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This week, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri uploaded a video addressing the latest concerns about the app. What was supposed to be a helpful justification for the platform’s pivot to video soon became the talk of the industry.
This video from Mosseri sparked more rage than usual. Why? Because it was a clear example of Instagram not listening to its users when he stated people are sharing more videos and implied that’s what most users want to see.
Every comment by creators, journalists, celebrities, social media managers and the average user shared the sentiment: “We just want to see more photos from our friends. We don’t want to see videos. We don’t want to make videos.”
Instagram has been clear it wants to be a video-first platform. They have been pushing and rewarding Reels over any other type of content which, by cause and effect, puts everyone who wants to see photos or post photos in a bad spot and leaves them with no choice.
Throwback Thursday
How did we get here? Let’s do a quick #tbt.
Instagram’s history can be divided into three eras.
The Valencia Era: Named after the popular filter, this was a time when there were no brands, no marketers, no ads. Everyone was an average user posting heavily filtered pictures with #happy as the caption. Here is when the early adopters formed strong communities and gave birth to some of the biggest influencers as the app evolved.
The Stories Era: This era clearly started when Instagram stole the stories feature from Snapchat. This was the first time they copied a feature from a competitor. This is also the time when social media management became an established, critical role for every company and brands started to have a bigger presence, eventually leading to ads and shopping.
The #ReelItFeelIt Era: That was the hashtag that kickstarted Instagram’s Reels feature and what we are in now. This is also when things are starting to go downhill because the community doesn’t feel heard or appreciated. Mosseri kept announcing new features and updates two to three times a week, which sent every marketer into panic mode because every single feature was stolen from another app. They lost the core of what made them stand out from the rest: photos.
The rat race
Over the last three years, it has felt like Instagram is just chasing other platforms’ success and trends, which will always inherently place it behind. It has a feature from every popular app, the latest one being the dual camera mode which was exclusive to BeReal.
Copying features is common. Twitter also copied stories (R.I.P. Fleets) and is rolling out status updates (like Facebook or Yahoo! Messenger), but copying every feature while losing the core function of what made your app unique is where you will start to lose your community. Many creators, users, marketers, celebrities and photographers have joined this petition to remind Instagram of its roots and of what the people want.
The emotional damage
Today, if you are a creator or working in social, you are managing a minimum of five channels for any brand. Initially, each channel was unique, but now with their new feature updates, they are all starting to bleed into each other, which affects strategy. Marketers are tired of keeping up with new features that don’t serve a meaningful purpose or enhance the experience.
Mosseri claims that they are pushing Reels because more people are watching Reels. The decision is not based on the likes or comments on the content but on how many “views” it gets.
But users have argued that it is an equivalent of an unskippable ad—we are all forced to see Reels, so Instagram’s theory that everyone is watching them is fabricated.
Instagram doesn’t have any photo-sharing app to give it a tough competition, but if they continue ignoring the complaints and only focus on profits or squandering competition, they will soon lose the product that made the app: the users. By pushing everyone to adopt Reels, they might even send their existing users to TikTok, which is known for having a better algorithm and less ads.
Let’s reel it in
While we are pushing for change and voicing our opinions, some of us will still have to continue going with Mosseri’s flow and make Reels for our personal brands and jobs.
Here are five tips outside of best practices that can help make the most of your content and stay afloat in these rough social seas.
Save time with templates. Instagram Reels now has a template feature that appears as text right above a username. You can directly upload clips that will be synced to the audio instead of editing everything on the beat. It also gives you a chance to experiment with new video styles that might attract a new audience.
Make it interactive with stickers. Use the poll, quiz and emoji slider stickers in your Reels to increase engagement. If you are going to create a story with any of these stickers, make it a Reel instead and share that on your story. You’ll get extra views with the same content you were originally planning.
Include text. Did you know that 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound? Make sure to include text and closed captions for your Reels. This will draw people in, even if they are doom-scrolling at 2 a.m. with sound off, because they can understand the content.
Find trending audio. Look up sounds in the Instagram music library. It will show you what is currently popular and give you the number of Reels created for that sound. This will help you pick the right audio clip and identify which is the most used sound versus upcoming sounds.
Repurpose old content. Hack No. 1: Convert your story highlights into Reels. Instagram allows you to automatically do this, and it’s a great way to repurpose content. Hack No. 2: Use your static images and turn that into a slideshow with music. This way, you don’t have to make new videos and can show off your graphics, photography and existing audience while working with the algorithm.
Maybe Instagram will listen, or maybe someday there will be another non-Meta app that will dominate the photo game and we will meet there with a newfound joy. But in our current timeline, we are still in the endgame against the algorithm, and these are our infinity stones to defeat it: creativity, sharing knowledge, voicing opinions, experimentation, strong communities and memes. The memes are always the top tier when it all goes down, right?