Instagram CEO Adam Moserri recently released information about his plans for the app for the rest of the year.
These changes will drastically change how businesses use the app, the type of content businesses should be creating and how we all use the app.
1. Instagram is Going to Give Priority to Video/Reels
We weren’t shocked when the CEO announced the shift from photos to video because Facebook and Instagram have been playing with these changes for years now. In fact, last year Instagram rolled out a change to push video through their IGTV section. Fans weren’t excited and these long videos fell flat as most users are looking for quick, short, easily digestible content.
Instagram’s CEO said Saturday, “We’re no longer a photo-sharing app,” because “The number one reason people say that they use Instagram, in research, is to be entertained.” With that in mind, Instagram is experimenting with more full-screen recommended videos in the main feed. That’s a major shift for Instagram and makes it more like TikTok.
How is Instagram making this shift? It’s all math. A shift with their algorithm to emphasize Reels will change what type of content gets priority in your Feed and Explore pages. What does this mean for business? Time to start taking videos.
2. Changes are Due to Fierce Competion with Other Apps.
With the explosion of TikTok and the ever growing popularity of this app Instagram has started this more aggressive shift to emphasize Reels. Do you have déjà vu? If so, it’s because the same shift happened when Snapchat threatened Instagram’s engagement. The competition between Snap and Instagram is what brought us Stories. Stories were a huge hit and continue to be viewed more than feed posts.
Instagram’s priority over the next few months will be to drastically compete with their two biggest competitors (Snapchat and TikTok). Of course no one knows how this change will impact your standard image Posts but we can assume the accounts who take action and evolve with the new shift will out perform the ones that don’t. Again, the same is true for brands who use Stories regularly and who focus on quality engagement.
3. New Instagram Feature: a desktop post creator and publisher
It was announced that you will soon be able to post and check DMs on the desktop version on Instagram. This change starts with business accounts that have over 10k followers and will slowly add other business accounts. Supposedly by the end of summer all business accounts will have access to the new desktop version of the app.
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