In 2016, when Instagram scrapped its chronological news feed to announce a new algorithm feature, the platform rocked with moans and uproars.
Some disliked the change. Others feared that this would cause influencer marketing to get even more complicated for brands. And now people are joining forces to form Instagram Pods and fight the influence of the Instagram algorithm.
Much of these events stem from the fear and belief that Instagram is following the path of its parent company Facebook, which significantly cut down the organic reach for influencers and brands in order to pitch them into using paid reach advertisements and boost up programs.
However, when Thomas Dimson of Instagram, in an event explained the relevance of the new metric change, much of what we had feared seemed quite unlikely.
Here’s how the New Algorithm Will Control Newsfeed Reach from Now
According to Instagram, the order in which all posts will appear on the timeline depends on how relevant is a content to the user. This will be judged based on your relationship with the person sharing a post. That means –
- People whose content you like
- People you search for
- People you know in real life
- People you search for
Entertainment is the #1 Factor in Newsfeed Ranking
The more a person is able to socialise or engage with the audience, the higher will be his chances of rising up the newsfeed.
Social platforms are buzzing with too many user activities today. Such that, it has now become very difficult to draw one’s attention to everything that is shared on Instagram. Almost of 70% of what I shared are not being noticed by people. Hence the problem of success consists.
The number of content going unnoticed is the number of opportunities for engagement missed. The only way to solve this is –
Reducing the number of people users are following on Instagram
OR,
Redirecting relevant contents to users who are likely to engage with them the most
Since the first option did not appear to be feasible, Instagram marketers decided to go with the second one.
The decision paid off. People were able to view more relevant contents and the number of active engagement, impressions, time spent and photo uploads in Instagram grew up. As of April 2017, the number of active Instagram users have increased from 600 million active users in December 2016 to 700 million active users in April 2017.
The only metrics that was reported to go down was a number of searches users now make to find an information. This is a good news because it indicates that people are getting what they want to see quickly than before.
The major downside was – the dramatic impact it had on the marketing strategy process of brands and influencers. In Instagram, fashion and beauty brands make a large chunk of the user section today. Almost 98 percent of the top fashion brands and 95 percent of the beauty brands are active on Instagram.
The reason behind the great impact is because unlike the old model, users will no longer be able to predict how many views a particular post will get. In addition, like Facebook Instagram could be charging money for a post boost.
Keeping this in mind…
How do You Start an Instagram Market Campaign in a Brand New Way?
Start a feature-centric Instagram marketing today. Ever since the new algorithm update, a couple of changes had been done to the platform. By changes I mean, the addition of new features. What are they?
#1- Instagram Direct Message
Increase your communication with the Instagram Direct Message feature. It lets you exchange threaded messages with people you know and share posts from the newsfeed in the form of messages as well as disappearing videos and images.
A strong aspect of the Instagram Direct Message is that it helps you drive sales quickly and create an urgency. Such as, you could send a flash sale with special incentives and discounts. This way, you can pitch interest in the target audience’s mind, thus opening a chance to begin interaction with potential customers.
#2 – Instagram Live
What you could not do previously on Instagram, you can do it now. That is – save your live video records.
You can save the video record in your phone and later upload it as a regular video post on Instagram. If the video timeline is too long for Instagram, you can share it on Facebook instead.
The feature is available for both Android and iPhone. The strong aspect of the Instagram Live video is that it lets you share stories and build a momentum from out of them. This way you increase your brand visibility and engagement.
#3 – Instagram Story Ads
The Instagram story ads is a new feature of its kind that businesses and marketers can use to build their own brand stories and run it in the form of ads.
The objective is to reach as many users as possible across the platform. Since the new algorithm update will eliminate the need to scroll down or search for relevant posts, the new Instagram feature will hopefully eliminate competition and boost up your brand engagement and conversion.
The feature is great because brands can now create personalized ads relevant to their products/services and target it to potential customers whom you want to reach.
You can optimize your reach through tools like Marketing API, Adverts Manager and Power Editor that come with the feature. With these, you can also control your influence on the number of people as well as how often can they see your advert.
That’s not all. The feature also comes paired with measurement tools with which marketers and brands can test their target reach.
Some of the best ways to use the feature in your marketing strategy are –
- Introduce your brand through a video
- Showcase business culture and brand
- Utilise user generated content to capture the interest of potential touch points
Conclusion – This is Just the Beginning
Utilizing the new features and updates will help you to stay upfront in your Instagram marketing campaign.
But before that, you’ll have to socialize more than before. The new Algorithm updates are one of the major changes that have occurred in Instagram. Increasing your power of engagement and communication is important if you want to stay on top of the news feed and make the best use of the features and the updates. But this is just the beginning. How are you utilizing your Instagram to market your brand?
Image Courtesy: Pixabay.com
