How to update your growth strategy for the NEW Instagram algorithm

If you have spent any time on Instagram in the last couple of weeks, then undoubtedly you've come across the news that Instagram is changing! I know, it sounds so scary, and frustrating - but changes are a natural part of the evolution of any social media app, and while it might seem overwhelming at first, they will eventually feel second nature. For example, remember when Instagram stories were introduced? Creators and businesses felt uncertain about the change, but now stories are the most popular feature of the app! The point is, you don't need to feel overwhelmed or intimidated, because we're going to walk through all the major changes coming to Instagram, as announced by the head of Instagram himself, Adam Mosseri, and how they are going to help you grow.

That's right - help you grow. I think a mistake that creators or business owners often make is feeling like the Instagram algorithm is out to get them. It's okay, you can admit it if you've felt that way in the past. Like, you've just finally figured out how to increase your engagement, and have seen some results from your current strategy, and then all of the sudden - you hear about changes coming to the platform. I know it can be frustrating, and it feels like Instagram is trying to make it difficult for you to grow, but here's the thing that you need to know about Instagram:

The algorithm wants your content to be seen by lots of people. Instagram would love if your content was highly engaging, entertaining, and that your followers would keep their eyes glued to the screen whenever they see a post from you. Because Instagram, and it's many algorithms' goal is simple: keep users on Instagram.

Especially in the current landscape where Instagram is losing users to TikTok by the thousands, Instagram is making these changes in order to keep people there longer - and they ultimately do that by showing people the content they want to see.

All of this is to say: if you can figure out what your audience wants to see, and you can deliver that consistently in a format that's engaging and eye-catching - your content will perform well. A lot of creators make the mistake of getting stuck in a rut, posting the same old content they've always made, and then feeling frustrated that the algorithm isn't working for them. The best thing you can do for your Instagram strategy is put yourself in the position of your ideal followers, and create what they would want to see, and what they would want to engage with. Then, secondarily, stay aware of the changing priorities of Instagram so that you can make sure the format that you make that content in jives with their goals as a platform - which we will get into more detail in below.

So, hopefully, you find that somewhat encouraging: the algorithm wants your content to succeed because it would mean more of Instagram's users spending more time there. So, with all that being said, let's chat about all the changes coming to Instagram over the second half of 2021.

Even though the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri's IGTV announcing the changes coming to Instagram was pretty short, there was actually quite a lot of interesting info packed in there. In my opinion, there are really four main takeaways that we need to go over, which summarize all of the changes he was alluding to, let's start with the boldest statement he made which was:

"Instagram is no longer just a photo sharing app"

To me, it's fairly obvious that Mosseri made this statement because he knew it would be the perfect sound bite to made headlines - and also get people intrigued, nervous, and maybe even a bit defensive? The reality of social media in 2021 is that you need to say something a bit controversial if you want to get any attention at all - and in my opinion, this was the perfect level of controversial and at the same time non-commital. It got his video lots of attention, but also it's not actually really saying all that much? Here's my opinion: this is nothing new. Over the past couple of years, Instagram has clearly been working way more on video features for the app than photo features. They've developed stories, IGTV, added features to lives, and of course, created Reels. When was the last time Instagram made a functional update that related solely to photo sharing? Probably when they changed things so you could post 4:5 and 16:9 images - that was years ago! Anyone who's been using Instagram for the past couple of years could have told you that it's no longer just a photo-sharing app - but this is Instagram's official statement that this is their intention.

If you're a photographer or a creator who's primary mode of creation has been still images, then this might sound a bit scary. Don't let it intimidate you - in my opinion, Instagram is still going to be the number one place online to share any kind of visual content - including photos - but this is definitely a sign that it might be time to start experimenting, trying out new forms of content, and seeing what works well for your audience. Carousels can be a huge part of this, especially for photographers. Instead of posting a single still image from a client shoot, consider grabbing some behind-the-scenes footage on your phone during the shoot, and sharing that clip as part of a carousel with that image. This way, you can keep your feed looking cute, while still taking advantage of how well video does on Instagram right now. Another consideration for photographers, do a screen-recording timelapse of your editing process or make a slider animation that reveals the before and after of your editing - these are also engaging video pieces that can increase the time your followers spend looking at your content, and therefore help to increase your reach.

The point of these examples is this: no matter what niche you're in, you can find ways to incorporate movement and video into your content, whether it's behind the scenes of a photoshoot, or even a cute animation on your graphic carousel, there are creative ways to make sure that you're not just sharing static images all of the time - this doesn't mean that you never can share a static image again - it just means that you should no longer be relying on that as your sole form of content.

So, that was the first takeaway from Mosseri's IGTV - and it's definitely one that I think has gone the furthest in the social media educator or Instagram guru space - but don't let it scare you or discourage you. Instead, let it inspire you to try out new forms of content and connect with your audience in new ways.

Video is King

The next major change coming to the Instagram platform is the prioritization of video. Now, it was probably obvious that this is the case from my previous point about no longer being a photo sharing app - however, in his announcement Mosseri gave even more context to why Instagram is so focused on video.

