ve ever searched for a hashtag on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed the grid of nine “top posts” that appear at the top of the results page. According to Instagram, top posts appear on trending hashtags “to show you some of the most popular posts that were tagged with that hashtag.” Underneath the top posts, posts are arranged chronologically and are constantly being updated, so getting into the top posts can mean huge exposure for your brand!

Like the Explore Page, top posts are chosen algorithmically based on several factors. While the Explore Page is essentially an aggregation of posts that Instagram thinks you’ll like based on your behavior, when you browse a hashtag on Instagram, every Instagram user sees the exact same top posts!

It doesn’t matter if you’re in Maui or Madagascar, if you get into the top posts for an Instagram hashtag, anyone who searches for that hashtag will be able to see your post. So the opportunity to go viral is pretty huge!

What Makes a “Top Post” on Instagram?

The algorithm behind Instagram’s top posts takes a few things into consideration, including: how much engagement your post receives (likes and comments), the popularity of the hashtag, and how quickly your post receives its engagement.

1. Engagement

While no one knows exactly how the Instagram algorithm works, we do know that Instagram favors posts that get a lot of engagement, meaning that if your post receives a ton of likes and comments, it’s more likely to feature in the top posts of a trending hashtag.

Check out the search results for the hashtag #stayandwander. Most, if not all, of the top posts have over 3,000 likes and 40 comments! The same is true for #throughthepines, which is significantly less popular.

Even #sweetdreamsdlf, which has just 65,600 posts (compared to the 2.3 million posts on #stayandwander), generates top posts in the range of 500 to 3,500 likes.

2. Hashtag Popularity

Here’s an experiment: Open Instagram on your desktop or mobile device and search for a popular hashtag (like #thehappynow). Look through the top posts until you find one that used other hashtags as well. Click on one of those hashtags and then look through the top posts on the hashtag’s page. Did the original post also make it into the top posts for that hashtag? Try again with a different hashtag. Same result?

What this shows is that if you use multiple hashtags in your posts, you can trend for some of them, all of them, or none of them—and all of this depends on how popular the hashtag is. Super-popular hashtags can be very competitive, so unless you can generate thousands of likes in just a couple of hours, your chances of getting into the top posts are pretty slim.

Also keep in mind that the larger the hashtag, the more quickly the top posts are refreshed. For a large hashtag like #finditliveit, it’s unlikely that you would stay in a trending spot for more than 24 hours. But for smaller hashtags, like #pinkobsessed, you may be able to remain trending for a day or two (or more)!

The takeaway: Use a mix of popular hashtags and less popular hashtags to increase your chances of being featured in the top posts!

3. Engagement “Growth Rate”

At the end of the day, top posts are all about what’s trending—not what’s most popular. So even though the amount of engagement you get is really important, it’s slightly less important than how quickly you get that engagement, or, in other words, the “growth rate” of your engagement.

For example, a post that gets 500 likes in 2 hours has a better chance of ranking in the top posts than a post that gets 5,000 likes over 24 hours.

This isn’t a perfect science—there are a ton of other factors to consider. But the bottom line is: If you want to get into the top posts for a hashtag, speed is of the essence. It doesn’t matter if your account has 5,000 or 50,000 followers, so long as your post’s engagement growth rate is higher than everyone else’s.

This is actually kind of a blessing in disguise. Why, you ask? Because for most accounts, it’s a lot easier to get 500 likes quickly than it is to get 5,000 slowly. If all Instagram cared about was the amount of likes a post gets, then only the biggest accounts with the most followers would have a chance of making it into the top posts for a hashtag. The growth rate component levels the playing field and gives an opportunity to smaller accounts to get featured in the top posts.

How to Get Featured in the Trending Instagram Hashtags?

1. Pick the right hashtags

The first step is picking the right hashtags to trend for. If you’re an account with 10,000 or less followers, you’re much more likely to get into the top posts for a smaller, highly-targeted hashtag like #fashiongoals than you are for a massive hashtag like #instafashion.

Remember that the relevance of your hashtag is much more important than how popular it is. Rather than just adding random hashtags (#sunset, #girl, #cali) to your photos, find what hashtags are killing it in your niche! This way, you can connect with other creatives in your industry and develop personal relationships.

2. Generate a ton of engagement

Once you’ve picked the right hashtag, you need to focus on getting as much engagement on your post as quickly as possible. And one of the best ways to do this is to schedule your Instagram posts for when your audience is most active on Instagram.

