How to Improve Views on Instagram

Struggling to get your Instagram content seen by more people? You're not alone. The feeling of spending hours on a Reel only to see it reach a fraction of your audience is frustrating. This guide will walk you through practical, no-nonsense strategies to increase your views on Reels, Stories, and posts by working with the algorithm, not against it.

Mastering Instagram Reels: The King of Visibility

If you take away one thing from this article, let it be this: prioritize Reels. They are, by far, the most powerful tool for reaching new audiences on Instagram right now. The platform is heavily pushing short-form video to compete with TikTok, and dedicating your creative energy here will yield the biggest returns in terms of views and new followers.

1. The Golden First 3 Seconds

You have a tiny window to stop someone from scrolling. Your "hook" - the very first few seconds of your video - is everything. It needs to instantly grab attention and create a compelling reason to stick around. A weak opening means your view duration will be low, signaling to the algorithm that your content isn't engaging.

Here are some examples of strong hooks:

• Bold Statement: "Stop using these 3 hashtags on Instagram immediately..."
• Show the End Result First: Show a beautiful final product (a decorated cake, a finished painting) and then say, "Here's how I made this."
• Ask a Relatable Question: "Do you ever feel like you're creating content for no one?"
• Use On-Screen Text: A strong textual hook like "One mistake that's killing your reach" can be extremely effective.

2. Ride the Trend Wave... Smartly

Using trending audio or video formats is a great way to tap into what the algorithm is already favoring. But don't just blindly copy a trend. The key is to adapt it to your specific niche so that it makes sense for your brand and provides value to your target audience. Mashing a random dancing trend into content about financial planning will just confuse people. Instead, find a trending sound and apply it to a common problem or pain point your audience faces.

How to find trending audio:

• While scrolling your Reels feed, look for the small upward-facing arrow next to the audio name. This indicates the sound is currently trending.
• Tap on the audio and see how many people have used it. If there are thousands of videos but they're all recent, you've found a good one.

3. Feed the Algorithm with Consistency

Think of the Instagram algorithm like a hungry machine that you need to feed consistently. Sporadic posting will kill your momentum. Aim to post Reels at least 3-5 times a week to stay top-of-mind and give the platform more data about what kind of content performs well for you. It's better to post three good Reels a week, every week, than to post seven one week and then disappear for a month.

You can find your audience's most active times in your Instagram Insights, which is a great starting point for scheduling your posts when they're most likely to see them.

4. Keep it High-Energy and High-Quality

Low-quality video doesn't just look bad, it gets punished by the algorithm. You don't need a Hollywood film crew, but you do need to cover the basics. Film in good lighting (natural light from a window is perfect), make sure your audio is clear (even your phone's built-in microphone works if you're in a quiet room), and shoot in vertical format (9:16). Beyond technical quality, keep the energy high with quick cuts, appealing transitions, and B-roll footage to maintain viewer interest.

Rethinking Your Content Strategy

Increasing views isn't just about single viral videos. It’s also about building a content ecosystem that attracts new people and keeps your existing community engaged. Thinking strategically about what you post is just as important as how you post it.

1. Create Content for Three Different Audiences

A balanced content strategy serves people at every stage of their journey with you. Not every post needs to be for everyone. Think about your content in three main buckets:

• For Discovery (New Followers): This is the job of your Reels. Create content that's highly relatable, entertaining, or solves a very common, broad-spectrum problem in your niche. This content is designed to be found and shared by people who have never heard of you before.
• For Nurturing (Your Community): This content is for the people who already follow you. It's where you build trust and connection. Think educational carousels, behind-the-scenes Stories, telling your brand story, and answering questions. This content deepens the relationship.
• For Conversion (Potential Customers): This content gently guides interested followers toward becoming customers. It’s not just a sales pitch. It can be a product demo, a case study, a tutorial on how to use your service, or an exclusive offer announced in a Story. It still provides value while highlighting your solution.

2. The Power of Valuable, Shareable Content

When someone saves your post or shares it with a friend, they're sending one of the strongest possible signals to the algorithm that your content is high-quality. Shares are a super-factor in driving views precisely because they represent a personal endorsement.

What makes content shareable? It generally does one of these four things for the audience:

• Saves them time, money, or effort: Checklists, handy tips, hacks, resources.
• Educates them: A helpful carousel that breaks down a complex topic into simple steps.
• Entertains or inspires them: A relatable meme, a powerful transformation story, a stunning visual.
• Reinforces their identity: Content that makes them say, "That is SO me." and share it to their Stories.

Leverage ALL of Instagram’s Features

Instagram rewards creators who use the full suite of its tools. Focusing only on Reels and feed posts means you're leaving a lot of potential engagement (and views) on the table.

1. Don't Neglect Your Stories

Stories don't typically get the massive views that Reels can, but they play a totally different role. They are the single best tool for building a warm, engaged community. Use interactive stickers like Polls, Quizzes, Q&As, and Sliders every day. These interactions aren't just fun, each tap is an engagement signal to the algorithm, telling it that your account commands an active audience. More signals mean the platform is more likely to boost your other content, like your Reels.

2. Strategic Hashtag Use in 2024

The days of copying and pasting 30 irrelevant hashtags are long gone. Today, the best strategy is to use a smaller set of highly relevant hashtags - anywhere from 5 to 10 is a good range. The goal is to clearly tell Instagram what your content is about so it can show it to the right people. Think of them as sorting labels, not magic reach buttons.

A good mix includes:

• Topic Hashtags: Broad terms related to your post (e.g., #ContentMarketing).
• Niche Hashtags: More specific terms for your industry (e.g., #SmallBusinessMarketingTips).
• Community Hashtags: Terms your ideal audience uses (e.g., #FemaleFoundersClub).

3. Collaborations Have a Multiplier Effect

Using Instagram’s "Collabs" feature is one of the quickest ways to get your content in front of a new, targeted audience. When you collaborate with another creator, your post appears on both of your profiles and reaches both sets of followers. Find creators in a similar or adjacent niche with a comparable audience size and propose a collaboration on a piece of content that provides value to both of your communities.

Engage Like a Human, Not a Bot

Social media is a two-way street. If you just post content and log off (a method known as "post and ghost"), you’re completely missing the "social" part of social media - and the algorithm will notice.

1. The First-Hour Engagement Boost

When you post a new piece of content, the first 60 minutes are critical. The algorithm shows it to a small slice of your audience and watches how they react. If it gets a quick burst of likes, comments, saves, and shares, the algorithm interprets this as a sign of high-quality content and pushes it out to a wider audience. Turn on your post notifications and make a habit of replying to every single comment that comes in within that first hour. This doubles your comment count and encourages more people to join the conversation.

2. Create Opportunities for Conversation

Don't end your captions with a passive statement. Actively invite engagement by asking open-ended questions. Instead of saying, "Here's my morning routine," try closing with, "What's the one non-negotiable part of your morning routine? Tell me in the comments!" This simple shift changes your content from a broadcast into a conversation starter.

Final Thoughts

Improving your views on Instagram isn't about finding a single secret hack, but rather implementing a consistent strategy. It’s a combination of creating algorithm-friendly Reels, building a thoughtful content plan that serves your community, and engaging authentically with your audience.

Juggling all these moving parts - planning your content calendar, posting at the right times, and responding to every comment across multiple accounts - can feel like a full-time job. That's exactly why we created Postbase. We wanted a simple, modern tool that was built from the ground up for today's social media reality: short-form video. It lets us plan our content visually, reliably schedule Reels across platforms, and manage all our engagement in one clean inbox, without the clunky and outdated interfaces of older tools.