Catarina Alves de Sousa
– Social Media Manager –
The expression “take one step back to take two forward” seems to have become part of Instagram’s strategy toward a more organic content-sharing space. For this social media, there seems to be an environment of clear change that has been felt in the most recent news announced.
It is no longer the first time we have witnessed a platform backtracking on its advances. There was a time when it was possible to fool Google; in the middle of paragraphs, it was not uncommon to include “hidden” keywords (usually white letters on a white background) to improve the SEO performance of articles. In turn, Google soon improved the performance of its algorithm, which easily began to detect these cases, penalizing sites that resorted to these practices.
Catarina Alves de Sousa
– Social Media Manager –
The expression “take one step back to take two forward” seems to have become part of Instagram’s strategy toward a more organic content-sharing space. For this social media, there seems to be an environment of clear change that has been felt in the most recent news announced.
It is no longer the first time we have witnessed a platform backtracking on its advances. There was a time when it was possible to fool Google; in the middle of paragraphs, it was not uncommon to include “hidden” keywords (usually white letters on a white background) to improve the SEO performance of articles. In turn, Google soon improved the performance of its algorithm, which easily began to detect these cases, penalizing sites that resorted to these practices.
Around ten years later, we have an Instagram that has become a virtual shop window for a panoply of products, brands, and influencers that publicize even more brands, services, products, and spaces, without any great limits. Those who lived through the beginning of this social media, the days when we used this network to keep up with the lives of our family and friends, who shared photos of their days and their best moments through spontaneous photos, filtered to a minimum, with minimal concern for likes, shares, followers and algorithm performance.
With great power comes great responsibility?
The iconic phrase said by uncle Ben to a young Peter Parker could well apply to the current Instagram landscape. This is purely a speculative statement, but aren’t some of the most recent changes on Instagram partly due to Instagram taking responsibility? Are we on a path towards more organic content because, in more recent years, we’ve moved too far away from creating content for pure pleasure?
Hide excessive stories and a new way to interact with this format
There is talk that Instagram is testing grouping multiple stories together when they belong to the same user as a way to minimize visual “spam” of stories.
One user shared how Instagram is starting to do this:
Source: Phil Ricelle’s Twitter Page
Source: Phil Ricelle’s Twitter Page
In this case, instead of showing dozens of dotted stories in a row, it shows far fewer at once, but when you click “Show All”, we get to see all the stories the user has posted in the last 24 hours.
On the other hand, if Instagram takes away, Instagram gives away!
You may have noticed the hearts you’re getting in the stories you post. These are the result of one of the new features that Instagram brought us this year. Although it does not significantly change the way we use and interact with the app, it is still a funny note and a new way to interact with this more ephemeral content.
Still, about stories, we finish with an even more impacting novelty.
In 2022, we can say Goodbye to the mandatory 15-second stories. Now, if you have longer videos (up to 60 seconds) that you want to share in a story, you’ll be able to do so without breaking them into shorter 15-second videos.
With the end of IGTV, sharing longer videos is no longer a problem on Instagram!
The return of the chronological feed
This is undoubtedly one of the biggest steps Instagram is taking towards a more organic existence. Aware that it was losing ground compared to Tik Tok, it took the reins of the situation and chose to circumvent it by including the ability to choose the type of feed you want to see when you open your Instagram app.
Instagram users (especially older ones), had been calling for the return of the chronological feed for a long time. Thankfully, Instagram has listened to them.
If confirmed, it will be the end of the exclusivity of the feed by engagement, organized by the most successful posts or the ones you interact with the most and which Instagram’s algorithm considers will be most interesting to you.
Do you also miss seeing publications in “order of arrival”?
This new feature aims not only to meet users’ requests but also to give them back some lost control of what they see when they open the app.
With the launch of this novelty, we are faced with three different ways of presenting the feed:
- Home (default, publications by engagement)
- Favorites (only the publications of users you have marked as favorites)
- Following (publications by chronological order of all the users you follow)
Perhaps to compensate a little for the replacement of Instagram’s algorithmically curated feed over chronologically ordered posts, it makes sense for Instagram to launch the feature to mark users of the app as favorites so that, if that’s what you want, you can only see posts from people you’ve chosen as “favorites”.
Nothing like being able to choose who you most want to see on your favorite app, don’t you agree? The development of artificial intelligence is indeed impressive, but in an app like this, it makes sense to empower users to make the best choices for themselves, especially at a time when there is so much talk about mindful use of social media and its impact on mental health.
More support for content creators
The content creator has become part of the range of social media-related jobs. A content creator who wants to earn money with his talent on social media today can count on various tools provided by them. And Instagram will, in 2022, be part of the social networks that support the work of content creators, with the launch of new monetization products on the platform. There is still no set date for this launch, but there is the certainty that it will be a reality.
And since at the moment, 20% of time spent on Instagram is devoted to viewing reels, the platform is increasingly favoring the sharing of video content. Instagram has long since ceased to be an app made (only) of photo shares.
The focus on video has become a necessity to meet Generation Z trends and to rival Tik Tok.
In continuation of the importance of video content, Instagram plans to launch “Reels Visual Replies”, a feature that allows you to reply to reels with other reels, just as you do on Tik Tok with the ‘duet’ functionality. This update will attract even more engagement for this type of content, which is increasingly gaining a prominent place on Instagram.
In addition, the idea is also to make the video fullscreen, so that it takes up the entire screen while scrolling through the feed.
Source: Projeto Agência de Bolso
And speaking of content creators, it’s almost impossible to talk about them without mentioning the infamous NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens).
In May this year, Instagram began testing the inclusion of NFTs – along with content creators – in the app. The aim is to make it possible for them to share NFTs created or bought by them on this social network. There will be no costs associated with posting or sharing NFTs.
Soon, access to digital collectibles will also be expanded, bringing the benefits of NFT ownership to even more creators and collectors.
Source: @adambombsquad
Source: @adambombsquadChange is really the key to progress
With all these changes happening to one of our favorite social networks, it’s normal to think that Instagram is a distant memory of the time when it first appeared. The photo-sharing and mirror social media of simpler times has now become the absolute giant of social networks that are based on photo sharing, but not only. Today, Instagram is a business hub, a shared stage between content creators, influencers, and brands, for whom the importance of being and creating within Instagram does not go unnoticed.
Arguably, users who use the platform without any financial interest behind it feel that the true essence of Instagram has been lost. Will all these ongoing changes bring us closer to the lost authenticity?