If you post when your audience is most active on Instagram, you’re more likely to drive engagement on that post. That engagement will translate into Instagram bumping your post higher up on users’ feeds, which, in turn, will result in even more engagement on your post. It’s a cyclical process: higher engagement leads to more visibility, which leads to higher engagement, which leads to more visibility… and it all starts with when you post on Instagram.

If you want to boost your chances of generating a ton of quick engagement on your posts, find out what your best times to post are, and then use a free tool like Later to schedule your Instagram posts in advance!

start scheduling instagram posts

3. Use 3-5 “big” hashtags on your post

If you want a shot at getting into the trending Instagram hashtags, you also want to include 3-5 “big” hashtags that are less targeted but generate a lot of likes and comments. Some examples are #instagood, #photooftheday, and #vscocam. These “big” hashtags should still be relevant to you, but they should have a ton of posts and a high amount of engagement (lots of people searching for them).

For example, if you’re a fashion brand, you could use some big hashtags like #stylediaries, #whatiwore, and #lovethislook, and then some more niche hashtags that are relevant to your specific post.

4. Create a call-to-action (CTA) in your caption

It’s hard to say what the Instagram algorithm favors more: likes or comments. But in any case, generating a ton of comments on your posts is important if you want to get featured in the trending Instagram hashtags. That’s why we can’t stress enough the importance of including a call-to-action in your Instagram captions. It’s great way to inspire your followers to engage with your account in the comments section and spend more time viewing your post—which could also be a factor that Instagram takes into consideration when selecting the top posts for a hashtag!

To create a call-to-action on Instagram, you just need to ask your followers to do something after reading your caption! You can ask them a question about what they’re up to this weekend, or what they think of a new product, and tell them to leave their answer in the comments.

Getting featured in Instagram’s top posts is a great way to get your brand noticed by new viewers—and it’s a lot easier than it seems! You just need to focus on executing your Instagram hashtag strategy while boosting your engagement by posting great content when your followers are most active!

Ready to jump-start your Instagram engagement? Later makes it easy for you to plan, manage, and schedule your Instagram posts!

start scheduling instagram posts

How to Get Your Post in the Instagram Top Posts Area

Instagram Top Posts have existed for a good year now but I have yet to write about them. However, getting my content trending in the top posts area is one of the most important aspects of my Instagram marketing strategy. First, I should caveat that if you go all laser-focused/obsessed about creating content that will trend, or “go viral,” you are going to live sorely disappointed. The ability to trend is not a given, but you can be aware of what the good qualities of “trending” content are. Use this knowledge to put forth your A-game each day. (Isn’t this what we should be doing as marketers, anyway?)

Instagram Top Posts are one of the most important aspects of my #Instagram marketing strategy. Click To Tweet

What are Instagram Top Posts?

When you go to the Explore tab in the Instagram app and type in a hashtag, the “Top Posts” area is the grid of 9 posts at the top. These are posts that Instagram has selected, presumably through some kind of algorithm, to be featured. Per usual, we don’t know the EXACT formula for getting to this coveted spot, but I’ve identified some general “rules” through trial and experience.

In the above image, I’m showing two examples. One for the hashtag #handlettering (which has quite a few results, 3+ million), and one using the hashtag #instagramtips (almost 50k results).

I’m going to get to the “how to get here” in a moment. Before that, I wanted to break down the top post results for both of these hashtags for context. Here is how things break down:

Remember that #handlettering has over 3 million results showing for that hashtag, and #instagramtips has around 50k. A few observations here:

The trending posts are not always from the biggest accounts. On #handlettering, the top result is from an account with 72,000 followers. An account with almost a half a million followers is in the four-spot. A “smaller” account with just 27,900 followers is trending at the six-spot.
While you don’t have to have the biggest account to win the top spot, for hashtags with a higher number of results (like #handlettering), you are more likely to win a trending spot if your account is larger. While I have seen some really small accounts trend for a giant hashtag, it doesn’t happen all that often. If you are sitting there with 600 followers, I wouldn’t become obsessed with trying to trend for #handlettering. I would look for something else in that hashtag family with fewer results to try and trend for.
The larger the hashtag, the more quickly the trending posts are refreshed. For a large hashtag like our #handlettering example, it’s unlikely that you would stay in a trending spot for more than 24-hours. But for smaller hashtags, like #instagramtips, you may be able to remain trending for a day or two (or more)!

These observations are not just based on these two examples. They are based on my ALL observations from the time that Instagram Top Posts were rolled out, but I’ve chosen these two examples to illustrate my thoughts.

