Instagram recently announced changes to your news feed. Keep calm, and read this guide to rollin’ with the new Instagram feed changes.
Is this the end of building your brand on Instagram?
The most popular social media sites apparently think they know best. In March, the Facebook-owned social network Instagram announced that it would be making changes to the chronological order of your news feed.
Hold up.
The companies like to say, it’s “to improve your experience”, but is that really how Instagrammers feel about the new algorithm changes? Instead of seeing the latest photos by users you follow, you are going to start to feel the burn with a little disconnect.
Change is Terrifying…
People are totally panicking, including influencers, celebrities, and other public figures. Everyone’s freaking out over the thought of losing views and failing to reach their previous audiences. Some Instagrammers are so desperate to fight the change that you’re probably seeing an excess of posts asking you to ‘click to see my posts’ by hitting the “+Follow” button.
But what happens when someone “+Follows” you to avoid getting X’d?
Your relationship with them turns even more personal. When you follow a user because of the algorithm change, they become your new best friend. Not only will you see their new posts, you will also receive text-like messages or notifications to your phone every time they upload something new.
Choose your friends or the Instagram users you follow wisely.
Death to Chronology
We might as well try this with a dictionary. Aimlessly flipping through pages — that’s the level of satisfaction some users receive from the forced “censor” changes. Stop embracing new ideas beyond your own interests, and think inside the box of your new Instagram algorithm.
If you’re like me, you hate the new Facebook format and question why the computer thinks it knows what you want to view better than you. It’s the reason why I no longer care for Facebook.
Alas, Instagram has been touched by the overzealous algorithms and I’m devastated, because it was my favorite (and I don’t mean to play favorites, but… perhaps, the only social media that I don’t find annoying — until now).
They told us, “your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most. The order of photos and videos in your feed will be based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timelessness of the post.” A spokesperson for Instagram said “As we begin, we’re focused on optimizing the order–all the posts will still be there, just in a different order.”
It says, “the moments we believe you will care about the most”. So, the new Instagram feed is a dogma. No one wants to be X’d by the algorithm, so everyone’s desperate to get your attention and be added to your notifications.
Is the battle for visibility futile?
Avoiding Insta-oblivion
The problem with change is that it’s scary and annoying.
Users keep asking you to turn on post notifications to get updates from their accounts. You must go to the profile and click on the “Follow” button, and this will ping you each time the user uploads a post. The desperate Rat Race to the top of the feed has begun, as we spot Instagrammers employing questionable hashtags like “#turnmeon” with an arrow pointing to the button (that says “+Follow”) in the top right corner.
Keep Calm and Instagram On
Instagram informed the internet that the new updates would be gradual and take place over a longer period of time, rather than Insta-oblivion.
“Despite the rumors, no feed changes are being implemented right now — we still have weeks, or even months, of testing to go,” an Instagram spokesman said in a statement. “Currently the test groups are very small. When we roll it out broadly, we will definitely let the community know.”
The new feed will be similar to your Facebook feed. Each newly uploaded post from followers will be sent to you in notification form and appear when you open your profile, and on your phone; the equivalent of a text message is sent.
@Instagram: “We’re listening and we assure you nothing is changing with your feed right now. We promise to let you know when changes roll out broadly.”
They also added a new feature, Instagram for Business with more information on Facebook.
“On average, people miss about 70 percent of the posts in their Instagram feed,” said Kevin Systrom, co-founder and chief executive of Instagram. “What this is about is making sure that the 30 percent you see is the best 30 percent possible.”
If this is the response regarding users missing 70 percent of posts, then shouldn’t you ask them if they even care about this first? Some of us consider missing out on the chronological order of things “not that big a deal”. That’s just how the app works, and has always worked. In fact, some of us like that most about it.
It’s simple.
As an Instagram user, I enjoy seeing things that are posted being added right to the top of my feed. I have cursed Facebook since the “censoring” algorithm changes started back in 2009, and foresee the demise of Instagram following the change. How can a company call itself “INSTA-gram” if the gram isn’t instant?
We call this false advertising.
Only the future will tell if you fall into Insta-oblivion. How are the new algorithm changes treating you? Please leave a comment, and share with your network.
SOURCES:
Why do people ask Instagram to turn on notifications
Instagram Is Changing Its Feed, but (Calm Down) Not yet
Instagram Promises To Alert Users About Algorithm Feed Launch
