One always wonders why certain people are always at the top of your Instagram feed. Even though how often you post, there is a pattern that is quite common among Instagrammers that they tend to look back at who has liked the pictures and who has them. The algorithm on which Instagram runs also considers engagement and showing interest in people’s posts as one of the important factors to be successful on Instagram.
People always wonder how Instagram ranks the order of the stories and likes. Let’s find out both.
How does Instagram ranks viewer order on Insta story:
You may have noticed that people which appear on the top 5 of your Instagram story bar are the ones with which you have the least interaction, or have never come in contact with them. On the contrary, the ones with which you come into contact daily are nowhere near to be found.
No one has an exact answer to this question but many theories surface on the web. One such theory suggests that it is due to the stalkers who stalk your profile. According to this theory, stalkers don’t even have to engage with your content through likes and comments, all it requires is for them to visit your account frequently
Another theory that tries to answer this question is most commonly known as the top 50 theory. According to this theory, the order is chronological for the first 50 viewers, which means that so your viewer order will show who clicked to watch your story first. But once it gets to 50 viewers, the algorithm changes. Also, according to some people, once you surpass the first 50 views, the order is then ranked by who interacts with your profile the most via page views, story views, likes, comments, DMs, etc.
Also, according to some experts, there are three factors that influence who ranks where. These are the timing of the post, your relationship with them, and the fact that how much they think they’ll love your story. The order is usually contingent upon the likelihood you will be interested in the content, timeliness of the post, and your relationship with the person who is posting it. The algorithm is designed in a way that is adaptive to your behavior and improves with time.
This leads us to the realization that whoever appears to be on the top 5 of your story bar probably stalks your account all the time, even though they do not like or react to any of your posts.
How does Instagram rank the order of likes:
You must have observed the fact that under you every single Instagram post, there are always some two names which appear followed by a number of additional likes on the post. One always wonders how these people get there and why it is different every time. One may also wonder as to how Instagram decides the ranking of the rest of your likes.
The most common explanation which surfaces the web is that the people you see first in the list of likers are usually the ones with whom you engage the most on your app. This may include the users you search for, react to their posts, such as commenting or liking their photos, or messaging them directly in their inbox, provided they do the same. According to many experts out there, the strongest explanation to this entire fiasco is that you follow the person, and then you simply like their content. These are usually the widely known factors where they rank in the list of likers
The fact that it is always the same person who is listed on top has more to do with Instagram’s algorithm. This is because Instagram’s algorithm tries their best to show you the people who like your post in a manner that interests you the most. In other words, You want to see the name of the person you interact with at the top of your list, so the one or two people you see listed before the number are who view your profile a lot and engage with you. In simpler words, it is the app who is guessing from who you get the most Instagram likes from.
The fact that it is always the same people who appear to be on the top is because your interaction with those individuals is relatively much higher than others. For example, if you message someone directly on Instagram, and like to react to their photos, then there is a higher chance that those people will most likely be one of the people which will appear as the first likes on your photo. Another reason may be that you both may follow one and other which is why they both may appear at the top of the like list. Another reason may be that the person who appears to be on top of your like list is that he may be the person who likes your posts and views your stories on a regular basis, which may cause them to appear on top of the liker list.
There is one last reason, due to which the same person keeps on appearing on top of most likes list.
It may be due to the fact that someone may have tagged you or you may have tagged them due to which they appear to be on top of your Instagram’s liker list. One has to realise that the list changes a lot and a person may be replaced by someone who has tagged you recently or was tagged by you. Another reason may be that the person who appears to be on the top of your Instagrams liker list has a verified account or has the most number of followers among all your followers. These people are most likely to rank higher than anyone who has a low follower count. All of these above-mentioned factors contribute in ranking someone on top of your Instagram’s liker list.
