Instagram & Facebook’s Algorithm Changes: What Small Businesses Need to Know in 2025

If it feels like social media platforms are constantly changing or tweaking in-app features, it’s because in many cases, they are! Platforms like Instagram and Facebook constantly evolve to meet their users’ changing needs and preferences, so we often see several updates regularly.

Keeping up with these changes may feel challenging, especially as a small business owner who is already taking on multiple roles and responsibilities. However, understanding each platform’s latest algorithm changes and the types of content that they currently prioritize can help you develop or adjust your strategy so you can create content that reaches your target audience.

In this article, we discuss some of the latest algorithm changes across Meta’s platforms and what these changes mean when creating content.

We help answer:

• What is the Instagram algorithm?
• What impacts reach on Instagram?
• Should small business owners create Instagram Reels?
• What content does the Facebook algorithm prioritize?
• What is the value of creating relevant content on Facebook?
• Why is it important to respond to social media comments?

Navigating Instagram’s Algorithm + Content Tips

Instagram has two billion monthly active users globally, making it a popular social media platform geared more toward short-form video content since it introduced Reels in 2020. As a small business owner, you probably already have an account. However, what type of content are you sharing? While photos continue to be a significant portion of the content on the platform, 2025 indicates a stronger emphasis on videos.

What is the Instagram algorithm?

The current Instagram algorithm consists of various artificial intelligence (AI) ranking signals. Each section of Instagram (such as the feed, Stories, explore page, Reels, and search) uses its own algorithm, which has a unique set of signals that impact how content is presented to users. You can learn more about how Instagram ranks content via this blog post the platform posted.

Essentially, Instagram will show users content depending on a variety of elements, including their activity and engagement history (such as what types of posts they’ve been liking, commenting, and sharing), as well as information about the accounts who are posting, such as how many users have interacted with those creators over a certain period.

What impacts reach on Instagram?

The head of Instagram posted this video at the beginning of the year explaining how watch time, likes, and sends are three significant factors that impact the algorithms. He explains that likes can be slightly more important if you want more of your followers to see your posts, while the number of sends a post receives is slightly more important if you want to reach new people.

If you create content that your audience responds well to, the algorithm can reward you, as it can push that content to users who like similar posts since the algorithm wants to present content that it believes a user will most likely engage with in an effort to keep the user on the app.

Remember that one user’s Instagram feed will differ from another user’s, mainly because of the content each user engages with. The algorithm will present content it expects each user to like and engage with. For small business owners, this may mean creating entertaining content focused on a niche audience, as the more engagement it receives from interested users, the more the platform can push it out to like-minded users.

There are a variety of “dos” and “don’ts” that are important to be aware of in 2025, including:

• Watermarks: Content with watermarks on a video or post from other platforms like TikTok will rank lower in the feed.
• Shareable content: One of the rankings Instagram uses is “sends per reach,” which examines how many shares your content receives. In an effort to bring people together on the app, “shareable” content helps generate reach over time and is encouraged. In fact, “sends” is a ranking that is focused more on than “saves.”
• A focus on Reels: The head of Instagram explained that although the platform doesn’t necessarily suppress one type of content over another,  videos typically receive more likes and views and generate more watch time, which can positively impact its ranking.
• Posting original content: At the beginning of the year, the head of Instagram outlined key areas they’re focused on for 2025, including prioritizing original, creative content. In 2024, Instagram shared a blog post outlining how it rewards those who create original content, and this is being reinforced this year, particularly with the release of Edits—a video editing app—that allows users to produce content and share it to Instagram rather than doing so elsewhere.
• Using audio on posts: You might be used to strictly using audio on video, but the head of Instagram said that adding audio to regular photo and carousel posts can also help with engagement. Remember, when engagement is high on a post, it can trigger the algorithm to share it with more users who would like similar content.
• Respond to comments and engage with other users: Instagram published details about how their algorithms function, highlighting that your interactions with other creators and followers serve as important signals. Engaging in the comments section allows small business owners to foster a more personal connection with current and potential customers, and this interaction can increase the number of comments on your posts, ultimately helping to improve your post ranking on the platform.

Should small business owners create Reels?

A recent analysis by Buffer found that Reels generate 36% more reach than other types of posts on the platform, including more than double the reach compared to a single-image post and 1.36x more than carousels.

Small businesses looking to expand their audience while engaging with their current followers should aim to create posts that their audience will find entertaining and want to watch to the end, as watch time is a signal that indicates how engaging a Reel is. Your content can include:

• Sharing behind the scenes of your business
• Jumping on funny/relevant trends that can resonate with your audience
• Adding a trending audio (if it is available in your account’s music library) as you share details about your products

Find what has performed well in the past through Instagram’s free analytics tool for business accounts and go from there.

Keep in mind that Instagram considers information about a Reel as a signal, impacting its visibility to other users. Facebook may reduce the visibility of Reels if they have low resolution, include watermarks, contain borders from incorrect dimensions, have excessive text, or have already been posted on the platform, among other factors.

You can learn more about the factors that can impact if your content is eligible for recommendations via Instagram’s Help Center post.

Content the Facebook Algorithm Prioritizes 

The Facebook algorithm impacts what users see when they use the platform by using a set of rules. In 2025, it has turned to AI to help rank content, all with the goal of displaying relevant posts to users.

Meta recently updated a post about how it approaches feed ranking and why it uses “personalized ranking” to help the billions of users who use the platform to “see the content that is most valuable to them.” The post also explains how the Facebook feed will display “connected content” for users, which is from friends, groups they’ve joined, pages they’ve liked, as well as “recommended content,” which is what Facebook thinks a user may be interested in.

There are multiple ways Facebook ranks content in users’ feeds, which you can learn more about here. One is that it ranks posts by a score; Facebook says it calculates a “relevance score” on each post, which then orders the posts based on these scores with posts of more value shown higher up in a user’s feed.

How does Facebook know what’s more valuable or meaningful to a user?  When a user likes, comments, or shares a post, for example, it gives Facebook explicit signals that they like the content, and when they view the post, it provides implicit signals. From there, Facebook will predict what it believes would be meaningful to a user.

Create relevant content that your target audience can engage with

Because Facebook values relevancy when determining which posts should appear for users, the content you create should entertain or educate users and apply to the industry you’re in. Facebook says a goal is to “connect people to content that’s meaningful or informative to them,” so content you think your target audience will benefit from is important.

Facebook has several posting tips that can help distribute your content on the platform. For instance, they explain that frequently posting high-quality content that doesn’t violate their guidelines can increase the chances their algorithms will “match your content to an audience that finds it meaningful.” Keep in mind that similar to Instagram, Reels also appear on Facebook, so you could start by expanding your video strategy by posting the same video to both platforms.

It is important to note that there are certain things to avoid as you create content on the platform, as Facebook will reduce distribution and may make your content ineligible for recommendations. For example, Facebook frowns upon posts considered clickbait and engagement bait.

READ MORE: Facebook’s Content Recommendations

The importance of replying to users on your posts

In 2018, Meta published a post about bringing people closer together and the updates it implemented to achieve it. Seven years later, many elements still apply. The post shares, “Page posts that generate conversation between people will show higher in News Feed.”

For small business owners, engaging with commenters on your posts can help tell Facebook’s algorithm that your post is generating engagement, helping to get it in front of more users. It also shows that you’re creating meaningful interactions, which Facebook values.

Small Business Solutions with The UPS Store

As you navigate the latest changes with Meta’s algorithms and enhance your social media strategy, The UPS Store is here to help support your small business with our Small Business Solutions. Visit a location near you and explore our variety of services, including printing, packing and shipping, mailbox rentals, and more.