Insta Changes Their Feed
Like you I woke up to a slew of "turn on" notification posts in my insta feed this morning. As someone who works in social media and marketing, I felt it was a good time to join in on the conversation, and provide some links to some great articles on the matter if you'd like to dive a little deeper. Have no idea what I'm talking about?
Here's the Skinny: Instagram notified its users with this post, that it would be changing up the way that your content shows up in your feed. Instagram stated that you actually miss about 70% of what is posted in your feed, so they are going to start serving up content that they believe you care about based on your interactions within the application. Read, likes, comments, and notifications being turned on.
What this means for you as an individual:
1) You are going to be seeing a lot of brands, your favorite bloggers & business owners, and possibly your mom or sister asking for your "permission" to notify you when they post something. This means your phone getting a push notification, anytime they post...like a buzz or a ding, or if your like me a fade in and a fade out without any noise at all.
2) If you do not like change you might be frustrated by the way your feed starts to look as it won't be in chronological order anymore.
3) You might be surprised and delighted that your feed starts to feel more like what you want it to because it is going to "read your mind" by placing images that thinks you are more likely to interact with on your feed first.
What this means for you as a brand:
1) More now than ever you are going to have to be true to your authentic "brand voice" in your imagery and creating strong calls to action within your posts, to boost user engagement.
2) Adapt. Relax. Adapt. - Social Media is an evolving technology. You are responsible for your business, things change and often bring unexpected breakthroughs. Take this opportunity to learn, and create a unique conversation with your community.
My personal thoughts on the matter:
Social media is just that. SOCIAL. I like to think of it as a dinner party. When you are at a party, you navigate to those individuals or things about the party that are interesting to you. You go over, you say hello, and you engage in some way shape or form that lets the other person know you are interested in what they are saying. My Instagram feed is the same. I will use this change to make an effort to "introduce" myself more with comments on others feeds. I will hand out encouragement via "hearts" so that the algorithm starts to notice what feeds I like, and I will turn on notifications to help me navigate family and close friends over what I like to call the black hole of time wasting .... I mean err "research & inspiration" that is my feed.
As a entrepreneur, I also think today is the day to go through my feed and cheer on others. Some of my friends have large followings that provide the necessary income for them to feed their families, pay off college loans, save for college funds, or simply survive. They have worked hard for their feeds to be curated & different, and have been able to use Insta as the primary means of promoting their businesses ORGANICALLY, while at the same time being fiscally responsible and leveraging it against the costs of traditional (expensive) paid types of advertising. If I love their products, today is the day to comment on their feeds, and reassure them and Insta that they deserve my attention.
Want to know more? Here's a list of some interesting thoughts on both sides of the issue
2. Entrepreneur says we all need to ignore the uproar
3. A blogger tells us her thoughts on the changes and how to adapt
What are your thoughts? How are you deciding to "notify" or not to "notify"?