Oh look, it’s brother Mosseri, who’s back with another explainer of how Instagram’s systems actually work, in order to dispel myths about reach restrictions and content performance.
In the latest video of his new series which explores Instagram ranking, IG chief Mosseri has outlined Stories ranking, and the elements that the system looks to factor in to decide who gets to see your Stories content.
And with Stories posts now much more prevalent than feed updates, it’s an important element, which could play a key role in dictating your IG performance.
So how do you win at Stories in 2025?
First off, Mosseri notes that Stories are designed for friend sharing, and are less optimal for discovery.
As per Mosseri:
“For the vast majority of creators, posting to Feed is going to be the best way to reach as many people as possible because Stories are designed to connect people with their friends.”
Again, fewer people post to the main feed than they do to Stories and via DM, so the main feed is not the most popular engagement surface. The feed is also now dominated by AI recommendations, with 50% of the posts shown coming from accounts that you don’t follow.
With this in mind, reaching new audiences via feed posts is not as easy as Mosseri seems to suggest here, but the point he’s making is that Stories are not designed for mass amplification, and reaching new audiences. They’re for engaging the audience that you already have in the app.
“If you do use Stories, think of them as a way to reach your most passionate audience with behind-the-scenes, timely content.”
Mosseri explains that the most important signals Instagram’s system factors in when ranking Stories are:
- The likelihood that a user will tap on the story
- The likelihood that a user will like the story
- The likelihood that a user will reply to a story with a message
Given that these are the defining engagement factors, Mosseri again notes that Stories are designed for your existing connections, because most people who don’t know your content are less likely to take these actions. But they can view your Story from your public profile, which is another factor to keep in mind, though it’s a minor element.
The more engagement you can drive with your Stories, the more likely that your next Story will appear higher in each respective users’ Stories display, which will then drive more engagement. So it can be a powerful way to reinforce connection in the app, and build stronger community over time.
With this in mind, you should be considering interactive approaches to Stories, like prompting your audience with polls, emoji responses, and other direct engagement factors.
Obviously, messaging is the strongest indicator of intent, which can also drive direct sales, and that’s another way that you can use Stories to boost performance.
But overall, you’re not just considering displays and presentations, but also how you can prompt your audience to respond to your Stories, in order to build your presence.
Some valuable notes, which could help to define your IG Stories approach in 2025.
You can check out Mosseri’s overview of post ranking here.