To the dismay of millions of users around the world, Instagram has started the rollout of its new algorithm-based feed. (Seriously, check out the Twitter search results for #InstagramAlgorithm ).
This follows the same move implemented by Facebook (which owns Instagram) in November 2014 that saw a major drop in organic reach for brands and pages, prompting companies to “pay to play!”
Instagram first addressed the changes in March, only after our feeds were suddenly flooded with posts addressing followers to “Turn on post notifications” due to Instagram’s impending algorithm shift.
Instagram’s defence is that users miss up to 70% of the posts from people they follow, but this is of course subjective to not only the number of accounts you follow, but also the number of posts these particular accounts publish per day.
Personally, I don’t I warrant the statement that I miss up to 70% of posts in my feed… simply because I don’t follow that many people. I don’t have to scroll back very far until I’ve seen everything I’ve missed overnight or during a workday.
Instagram influencers
I can’t help but wonder what these changes will mean for those “Instagram influencers” who rely heavily on the photo-sharing platform to promote brands. Will engagement drop? Will brands change the way they work with influencers?
Note that Instagram says it will not be hiding posts; rather, posts will just be ordered in a way so we see the posts “we believe you will care about the most”. This is quite different to Facebook’s approach, where it’s typical of a page’s posts to reach only 2% of their total fan count. Time will tell how the change will affect bloggers and influencers…
Some people are happy to see what has been called the end of the Instagram influencer – do you agree?
What do you think about Instagram’s algorithm change?
What do you think of Instagram’s algorithm adoption? Do you already have it? Do you think it is fair?
Sound off on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We at Iformat SEO Company Melbourne would love to hear your thoughts!