Here's the cold, hard truth about online video: it's just simply the most engaging type of content. Maybe because it feels the most similar to real life, or maybe it's just our shrinking attention spans - either way, we can see across pretty much every social platform right now (except Twitter) that video content is the best way to increase your reach and grow. Instagram is obviously aware of this, and wants to take advantage of the power of online video as well. We've already seen this in their creation and promotion of the new Reels feature. My prediction is that we may even see more new video-related features in the coming months.

In the announcement, Mosseri mentioned TikTok and YouTube by name, and I think for many of us, the mention of TikTok was not surprising at all, considering how transparently Instagram copied Reels. However, what I'm personally curious about is Instagram's view of YouTube and what they might do to try to steal some attention from YouTube. In my opinion, IGTV was Instagram's shot at creating a YouTube competitor. However, I don't think that it really turned out how they were expecting or hoping for. When IGTV was first released, Instagram launched a whole separate app for that section of the platform, added that IGTV button to the top right-hand corner of the home page, and you could tell that they were expecting this to be a big deal. But, users did not come through as expected and within less than a year, Instagram was pulling back on some of these changes.

There are lots of reasons why this happened - and I don't pretend to know them all, since Instagram stays pretty tight-lipped about this sort of thing - but my personal view is that so far, no app has really been able to make long-form, mobile-first, vertical video happen. We see so many platforms having success with vertical format video that is 3 minutes or less (TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are great examples) but between platforms like Quibi, and IGTV, there is certainly not a long line up of successes when it comes to longer vertical videos.

Now, a few years ago people would have said "who wants to watch vertical videos at all?" and there would have been a lot of doubt about the potential success of a platform even like TikTok, which has obviously proven to be an effective model. So, I'm not going to say that long form vertical video is impossible, but it does seem to be up against a major challenge, which in my opinion is just that people don't enjoy consuming content that way. When content is vertical, we expect it to be shorter, interactive, we want to swipe past it if it's not interesting. Most of us will not sit for 20 minutes watching a vertical video in the same way we will watch a 20 minute horizontal YouTube video.

The point of this tangent is this: I'm going to be really curious to see if Instagram experiments with more longer form video features, since they obviously see YouTube as a compeitor - and for good reason, YouTube is awesome at keeping people watching for a long time- and it will be interesting to see what sort of surfaces they might create to compete with YouTube.

While we wait to see what Instagram comes up with in terms of new video features, it's clear that in order to get the reach and engagement you're looking for, utilizing Instagram's current video features is the way to go.

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Entertainment is Everything

Another interesting takeaway from Mosseri's announcement was his emphasis on entertainment. He said, in a survery of Instagram users about what brings them to the app, the majority of people said they were looking for entertainment.

This concept ties into something I've been thinking about more broadly in terms of social media marketing, and the most effective strategies. I read somewhere recently, and I wish I could remember where I heard it, that when it comes to social media, even if you are teaching something, or providing information, value, whatever you call it - if you are not also entertaining your viewer, then they will not keep consuming your content. When it comes down it, we go to work to do work, we go to school or do online courses to learn, and if we are passively consuming social media content, then chances are we want to be entertained.

I think this is going to be a big shift for a lot of creators and business owners that are typically really focused on educating, or using their content to promote their products or services. But overall, I see this fitting in with a larger trend that's been happening in the marketing landscape for several years which is this: no matter what kind of business you are, you're going to be a media company in addition to whatever you actually provide. You can see countless examples of this among some of the most successful digital brands right now - ConvertKit is an email marketing software, but they also produce a digital magazine called Trade Craft. Later is a social media scheduling platform, but they have a super active blog that's publishing new articles almost daily. Away is a luggage company that produces an online travel magazine called Here Magazine. This is content marketing taken to its natural end-point - and I think this is the approach that is going to be most successful in the coming months and years on Instagram.

Now I know this might sound a bit abstract, so bringing it back to a practical sense, how are you going to change your strategy to account for this shift? My suggestion is to start thinking about your content marketing for your business as if it was an online magazine - ultimately the point of magazine articles, while they might inform or educate, is to entertain. When you start thinking about your online presence as if you're Refinery 29 or Buzzfeed, you'll start to see more engagement because you're making content for the sake of connecting with an audience and entertaining them, rather than trying to sell to them. Of course, it's important that you also do include a certain amount of promotional content so that you do make sales and convert leads into customers - but your primary approach should be about entertaining and community building.

A Reccomendations-based feed is coming

Finally, the last piece that Mosseri left us with during his IGTV was that Instagram would soon be experimenting with a recommendations-based feed, meaning that not everything you see in your main feed is going to necessarily be from people that you follow. I think this is fascinating, and honestly, a much-needed update to the main Instagram feed.

Since Stories were introduced, users have been checking their feed less and less, opting instead for browsing stories, and more recently Reels. In my opinion, it's due time that Instagram looks at revamping the feed and finding new ways to make it interesting and engaging again.

All we know now is that this might include recommendations - or the algorithm showing you content that you might be interested in, and not just content from people you follow. This is actually a really exciting opportunity for smaller accounts because it means that the reach of your feed posts will not be limited by the number of followers you have - this could actually open up a whole new avenue for discoverability, like Reels has. Especially since hashtags have decreased in their efficacy in terms of increasing reach, having a new system with feed content is exciting - I look forward to seeing what Instagram introduces, and how it might change the way we approach content creation. definitely stay tuned for updates on how we see this change and ways that you can take advantage of it for your growth.

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