@mosseri's reel — transcript & breakdown

The video starts with an introduction to the topic of ranking on Instagram, immediately setting expectations for the audience interested in maximizing their reach.

“This is the fourth in a short series about how ranking works on Instagram and this is for creators who are trying to maximize their reach on the platform”

The speaker explains the core concept of content ranking using 'proxies' like watch time, shares, and likes, making complex algorithms understandable.

“Now, it's important that you understand that when we rank content, we're trying to show people content that they're interested in, that they would say is worth their time but we can't know for sure what they're interested in so we use proxies How much of the real did they watch? How likely they are to send it to a friend? How likely they are to like that piece of content These are proxies for being interested in something and so the first piece of advice is to look at engagement rates”

The speaker advises focusing on engagement rates (percentages) rather than raw numbers to truly understand content performance.

“Too often creators look at how many views a post got or how many likes a reel got but not at the actual rate so a rate is a percentage so of all the people who saw a reel what percent of them like that reel what percent of them sent it to a friend what is the average watch time of the overall reel this will give you reasons to better understand why a specific post or reel might have done better or worse than another”

The second piece of advice emphasizes the importance of experimenting with content, recognizing that audience interests can change over time.

“The second piece of advice is experiment this is tough but it's true what resonates Day might not resonate in a month or in a year because the world changes and people's interests change as well and so you need to continue to try new things to find the overlap between what's true to your identity and your goals but also what's going to find an audience and resonate with people on Instagram and therefore get more reach”

A practical tip about 'trial reels' is provided, offering a low-pressure way for creators to test new content formats or topics.

“One small plug though is trial reels which if you're a reels creator allows you a less pressurized ways way to experiment because you can post reels not to your profile or to your followers but just to non followers Great Way to try stuff quick”

The final piece of advice balances the benefits of frequent posting with the risk of burnout, encouraging sustainable strategies.

“The third and I want to be careful here is think about your post frequency On one hand, posting more often is going to increase your reach over time because more at bats means you've got a higher chance of getting a hit This other side though of the coin is that if you try to take on too aggressive of posting strategy, you're going to burn out and that's not good for anybody So, try and pick a frequency that you can sustain over the long time but that gives you as many bats as you feel like you can really manage over a over a long Period of time”

The video concludes with a concise summary and a promise of more helpful content, fostering audience retention.

“Anyway, three pieces of advice Hopefully this helps more to come soon Peace”