Tips for Trending Content

So now that we understand a little bit about who is sitting in these top spots, I’ll share my tips for getting there:

First, you don’t see spammy, crappy content up here. The one thing that all of this trending content has in common is that it is high-quality and adds value to the person consuming it. Learn more about developing high quality social media content here. Tip: Bring your A-game every day and post beautiful images with valuable captions.
Because you see a mix of larger and smaller accounts (even on the #handlettering example, a 27k follower account is WAY different in size than the 445k follower account), I believe that engagement is a huge success-factor. Likewise, whenever I post something that gets a lot of likes and comments, it trends 99% of the time. Tip: ASK for engagement, post things that inspire comments and likes, and post at your best time.
Engagement is great, but quick engagement is even better. Trending posts generally take their position within the first 24 hours of posting, so you need it to happen fast. Tip: (Again) Post at your best time, but also use the right mix of hashtags to get some quick engagement (even if it isn’t the most genuine).

Help your #Instagram content to trend in the top posts area by posting at your optimal time. Click To Tweet

Picking the Best Hashtags

If you spend any time on Instagram at all, you know that the spam game is strong right now. Like, for every genuine and thoughtful comment, you get 9 emoji-only smiley faces that mean squat. While it’s usually really annoying, it can actually be helpful if you are trying to get to the Instagram Top Posts area.

The first step here is being aware of what is realistic for YOU to trend for. For me, while I HAVE trended for #socialmedia before (4.6 million results), with my current 11k followers, I’m more likely to trend for smaller, highly targeted hashtags like #socialmediamanager or #instagramtips. I’ve talked a lot in the past about picking hashtags, and how hashtag relevancy is more important than the number of results for that hashtag. That holds true here.

#Love has a gazillion results, but it’s very, very generic. If you are selling shoes, it isn’t going to serve you well. The same principle applies here. It would be awesome to trend for some huge hashtag like #instagood, but who cares if your target audience isn’t looking there?

You know your hashtags should be highly targeted and relevant, regardless of size. However, if you want a shot at trending, you will also want to include 3-5 “big” hashtags, that are less-targeted. For me, it’s hashtags like #entrepreneur, #business, and #marketing. They are still highly relevant to me, but they have a lot of results, and therefore a lot of folks double-tapping up a storm.

A Frequently Asked Question

I’m feeling like someone may ask, “Can I go pay for some likes to get my content to the top posts area?” And the answer is NO. You can’t. It might feel good in the short term, but this kind of practice dilutes the effectiveness of Instagram (or any social media) over the long term. You are ruining it for everyone, including yourself. So just don’t.

Have you ever had one of your posts reach the Instagram Top Posts area? What would you add to these tips?

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Molly Marshall teaches small business owners and online entrepreneurs how to systematically and simply grow a profitable online presence through social media. Get your FREE Instagram Strategy Guide now!

How to get to the TOP on Instagram 2021: by hashtag or geolocation

Instagram, like any social network, has its own TOP where you can find the best photos or videos. Getting publications in the TOP can bring you new subscribers, views, likes and comments, and absolutely free. Of course, provided that you have decent content. Every IG account owner strives to be recommended, but the social network has its own ranking algorithms.

In the article we will tell you what factors influence getting into the TOP Instagram, how to promote the publication and how to understand that you are in the TOP.

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Read also : How to promote an account on Instagram

What is TOP on Instagram and what does it mean

TOP on Instagram is a list of the best publications (photo or video) by hashtags, geolocation. To find them, you need to click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen.

At the top there will be a search bar, click on it and get to the page with sections "best, accounts, tags and places". Here you can enter any tag or geotag, they will be displayed in order of popularity. Click on a specific tag and get to the TOP. You can also see similar tags above it. TOP consists of 9publications that include photos, videos and stories.

There is also a TOP in the feed - when your posts are shown above the rest. Videos in the TOP start automatically. A photo or video can hang in the TOP for a day, or maybe even a few seconds - it all depends on the competition in your niche.

Do not confuse TOP with recommendations, they are displayed as soon as you click on the magnifying glass icon. Recommendations are more personalized than TOP and divided into categories:

Recommendations are created separately for each specific user. Previously, the TOP was mostly celebrities with millions of likes and subscribers. Instagram developers have changed the feed ranking algorithm and now recommendations include content that is relevant to user requests.

Also, don't confuse recommendations with the general feed, which shows only those you follow. The general feed will open when you click on the house icon.

