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Instagram from first principles

How Instagram decides who sees what, which formats do which job, and how to read a reach drop without guessing.

7 modules · about 50 minutes end to end · free, no signup

Before you start

Written for someone responsible for an Instagram account who is tired of contradictory advice. No assumptions beyond having used the app.

Foundations

How the system actually works, before any tactics.

  1. 01How Instagram decides who sees whatThere is no single algorithm. So what is actually deciding your reach?
  2. 02The formats and what each is forReels, carousels, stories, lives — which job does each actually do?

Core mechanics

The levers you will actually pull, and what each one moves.

  1. 03What the ranking signals actually areWhich interactions move distribution, and which are vanity?
  2. 04Content that compoundsHow do you build something that keeps working rather than restarting each week?
  3. 05Turning reach into somethingReach is not the goal. What happens after someone watches?

Working like a practitioner

Diagnosis: what to do when the numbers move and nobody knows why.

  1. 06Diagnosing a reach dropViews halved. What do you check, and in what order?

The frontier

What is changing now — the part the daily feed keeps updating.

  1. 07Creators, AI and where Instagram is goingWhat is changing about the platform that will change the work?