In case you weren't clear on Instagram's new algorithmic emphasis on sends, IG chief Adam Mosseri has once again made it clear that his latest advice clip for creators is how to make content more shareworthy.
As Mosseri clarifies, as more people now exist in DMs in the app than are with feed posts, Instagram is looking to amplify those types of content that encourage more sharing behavior, i.e., posts which inspire other users to click on the "Send" icon and forward it to their friends.

As Mosseri further clarifies:

"Don't force it as a creator, but if you can, when you're making content, think about making content that people would want to send to a friend, to someone that they care about, and it will help your reach over time."

Instagram is also using this to inform the new sends display counts in the app, which are rolling out to more users over the past few weeks.
Instagram has been quietly testing this with some users for nearly a year, but it would seem that the feature has just rolled out more broadly recently with more users pointing out the share counts on posts in the app.

So shares is clearly what IG wants creators to focus on, but just how do you create content that triggers more DM shares?

In fact, as a study by Harvard Business Review found after analyzing social media responses to 65,000 articles on news sites, the key is sparking an emotional response with your content.

And which, unsurprisingly, though not surprisingly specifically, likely comes as no surprise.

In fact, it was found that articles with a large number of comments tended to elicit high-arousal emotions like anger and happiness but low levels of dominance, whereby there is reduced control by the individual, like fear. Social sharing, on the other hand, proved to be very closely related to high levels of dominance whereby the reader feels in charge, for example, inspiration or admiration.

To understand context, a "high dominance" emotion is one wherein the respondent can control their response to a certain degree, making a cognitive choice in how they feel, but a "low dominance" response involves something you can't control, such as fear.
So, if you're looking to elicit comments, which has been one of the biggest drivers of maximizing algorithmic reach for a while now, then you are after ideas/emotions that really have a strong reaction, such as anger and fear, see the whole media landscape.

But if you want to drive shares, then inspiring, interesting, funny, that is the way to go.

" Positive content is primed for social sharing. Our study found that admiration and happiness have a strong correlation with high dominance. This makes sense because self-presentation motivation for the content's upbeat nature could possibly underlie the motivation for sharing. Spreading a positive emotional experience is good for others, which makes the sharer look good. Adding an element of surprise helps amplify the content's positive valence."

Consider if you look at your own sharing behaviors and in that way maybe they all do make sense, so if looking for a way to hook into the concepts being outlined by Mosseri, this might help.

That also aligns with the broader shift in focus from Meta on more positive user experiences. And Meta's looking at diluting politics and news content in its apps, responding to negative user feedback, as well as broader political blowback for the company, while on Threads, this Twitter-like experiment, it's also clearly stated it wants to be a more positive user experience.

The overall focus here makes sense, and with Reels becoming a bigger part of the puzzle of engagement also, it makes all the sense that the attention Meta is going to shift onto more positive areas.

So if you want to win on IG in 2024, this is how you do it. Creative concepts are never easy, but if you are looking to align with the advice that's being provided by the head of Instagram himself, this is the way.