One of the top factors Instagram evaluates to determine whether your next post is gonna be widely distributed through the feeds or not is dubbed, “time spent on post.”

If someone sees a post of yours—in the Home Feed, Reels Feed, Explore Page, or wherever they might see it, for instance—do they immediately scroll past it OR do they spend a bit of time with it? That’s the question—because, if they park for a bit, it signifies INTEREST in your content.

The way it works is that Instagram will essentially distribute your post to a sample-size audience, see how it does, and then, based on that, distribute it to a wider audience (or not) – and so on.

Fact is, Instagram is deeply motivated to retain users in the platform for as long and often as possible. The more cumulative time users spend on Instagram, the more abundant its opportunities to place ads that generate company revenue. That’s the game!

Hearts, comments, and post engagement are certainly valuable data points Instagram takes into consideration – however, time spent on post, is (in a way) tied directly to Instagram’s ability to make money.

What’s more, whenever you publish new content, the clock ⏳ starts ticking. Instagram is programmed to showcase “recent” posts — not old ones. That means, the quicker your next post is able to garner attention—while it’s fresh and new—the better it’s bound to do in terms of overall reach and distribution.

If you wanna ensure your next Instagram post is primed to perform, here are some tips and best-practices to keep in mind:

Think about how you start your videos. Does it immediately hook the viewer? Recent Facebook research found that viewers who watch the first 3 seconds of a video are more likely to go on watching for longer durations. The battle of “attention” is in the beginning.
Add eye-catching subtitles. Keep in mind, the sound is set to mute 🔇 in certain feeds, like the Home feed, for instance. If folks don’t know what you’re saying, they’re gonna scroll.
Beef-up your post caption. If folks are scrolling and tap “more” to expand your caption, that’s just your post racking up the time spent on post points!
Don’t neglect the comments thread. If you can drive comments, mentions, replies, pin different comments, and so on—that thread, in its own right—is a time-spent-on-post magnet. 🧲