How to Navigate the New Instagram
Just say no-tifications.
When Facebook behemoth acquired Instagram for a cool $300 mil, it was inevitable that sometime in the near future, the social media giants would swap the chronological feed for a business-savvy algorithm. That day has come.
It's tomorrow.*
It was first announced via blog post from IG founder Kevin Systrom. The majority of the web reacted just as expected. It was a lot of, Who Does IG Think They Are? Who Is Instagram To Say What's Important To Me? Give Me Chronological Or Give Me Death! What Do We Want? Chronology! When Do We Want It? Right Now! (get it?)
"What Do We Want? Chronology! When Do We Want It? Right Now! (get it?)"
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It's kind of funny, no? That given the rate at which technology changes and advances, we take serious offense to any change within the tech. However, now that we've had a week to calm down, un-bunch our initial hunch, we've assessed the Instagram fiasco of 2016 and have some pointers.
1. DON'T ENCOURAGE FOLLOWERS TO TURN ON PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
It's tempting, but disastrous. Imagine if you turned on Push Notifications for everyone you follow-- that would mean that anytime someone posted anything, you'd get a text. That's crazy. Before long those followers are going to unfollow you out of sheer annoyance. Instead a better approach...
"Everyone wants you to turn on push notifications. Don't panic. And don't do that."
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2. START COMMENTING AND LIKING
Instagram is supposed to be a community. One of the biggest voiced complaints about the new model is that IG is making a top-down decision about what your community will look like. What the switch requires is real engagement from brands and users to stay "Top 30." (You had to earn your top 5 spot on MySpace, didn't you?) Comment, like, engage, heart it out-- you have followers because they are interested in your unique perspective. So bring it to the rest of the IG community. If you're simply posting for likes but not sharing the love, think about it: Do you deserve to be in someone's top 30 percent?
THINK ABOUT IT: DO YOU DESERVE TO BE IN SOMEONE'S TOP 30 PERCENT?
3. UP YOUR CONTENT GAME
If what you want is to grow your followers, you need to be continuously evolving and getting better as a brand. You're supposed to grow within your work-- the same is now true to grow and retrain your followers.
Before you post, ask yourself: Do I love this? Would I heart this? Does this ADD to someone's day? Will it bring about new ideas? Spark imaginations? Are you making useful contributions? Sharing important information? Inspire? It's not just the photo either. Your caption is not an afterthought. Refine your words. Do better.
Or prepare to be IG vanquished forever.
*Instagram released a statement today via Twitter, "We're listening and we assure you, nothing is changing with your feed right now. We promise to let you know when the changes roll out broadly."
Arianna Schioldager is Create & Cultivate's editorial director. You can find her on IG @ariannawrotethis and more about her at www.ariannawrotethis.com
Instagram Just Pissed Off the Entire Internet
FILTER THIS KEVIN SYSTROM.
Update 6/3/16: After months of delaying the update that has caused a social media uproar and has been petitioned against to keep the popular social media platform chronological, Instagram's new algorithm is now live to all users starting today.
FILTER THIS.
The eighth most popular app in America is piloting a non-chronological feed. In a move that already has a Change.org petition to stop its rollout, Instagram announced the biggest change in its history since adding the video feature in 2013.
Of the change IG's CEO, Kevin Systrom wrote, “You may be surprised to learn that people miss on average 70 percent of their feeds. This means you often don’t see the posts you might care about the most.”
And then, the Internet exploded. (Sorry, Yeezy, we'll get back to talking about Kim K. mañana.)
“To improve your experience,” he continued, “your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most.”
Therein lies the problem: “We believe.” (Also, newsflash: live band videos are actually the worst, please don't put that at the top of my feed.)
Facebook implemented this strategy first with News Feed, a feature that was introduced seven years ago. The backlash was palpable then as well, until everyone simmered down-- and started spending more time on Instagram, where their feed was still an of-the-moment, choose-your-own-adventure tale. In an over-saturated tech world, where consumers know they are constantly being marketing to, IG still felt authentic. (Plus or minus a Valencia filter or two.) It was curated, not by a team with a computer program crunching out an algorithm, but by you. It was yours.
In an over-saturated tech world, where consumers know they are constantly being marketing to, IG still felt authentic.
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At our recent pop-up at SXSW there was a lot of talk about putting the “humanity” back into the machine. It’s a reason why Facebook Live is a platform that people are betting on.
What IG is doing, is the opposite. Chronological works because it feels real, even if it is filtered. There is a sense of ownership in what you’re seeing. We don’t need another app optimizing the order in which we see things. Real life isn’t like that. Let us explore for ourselves.
Putting personal aside however, you might be wondering what this means for your business? Just like Facebook, the likelihood of a pay to play option for brands to spend the dollars to land at the top of your feed, is high. Valuation based on engagement is still hard to quantify, and money needs to be made. (Figure that out yet Snapchat?)
How the algorithm will effect how brands interact with followers is clearly yet to be seen, but we can be certain that companies will have to evolve their social strategy to keep up with changing platforms. Brands will need to engage their followers more in order to stay at the top of their feeds, and possibly, work harder for their attention. In a way, this could do for brands what people feel so strongly against: a matching brand-to-consumer algorithm means that company will have to engage on a human level. If nothing else, it certainly keeps social strategy directors on their toes.
In a New York Times interview announcing the change Systrom stated: “What this is about is making sure that the 30 percent you see is the best 30 percent possible.”
Which sounds pretty, but some days you don’t want to see the best. Some days you want the worst 10 percent. You want to see the sh*t photo of your friend’s breakfast and feel better about your life.
Some days you want to see the sh*t photo of your friend's breakfast and feel better about your life.
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Arianna Schioldager is Create & Cultivate's editorial director. You can find her on IG @ariannawrotethis and more about her at www.ariannawrotethis.com