It's interesting : 10 data parsers from Instagram

How to get to the TOP of Instagram posts and who is there

Describe the main factors of getting into the TOP:

Speed of gathering likes, views and comments . The faster you get feedback in the form of likes, views, and comments after publishing a post, the higher the chances of being recommended.
Bookmarking . This parameter is related to engagement and also affects search results. The more bookmarks, the better.
Number of comments . If your post has become the subject of heated discussions, the Instagram algorithm considers it interesting and promotes it in the recommended feed.
Subscriptions . Recommendations often include accounts of profiles that you follow.
Hashtags . In 2021, hashtags are no longer as influential as before. But in sum with all other factors, they also give a certain result. Recommended may include a tag that you yourself once used or associated with it.
Geolocation . Geotags also affect getting into the TOP. Instagram often shows posts related to a particular location.

But it's not enough just to get to the TOP, you need to make users want to click on your publication. And for this you need to make an attractive, high-quality, juicy picture.

How to get a photo or video to the TOP of Instagram by hashtag or geolocation

What to do to get to the TOP with a video or photo? Consider the main success factors. These recommendations apply not only to publications, but also to the account as a whole:

Create quality content . This is the first thing to start with. If earlier, it was possible to "wind up popularity", buy likes, subscriptions and comments, but now it does not work. Now engagement and reach rule, and they can only be increased by high-quality content that is interesting to subscribers. And everything is important here - the picture itself, and the meaning that you are trying to convey, and the personality of the blogger.

Post regularly . Subscribers should not forget about you. Of course, if you are already a famous person or you have super unique content, your account will still be visited. But in all other cases, regularity is important. Post at least 2-3 times a week, preferably every day. Treat account management like a job and keep users' attention.

Add geotags and hashtags . So you can be recommended by people associated with these geotags and tags. At the same time, you do not need to lay out a sheet of hashtags - for this you can already get into the shadowban for a long time. Hashtags that do not match the post are also not welcome. Leave 3-5 relevant tags.

Live broadcast . They rarely get into the TOP, but if this happens, you can count on a large influx of new viewers.

Post publications that you want to bookmark . This is useful information or just beautiful and unusual photos. Bookmarks often contain all sorts of life hacks, recipes, collections, checklists.

Motivate users . Post engaging content that encourages comments. Play games, arrange raffles, make posts and stories in the Q&A format, use interactive content.

Be active in the comments . Do not be lazy to respond to comments, this affects the coverage of the post and, accordingly, the ability to get into the TOP.

Interact with other bloggers . You can engage in mutual PR or order PR for money. If you are advised by a blogger whose opinion is listened to, this will increase the interest of users in your account with all the consequences. You can also share a live broadcast with someone.

Post when your audience is at its peak . Activity hours can be easily checked in business account statistics. The logic is simple - during the peaks of activity, you can quickly gain likes, views and comments, and this, in turn, affects the exit to the TOP. Article to help : Best time to post on Instagram .

Drive traffic from other sources . If you already have an audience in other social networks or have your own website, be sure to invite them to follow you on Instagram. More audience interested in you - more chances to bring publications to the TOP.

Be active on subscriber pages . This is not about mindless spam and mutual activity. Make contact. The logic is this - you communicate with a subscriber on his page, draw his attention to you, he comes to you out of his own interest and is already active with you. If you know how to leave comments that attract attention, then in addition to your subscriber, his subscribers will also visit your page. And maybe even subscribe. The same can be done on the pages of competitors.

Article in topic : 31 ways to increase Instagram reach - these tips will also help you get into the TOP recommended.

How to find out that you are in the TOP

Method #1:

Log in to see the TOP from a PC. We log in to the web version of the application using our username and password, go to the search, enter a hashtag or geolocation and open the page with the TOP.

The first 9 publications are the TOP. In the web version, they are called "Best Posts".

TOP is said to be personalized. But it's not. It is easy to check - we copy the link and go to another browser, where you can open the site in private or anonymous mode, that is, without being tied to personal preferences. For example, you can open a link through TOR or Incognito mode in the Chrome browser (combination Ctrl + Shift + N). We see almost the same thing.

Method #2:

View statistics under posts - whether there are impressions by hashtags or geolocation. And in general, how the publication shot. To do this, open a specific post, under it click the "View statistics" button. There you can see the interactions, reach and source of impressions.

Or go to the "Settings" - "Statistics" section and look at this information there.

Conclusion

The desire to bring a publication to the TOP should be dictated by common sense - if this does not bring sales or does not bring a new audience, then you should not waste your time and effort on this. In practice, reaching the top on Instagram by hashtags or geolocation is one of the few ways to get free impressions and reach that should not be neglected.

