Head of Meta-owned Instagram, Adam Mosseri, shares regular updates about platform changes on his personal accounts. In the recent weeks and months a few big changes have been announced and are being rolled out to users now. Some of these updates include safety for children and teens through parental controls - like notifications to parents when their children report something on Instagram, and sending reminders to teen owned accounts to take a break from social media. While these are important updates regarding teen mental wellbeing and safety they likely won’t be affecting marketers too much, however many of the other updates are changes you will want to know about and prepare for.
- Ranking - Adam Mosseri says,“If you create something from scratch, you should get more credit than if you are resharing something from someone else. We’re going to do more to try and value original content more, particularly compared to reposted content.”
Instagram’s algorithm will be shifting to prioritize original content. What does this mean for your business? It depends! If you are currently using your business pages to mainly share posts related to your industry, and not videos and photos you are posting, it is time to make a shift. Behind-the-scenes content is a great way to introduce your followers to an in-depth look at what you do.
The app is still giving higher reach to videos over photos, but a curated mix of both is ideal to reach your desired audiences. - Enhanced tags - While tagging other accounts is a feature that has been on the platform for years, they have added new features to profile tags. Professional pages can now edit their profile to include a category title. These will be shown when other users tag you in their posts. For example, a video can tag the make-up artist, choreographer, stylist, videographer, and more which will allow others to use these tags to quickly identify users they have an interest in.
- Product tags - Now all accounts are able to use product tags. For retailer accounts especially, this will be important! When a customer shares a photo with your product they can tag your account. If shopping is enabled on your account, others can tag the specific products that are in the photo. These tags can increase traffic and sales. To learn more about tags, read here.
For those managing organic social media, these updates will be important in the planning and creating of your posts, as well as engaging with those accounts that are tagging you and your products as they drive visitors to your pages.
