# Does Instagram Know Me Better Than I Know Me?

- Link: https://chatterblast.com/blog/does-instagram-know-me-better-than-i-know-me/
- Published: 2018-02-07T19:21:30-05:00
- Author: chatterblastteam

There’s a place…a familiar place. A place where last week’s red carpet photos accompany
acne removal how-to guides and vegan cauliflower wing recipes. A place where you
might accidentally spend hours of your day or run into a mutual friend. No, I’m 
not talking about your dermatologist’s waiting room littered with old tabloids and
Food Network magazines. I’m talking about the Instagram “explore” page.

Since the days of chronological timelines and square photo dimensions, Instagram
has announced hundreds of [updates and changes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Instagram)
to the platform. Somewhere along the way, the explore page was born and has quickly
grown right before our scrolling thumbs.

## **What It Is **

Simply put, the explore page is where you find content that interests you. Or, content
that Instagram _thinks_ interests you. There are video channels, event channels,
special topics and interests channels and, of course, plain old photos, all from
millions of different users.

Explore works to connect you with the 95 million+ photos and videos uploaded to 
Instagram daily based on some major data they have collected about you, such as…

 * Who you follow
 * Who your friends follow
 * Your location
 * What you double-tap
 * What what you search for

Creepy, right? Well, you should be used to [this data stuff](http://chatterblast.wpengine.com/hacking-into-the-world-of-big-data-on-social-media/)
by now. Content on explore is tailored to each user, so the chances my explore page
is similar to [this guy’s](https://www.instagram.com/craptaxidermy/) is very unlikely—
at least I hope. But hey, now that I’ve searched “taxidermy,” our pages might not
be too different. (I’ll test this out later.)

## **The Anatomy of My Explore Page**

Here is my current explore page, a.k.a. the window into my soul:

[[

And yes, Instagram, I like food. By looking here, anyone can tell I’m just a gal
in Philly who likes funny animals, food and has no idea how to contour.

## **Before and After**

In the name of research, I strayed from my usual “cat eye how-to” and “showering
rat” searches for the day and pretended I was really into sports. More specifically,
into the (world champion!!!) [Eagles](http://chatterblast.wpengine.com/the-best-of-phillytwitter-were-going-to-the-super-bowl-edition/).
I spent about 30 minutes rummaging through #FlyEaglesFly hashtags, fan photos and
NFL clips to see how my explore page would change.

[[

Sure enough, my explore went from “sushi fanatic” to “wannabe-blonde sports head.”
Amazing. Science. Data. DATA. As for the hair transformation videos, I did get a
bit distracted during my Eagles quest.

But look, there are now three posts featured on my refreshed explore page about 
the Eagles. Plus, four other sports-related pieces of content. We have OBJ’s Instagram
story up top, some basketball tweets goin’ on and Floyd Mayweather talking about
his one hundred million dollar check.

## **The Good **

Getting new and authentic users to follow you, your business or your brand on the‘
gram is tough, especially when users are so worried about their following-to-follower
ratios. Since explore’s content isn’t restrained by what accounts users already 
follow, though, you do have the chance to pop up on their explore page and be seen.

But how? I don’t know, maybe…

 * **Know your audience **(preferably everything about them)
 * **Hashtag,** but keep those #s relevant to your post
 * **Tag** locations and similar accounts
 * **Start a story** to limit frequent posting, and add an event or location tag,
   too

## **The Unfortunate**

You may never find your way to someone’s explore page. Fear not, there’s always 
paid content for that. _*Wink-wink.*_