Useful links :

How to set up ads on Instagram through Facebook
Top 10 Instagram Sharing Services
Instagram promotion training

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Platforms Inc. (and its social networks Instagram, Facebook) is recognized as an extremist organization, its activities are prohibited in Russia.

In this article you will learn:

What is in the TOP on Instagram.
What are the factors that influence posts to get into the TOP.
9 tips on how to get to the top on Instagram in 2022.

Content (expand ↴)

What is TOP on Instagram?

Many Instagram users confuse TOP with recommendations, when posts are shown to users that match their interests. We'll talk about the "thematic" TOP - namely, hashtags and geolocation.

A simple example: a person enters a hashtag: for example, "fashion". In the list of publications for the tag "fashion" there is your post - and it is at the top of the list.

Top for the hashtag "fashion" on Instagram

This means that the post was in the TOP for this tag. Thanks to this, the reach of the photo or video increases, which means that the organic growth of the audience increases. And absolutely free.

The situation is similar with geotagged TOPs: for example, a person enters the label of their city or district in the search bar and sees your publications in the list of posts. It can be a cafe, restaurant or beauty salon. This will increase the number of potential customers.

But remember that photos and videos are in the TOP temporarily - it all depends on the competition. If you have chosen a high-frequency hashtag, then being at the top of the list can last 20-30 minutes. Then other posts will come to the place of your publication.

What factors influence posts in the TOP?

The main factors that affect photos and videos in the TOP by tags and tags:

The speed of typing comments and likes. Your task: to get as many “reactions” as possible immediately after posting a photo or video.
Number of bookmarks.
Organic audience growth.
Reach and engagement.
Number of hashtags.

How to bring photos and videos to the TOP by hashtags and geolocation?

Let's move on to the practical part of the article. Let's look at 9 effective ways that will help you get into the TOP publications by hashtags and geotags.

Post as often as possible

The first piece of advice that will help you get into the TOP is to post new posts as often as possible. For example, 5 photos or videos per week.

To do this, make a content plan - for a week or a month. So you will not have problems with the constant search for ideas for publications.

Make quality content

No matter how trite it may sound, but create only quality content. By “quality” we mean posts that are of interest to your target audience.

High quality and interesting posts get more likes, comments and saves. And as you know, these are one of the main factors for getting into the TOP by hashtags and geotags.

Boost your top scores

In order for your photos and videos to be in the TOP, it is important to get as many “reactions” as possible in the first hours of the “life” of a post. This requires an audience.

If you don't have many subscribers, then try to buy likes, comments and subscribers. The Likemania service will help with this.

Boost indicators in Likemania

Here you can quickly and, most importantly, cheaply and safely boost various indicators: likes, comments, subscribers and even video views.

Get likes and comments through Likemania >>>

Choose hashtags wisely

Another tip that will help you "fly" into the TOP is a competent selection of hashtags. If you use highly competitive tags for your post - publications with millions of other photos and videos - then the probability of getting into the "best list" will be minimal.

Therefore, choose low-frequency (up to 10,000 posts) and mid-frequency (up to 100,000 posts) hashtags.

It is also very important to insert relevant tags - they must correspond to the topic of your post. For example, for a photo of a beauty salon, the tags “auto”, “funny cats”, and so on will not work.

Try Bulk Actions

By bulk actions we mean mass liking and mass following. You need to subscribe and like your audience, which, in turn, will subscribe to your account.

This way you can quickly and relatively inexpensively attract an audience to your profile. And as you know, the more followers you have, the faster you will collect likes and comments for your posts.

For bulk actions, we recommend using the Zengram service. It is cheap and safe - the profile will definitely not be blocked for exceeding the limits.

And most importantly, the tool helps to attract only a "live" audience. No bots or offers.

The first 3 days are free.

Get started with Zengram >>>

Choose the best time to post

Another important thing to get into the TOP is the timing of posts. Your task is to find out at what time the publications get the highest coverage.

For example, at 17:00, posts can collect 200 likes per hour, and at 21:00 - 500 likes. This is due to the fact that at 9 pm your audience is most active.

For more information on how to choose the best time to post on Instagram, read our article.

Leave a call to action

Leave a call to action at the end of each post. Ask your audience to like, comment, and bookmark posts.

You can encourage subscribers: for example, ask them a question. This will help start a discussion in the comments.

Attract live comments

The more comments under the posts, the higher the probability that they will get into the TOP. To attract live comments, we recommend using the Commenter service.

With the help of this platform you can:

Make "random" comments.
Learn more